300 GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



if divided into small lots. No animals thrive when too thick 

 upon the ground. Even sheep, as the farmer well knows, when 

 they are stocked too thickly, soon become diseased, and this is the 

 case with hares, pheasants, grouse, or partridges. It is difficult 

 to say why this is the case, but that it is so is now well known. 

 So fully is the principle acknowledged in Paris, that the chil- 

 dren in the Foundling Hospitals are nearly all sent out to nurse 

 in small detachments, though a branch hospital in the country 

 would not cost half so much. It is probable that in kennels 

 and hospitals much depends upon the deterioration of the air 

 in breathing, but this cannot be the case with sheep, hares, &c., 

 which are entirely in the open air. However, we need not in- 

 vestigate the cause the effect is well known ; and I have rarely 

 seen a healthy kennel where the number exceeded a dozen, 

 and they are not very often in blooming health where they ex- 

 ceed six or eight. It is better, therefore, to divide your kennels 

 into pairs, distributing them over your domain at intervals of 

 not less than 100 or 150 yards just as you would hovels for 

 mares and colts indeed nothing makes a better kennel than a 

 good hovel with its yard, if the walls are high enough, and if 

 not, they are easily raised. An ordinary-sized hovel, divided 

 into two by a brick wall, will accommodate from six to eight 

 dogs well. If, however, the kennels are to be built from the 

 foundation, I should recommend the yard as well as the sleep- 

 ing-room to be covered over; greyhounds are very susceptible 

 of wet, and yet require for cleanliness' sake a yard to run into. 

 It is therefore better to roof in the whole building, and then 



