VALUE OF VEGETABLE DIET. 131 



like a bladder, absolutely poisoned by this fool's 

 dressing. So great was my dislike to dressing 

 hounds, that for many years no other remedy was 

 ever used by me for little eruptions on the skin 

 than plain yellow sulphur, sprinkled and rubbed 

 into the hounds' coats ; and a huntsman who 

 cannot keep his pack clean and in blooming 

 condition without having recourse to noxious ap- 

 plications has little pretension to the character of 

 a good kennel manager, however talented he may 

 be in other respects. 



It is too much the fashion to feed hounds on 

 the same food all the year round, the quantify only 

 being reduced during the summer months, for no 

 earthly reason, but contrary to all reason ; and 

 to this practice must be attributed the necessity 

 for dressing, bleeding, and physicking, all of which 

 might be avoided by a partly vegetable diet in hot 

 Aveather, which common sense would prescribe, 

 but prejudice, combined with ignorance, refuses to 

 adopt. Cabbages, young nettles, and mangold 

 wurzel are most wholesome vegetables for dogs, 

 and should be freely used, at least two days in the 

 Aveek, from the beginning of May until August ; 

 independent of their cooling and alterative pro- 

 perties, they will effect a great saving in oatmeal. 



Of whelps, the finest are generally produced 



K 2 



