BRINGING UP FOX-HOUND PUPPIES. 181 



example, although he maj safely follow my pre- 

 cepts. The observations made are addressed to 

 the uninitiated, who are not above receiving hints, 

 not to old professors of the science, who probably 

 know more than myself. 



I was asked a short time ago my opinion about 

 some puppies of four months old (which had been 

 brought up in a yard) with large, wide feet, like 

 those of a duck, and my advice was to turn them out 

 of it immediately, as the only chance of rectifying 

 the deformity. The experiment of bringing up fox- 

 hound puppies in a large yard has been often tried, 

 and has as often failed, and from this failure has 

 arisen the necessity of sending them out to walks 

 in the country. They will grow and become fat 

 in confinement, but their limbs and feet invariably 

 suffer ; they also become shy and foolish, and will 

 bear no comparison with those who have roughed 

 it, even at poor quarters, as to hardihood and 

 symmetry of form. No puppies should be kept 

 in confinement after they are three months old, 

 and my general practice was to send them from 

 the kennels much earlier. 



As soon as whelps can eat they should have 

 either milk or thin lap, made from boiled oatmeal 

 or scalded barley-meal, and broth of some sort 

 mixed with it. Oatmeal requires boiling for an 



