DRESSING HOUNDS 93 



prejudice (if you will) was so strong on this point, that 

 I never placed any confidence in puppies ushered into 

 the world after the second week in May, with which, 

 perhaps, the old vulgar couplet known to farmers' wives 

 had something to do, although relating to birds instead 

 of hounds — 



Ducks hatched in June 

 Aren't worth an old tune. 



At any rate, I never had any luck with late whelps, which 

 were often crooked in their legs, weakly, and soft in their 

 constitutions, and always more liable to distemper. If 

 foul in their skins, or tormented by ticks and fleas (those 

 pests of old and dirty kennels), the brood bitches may 

 be. dressed over with three parts rape oil and one of spirits 

 of turpentine, reduced to the consistency of cream, with 

 yellow or black sulphur, a month or three weeks before 

 whelping — no other ingredient is necessary — but the day 

 before dressing, all hounds require a good dose of physic ; 

 syrup of buckthorn, with Ethiop's mineral, may be mixed 

 up in their food, when they are to be fed late in the 

 evening, and half an ounce of Epsom salts given the next 

 morning, in some broth or thin lap, and, as an alternative, 

 equal quantities of sulphur and cream of tartar may be 

 administered twice a week. 



Fleas and ticks being generated by filthy beds, the 

 benches in every kennel should be well brushed over 

 with a stiff besom every alternate morning at the least, 

 if not every day, and all the dust well shaken out of the 

 old htter. But as this is a process to which kennel-men 

 and feeders manifest great objections on account of the 

 manual labour to be employed thereon, the work is 

 generally performed in a slovenly manner, or a little fresh 



