The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life RationallyLoudon, Mrs. (Jane)
General
The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Cooking; Country life; Home economics
_Rabbits_ are kept either in hutches or in warrens, where they make
burrows in the ground, and live almost in a state of nature. Rabbit
warrens are of very great extent, varying from a hundred to three
thousand acres, and they can only be formed in dry sandy soils. When
rabbits are kept in hutches, the rabbit-house should be particularly
dry and well ventilated, as rabbits are very subject to a disease
called the rot, which is a species of liver complaint, brought on by
impure air and improper food. Each hutch is generally eighteen inches
high, and about three feet wide. It is divided into two chambers, in
one of which the rabbit feeds, sleeping in the other. These chambers
have a sliding-door between them, so that when the rabbit is in one
chamber, the door can be let down, and the other chamber cleared out.
Rabbits should be fed in a great measure on corn, peas, and bran; and
their food may be diversified by carrots, cooked potatoes, tares, and
a few cabbage leaves; but these last should be fresh, and never in the
slightest degree decayed. Lettuces and other green food may also be
occasionally given, provided they are quite fresh, and that what the
rabbit does not eat is removed as soon as it has done feeding. Rabbits
should be fed twice or three times a day, and, if to be fattened for
the table, they are considered best when about three or four months
old. They are liable to many diseases, most of which are incurable.
Some, however, may be stopped in time, if, whenever the rabbits appear
too large in the body, their food is changed, and instead of being fed
on green meat, they are given nothing but cut hay and corn, and ground
peas, or some similar food.
I shall say nothing of the management of _sheep_, as they certainly do
not come within a lady's province. Their constitutions are very much
like those of rabbits, and they are subject to nearly the same diseases.
The kind of deer most common in parks is the _fallow deer_. These
creatures are generally beautifully spotted, and the horns of the
buck are broad and flat. They are changed every year, being at first
shaped like a finger, and not much larger, but they afterwards become
branched, and continue increasing rapidly in size, and in the number
of their branches, till the buck is five years old; they afterwards
increase more slowly, but they continue changing in form for several
years. The does are exceedingly tame, and may be easily taught to come
and feed out of the hand, while the fawns are the prettiest little
creatures imaginable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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