The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the FieldTaplin, William
Science
The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field
Taplin, William
Hunting -- Dictionaries; Sports -- Dictionaries
MR. BECKFORD is of opinion, that hounds poorer than the rest should be
fed again, and that they cannot be fed too often; as well as that those
hounds which become too fat, _if any_, should be drafted off, and not
permitted to fill themselves. All hounds (particularly young ones)
should be often called over in kennel; their names become more familiar
to them; and it teaches them obedience; this lesson is practised, or
should be, at the time of feeding. Hounds should all be let out into the
airing ground, to empty them themselves after feeding, to prevent an
unnecessary accumulation of filth, and consequent effluvia, in the
kennel. It may be a custom with some, to shut up the hounds for two or
three hours after they return from hunting _before_ they are FED; if so,
it is more entitled to contempt than imitation; no plea can justify the
practice; they should have their meat ready for feeding immediately on
their return; once gratified, they enjoy their rest _undisturbed_, the
best and most natural foundation for a renovation of strength. Plenty of
vegetables, boiled in the copper meat, once a week, is a custom in most
kennels; as it is also to throw in a pound or two of sulphur, (in
proportion to the number,) particularly in the summer season, when there
is a greater tendency in the blood to morbidity, particularly to
cutaneous diseases.
During the hot months, when hounds do not work, they require but a small
proportion of substantial food, compared to what is necessary in the
severity of the HUNTING SEASON; flesh may then be given very sparingly;
the less it is used in the summer, the less likelihood there will be of
seeing that malignant and unwelcome visitor, the MANGE, amongst them.
Various opinions have been promulgated upon the best, cheapest, and most
nutritious, food for the support of hounds in general; but experience
seems to have justified the consistency of occasional changes, according
to the different seasons, and the different degrees of work; without
adhering too closely to one particular mode, unassisted by such
deviations as circumstances may render not only prudent and proper, but
sometimes unavoidable. Horse flesh, sheep's trotters, raspings, greaves,
bullock's paunches, (in a scarcity of flesh,) oat-meal, and barley-meal,
constitute the principal articles upon which hounds are known to
subsist; although they are differently prepared, and differently
administered, according to the judgment, experience, whim, or caprice,
of the parties concerned. It is, however, universally admitted, after a
number of fair and impartial trials, that in respect to the two meals,
they act much more profitably and advantageously, when used in a mixed
state of nearly equal proportions, than when either is given alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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