mixed with the feed, will enable it to "stay by them," which otherwise the new meal would not do.

T

One man who has written upon this subject, in one of the sporting papers of the day, who signs himself "An old Subscriber," very unjustly says to this effect that huntsmen are bigoted about the use of oatmeal, and would rather make use of rubbish, so called, than try some other meal which would be found better for the purpose of getting their pack into condition. No doubt some huntsmen are bigoted, ignorant, drunken, stupid, and every thing else that is bad; but I know that a great many of the craft are quite the very reverse, and the brilliant manner in which they bring their pack not only to the cover's side, but through long and tiring chases from Ashby Pastures, Castor Hanglands, Bicester Windmill, or Holwell Mouth, is quite sufficient to prove that the fondness for good old oatmeal is perfectly excusable, and "let well alone" far preferable to embarking upon the dangerons theory of Indian corn, or mashed turnips. With regard to Indian corn, I can affirm from mine own experience, that it is a very improper thing to feed a pack of foxhounds on; for, in the first place, in won't "stay by them," in which assertion I am further borne out by that most practical writer, Cecil, in speaking of its not throwing out muscle when used by a master of hounds, in one of the midland counties. It is well known that the oatmeal purchased from mealmen is but too frequently adulterated with some inferior description of flour; and in my meal-buying days there was no one thing that I dreaded more to have substituted for the oatmeal than Indian corn. I could detect it directly after we had used it two or three days, independently of the sweetish taste of the raw meal, by the manner in which the hounds emptied themselves, as also by a flaccid appearance of their muscles when used for a longer period; moreover, by the colour of their coats, which in the white parts assumed a dirty brown tinge, and always looked as if they wanted washing, instead of looking bright, and lying close to their backs, as they would when eating old oatmeal. The meal purchased at the Liverpool market was, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, kuown by all mealmen to be more or less adulterated with Indian corn, and which my mealman, who did a large quantity of business at that noted mart, confessed to me, and at the same time showed me how to detect it in the samples. I remember a master of hounds, who at one time hunted Leicestershire, some years ago, purchasing his oatmeal of a rascally mealman at Hull; and as he paid him cash on delivery, he expected to have a superior lot of meal for the hunting months; but when it came to be tried upon the hounds, most unfortunately in October, it was found to be so bad that it would neither stand in the cooler nor 66 stay by the hounds," and condition was of course out of the question. Accordingly the victimised purchaser had the meal submitted to a jury of millers, who met in conclave, to test it, when it was pronounced to be a mixture of wheat, beans, barley, a small portion of oatmeal, and Indian corn. The meal was immediately returned, and a threatened action obliged the rascal to disgorge the amount which had been paid for his spurious mixture. The heating properties of Indian corn are well known to great numbers of sportsmen, who have tried it with horses, as a sub

stitute for beans; and one gentleman, well known in Leicestershire for many years as a hard rider, who came out of Lancashire, told me that he had tried it for some time with his hunters, but that he was obliged to leave it off, on account of its heating properties. During the summer of 1834, when wheat was down at five shillings and sixpence a bushel, I tried wheat flour for some weeks; but it made bad feed, as it would not stay by the hounds, boil it how you would. I was, in the first place, induced to make trial of it from the following circumstances : In those "good old days" I used to try my hand as a "dragsman" occasionally, and upon one fine day was at work on the Old Crown Prince, from London to Birmingham, on the box of which, during part of the distance, was seated one of the proprietors, Mr. Nathaniel Vyse, who was well known. and highly respected on that road, not only as a coach proprietor, but also as an extensive agriculturist and breeder of some good horses. We were talking over sporting and agricultural affairs, and I was lamenting the low price of the corn market, best wheat only making about five shillings and sixpence or six shillings a bushel. "I make a good deal more of mine," said Mr. Vyse. "Why, where do you send it?" I inquired. "I don't send it at all," said my informant, and turning round to me with a peculiar knowing look, said "I eat it all." Now, the idea of a man eating a couple or three hundred bags of wheat all himself, although he was about the height and shape of a small windmill, quite tickled me, and I nearly laughed in the old man's face; but of course I twigged what he meant, and thought if wheat will do for horses, why I'll try it for hounds-with what result I before mentioned. I observed, however, to Mr. Vyse, that I thought that wheat was always considered a most dangerous thing to give to horses, as frequently forming an obstruction in their bowels, and consequent death. "So it will," he informed me, "if you give it whole; but if you bruise it in a kibbling mill, it will not be found the least injurious to them." Although, upon experience, it is proved that wheat meal will not stay by hounds when used as food and mixed in the common way as pursued in kennels, wheat porridge will stay the flux in distemper quicker than anything else, laudanum excepted. And when dogs are fed upon household bread, they thrive better than upon any other description of farinaceous food: so much for baking versus boiling; but of course the constant use of such costly viands is quite out of the question. However, all huntsmen who are good judges never give their hounds any thing else but dry wheaten bread (stale) when travelling, which should be cut up into dice, and given dry, with water to lap afterwards. Another writer on the subject says he has fed his harriers upon Indian corn for the last ten months, and that he has formed a favourable opinion of it. I dare say it may suit his purpose; but no one, who knows what hunting is, can contradict that the work of a pack of harriers, and the labour that fox-hounds are put to, are as different as dancing at the opera, and a shilling hop at the "Cassino de Venise." There is not one man in ten thousand "knows a hound" when he sees him, much less whether he is really in condition or not. I have seen many packs of hounds pronounced by superficial sportsmen as in brilliant going condition, drawn to perfection, and fit to fly, when they were

really nothing more nor less than an army of phantoms, without sufficient muscle to support them through an afternoon run of a couple of hours, and twenty-five miles home at night, in the dark, in a drizzling rain during the cheerless month of November. Now to obtain the high perfection in condition which must sustain animal courage and endurance necessary to achieve such labours, I am thoroughly convinced that no food has ever yet been found out, on which fox. hounds can be fed, but the best and purest old oatmeal, mixed with a proper allowance of well boiled and sweet flesh and broth; let men advance what they like about feeding harriers, and other sporting dogs, on barley flour, graves! and such unwholesome filth, as the Charnwood Forester appears to have been in the habit of regaling his little pack with. As to summer feeding, nothing can be better than the constant use of mangold-wurtzel, Swedish turnips, and cabbages in moderation, which should be boiled with the flesh, and mixed in the meat; and I was informed some time since, by a gentleman of large property in North Wales, who keeps a very clever pack of harriers, that carrots were preferable to all other vegetables, and that he had fed his pack, which worked pretty hard, during a whole winter upon that nutritious root, boiled with flesh, without one particle of meal, and that they did very well while eating it; but, as I before observed, harriers are not fox-hounds, nor do they make quite such long days when out.

With regard to oatmeal, some persons run away in a hurry with the idea that it is so very expensive and difficult to obtain pure. The latter I will admit; but as to the fancied expense, why that is chiefly caused by the meal used being so dreadfully adulterated as not to afford the nutriment it is expected to do, and consequently such an enormous quantity is obliged to be used to get the puddings to stand in the coolers, that about a third more is wasted in the consumption than if the feed were prepared from genuine old oatmeal, which it is well known will take more liquid, both in boiling and afterwards mixing in the trough, than any other description of meal. As many of my readers may be ignorant of the proportion of meal that there is in a bushel of oats, as also the quantity of worthless husk, I will just state for their information, that in a bushel of superior oats, weighing, we will say, forty-two pounds, there will be produced upon an average 25lbs. 2 oz. of meal, and 16lb. 14 oz. of husk; and in inferior grain, where the weight of the bushel does not exceed 32lbs., there will be about 17lbs. 5 oz. of meal, and 14lbs. 11 oz. of husk. Of the meal purchased in the market, the Scotch is far superior to all other, and is less adulterated.. The Irish which comes through Liverpool is very apt to get mixed in its journey. Cecil, from his long experience in the pursuit of field sports, is better informed than most writers of the present day, on many sporting matters; but he, with all due deference to his talented pen, is a little wide, when he says that good oatmeal cannot be purchased under twenty pounds the ton. I know where it is to be obtained genuine for less money. He is also a little under the average in speaking of the quantity consumed, which, according to the extract in one of the sporting papers, from his letter, is given as five tons for each pack—it is more likely twelve; and where a large

122

I

REMARKS ON THE FOOD USED FOR HOUNDS.

stitute for beans; and one gentleman, well known in Leicestershire for many years as a hard rider, who came out of Lancashire, told me that he had tried it for some time with his hunters, but that he was obliged to leave it off, on account of its heating properties. During the summer of 1834, when wheat was down at five shillings and sixpence a bushel, I tried wheat flour for some weeks; but it made bad feed, as it would not stay by the hounds, boil it how you would. was, in the first place, induced to make trial of it from the following circumstances : - In those "good old days" I used to try my hand as a "dragsman" occasionally, and upon one fine day was at work on the Old Crown Prince, from London to Birmingham, on the box of which, during part of the distance, was seated one of the proprietors, Mr. Nathaniel Vyse, who was well known and highly respected on that road, not only as a coach proprietor, but also as an extensive agriculturist and breeder of some good horses. We were talking over sporting and agricultural affairs, and I was lamenting the low price of the corn market, best wheat only making about five shillings and sixpence or six shillings a bushel. "I make a good deal more of mine," said Mr. Vyse. "Why, where do you send it?" I inquired. "I don't send it at all," said my informant, and turning round to me with a peculiar knowing look, said "I eat it all." Now, the idea of a man eating a couple or three hundred bags of wheat all himself, although he was about the height and shape of a small windmill, quite tickled me, and I nearly laughed in the old man's face; but of course I twigged what he meant, and thought if wheat will do for horses, why I'll try it for hounds-with what result I before mentioned. I observed, however, to Mr. Vyse, that I thought that wheat was always considered a most dangerous thing to give to horses, as frequently forming an obstruction in their bowels, and consequent death. "So it will," he informed me, "if you give it whole; but if you bruise it in a kibbling mill, it will not be found the least injurious to them." Although, upon experience, it is proved that wheat meal will not stay by hounds when used as food and mixed in the common way as pursued in kennels, wheat porridge will stay the flux in distemper quicker than anything else, laudanum excepted. And when dogs are fed upon household bread, they thrive better than upon any other description of farinaceous food: so much for baking versus boiling; but of course the constant use of such costly viands is quite out of the question. However, all huntsmen who are good judges never give their hounds any thing else but dry wheaten bread (stale) when travelling, which should be cut up into dice, and given dry, with water to lap afterwards. Another writer on the subject says he has fed his harriers upon Indian corn for the last ten months, and that he has formed a favourable opinion of it. I dare say it may suit his purpose; but no one, who knows what hunting is, can contradict that the work of a pack of harriers, and the labour that fox-hounds are put to, are as different as dancing at the opera, and a shilling hop at the "Cassino de Venise." There is not one man in ten thousand "knows a hound" when he sees him, much less whether he is really in condition or not. I have seen many packs of hounds pronounced by superficial sportsmen as in brilliant going condition, drawn to perfection, and fit to fly, when they were

really nothing more nor less than an army of phantoms, without sufficient muscle to support them through an afternoon run of a couple of hours, and twenty-five miles home at night, in the dark, in a drizzling rain during the cheerless month of November. Now to obtain the high perfection in condition which must sustain animal courage and endurance necessary to achieve such labours, I am thoroughly convinced that no food has ever yet been found out, on which fox. hounds can be fed, but the best and purest old oatmeal, mixed with a proper allowance of well boiled and sweet flesh and broth; let men advance what they like about feeding harriers, and other sporting dogs, on barley flour, graves! and such unwholesome filth, as the Charnwood Forester appears to have been in the habit of regaling his little pack with. As to summer feeding, nothing can be better than the constant use of mangold-wurtzel, Swedish turnips, and cabbages in moderation, which should be boiled with the flesh, and mixed in the meat; and I was informed some time since, by a gentleman of large property in North Wales, who keeps a very clever pack of harriers, that carrots were preferable to all other vegetables, and that he had fed his pack, which worked pretty hard, during a whole winter upon that nutritious root, boiled with flesh, without one particle of meal, and that they did very well while eating it; but, as I before observed, harriers are not fox-hounds, nor do they make quite such long days when out.

With regard to oatmeal, some persons run away in a hurry with the idea that it is so very expensive and difficult to obtain pure. The latter I will admit; but as to the fancied expense, why that is chiefly caused by the meal used being so dreadfully adulterated as not to afford the nutriment it is expected to do, and consequently such an enormous quantity is obliged to be used to get the puddings to stand in the coolers, that about a third more is wasted in the consumption than if the feed were prepared from genuine old oatmeal, which it is well known will take more liquid, both in boiling and afterwards mixing in the trough, than any other description of meal. As many of my readers may be ignorant of the proportion of meal that there is in a bushel of oats, as also the quantity of worthless husk, I will just state for their information, that in a bushel of superior oats, weighing, we will say, forty-two pounds, there will be produced upon an average 25lbs. 2 oz. of meal, and 161b. 14 oz. of husk; and in inferior grain, where the weight of the bushel does not exceed 32lbs., there will be about 17lbs. 5 oz. of meal, and 14lbs. 11 oz. of husk. Of the meal purchased in the market, the Scotch is far superior to all other, and is less adulterated. The Irish which comes through Liverpool is very apt to get mixed in its journey. Cecil, from his long experience in the pursuit of field sports, is better informed than most writers of the present day, on many sporting matters; but he, with all due deference to his talented pen, is a little wide, when he says that good oatmeal cannot be purchased under twenty pounds the ton. I know where it is to be obtained genuine for less money. He is also a little under the average in speaking of the quantity consumed, which, according to the extract in one of the sporting papers, from his letter, is given as five tons for each pack-it is more likely twelve; and where a large