and the full grown hogs are for the most part converted into ham and bacon. The demand for porkers, which for London in particular is very great, and which continues almost throughout the year, is chiefly supplied from the dairies within reach of that metropolis.

SECT. IV. Of curing Pork and Bacon.

6576. The curing or pickling of pork is carried on to a considerable extent at many of our sea-ports. The carcase is cut in pieces, and packed in casks or kits, made for the purpose, containing from one to two hundred weight. Salt is dissolved in water till the mixture be strong enough to swim an egg; it is then boiled, and, when cold, poured upon the pork: when the end of the cask is fixed in, the article is ready for being sent to market. Henderson, a late writer, has given particular directions for the curing of bacon, founded upon a long course of experience, which, therefore, deserves to be more generally known.

6577. The curing of bacon is thus described by Henderson, after much experience. After the carcase has hung all night, lay it upon a strong table, or bench, upon its back; cut off the head close by the ears, and cut the hinder feet so far below the hough as will not disfigure the hams, and leave plenty of room to hang them by; then take a cleaving knife, and, if necessary, a hand mallet, and divide the carcase up the middle of the back bone, laying it in two equal halves: then cut the ham from the side by the second joint of the back bone, which will appear on dividing the carcase; then dress the ham, by paring a little off the flank or skinny part, so as to shape it with a half round point, clearing off any top fat that may appear; the curer will next take off the sharp edge along the back-bone with his knife and mallet, and slice off the first rib next the shoulder, where he will perceive a bloody vein, which he must take out, for if it is left in, that part is apt to spoil. The corners must be squared off where the ham was cut out. 6578. In killing a number of swine, what sides you may have dressed the first day, lay upon some flags er boards, piling them up across each other, and giving each pitch a powdering of saltpetre, and then covering it with salt: proceed in the same manner with the hams, by themselves, and do not omit giving them a little saltpetre, as it opens the pores of the flesh to receive the salt, and, besides, gives the ham a pleasant flavor, and makes it more juicy. Let them lie in this state about week, then turn those on the top undermost, giving them a fresh salting: after lying two or three weeks longer, they may be hung up to dry in some chimney, or smoke house; or, if the curer chooses, he may turn them over again without giving them any more salt, in which state they may lie for a month or two without catching any harm, until he has convenience for drying them. Henderson practised for many years the custom of carting his flitches and hams through the country to farm houses, and used to hang them in their chimnies, and other parts of the house to dry, some seasons, to the amount of five hundred carcases: this plan he soon found was attended with a number of inconveniences, and therefore he invented a smoking house.

6579. Henderson's smoking house is about twelve feet square, and the walls about seven feet high: one of these huts require six joists across, one close to each wall, the other four laid asunder, at proper distances. To receive five rows of flitches, they must be laid in the top of the wall; a piece of wood strong enough to bear the weight of one flitch of bacon, must be fixed across the belly end of the flitch, by two strings, as the neck end must hang downwards: the piece of wood must be longer than the flitch is wide, so that each end may rest upon a beam; they may be put so near to each other as not to touch; the width of it will hold twenty-four flitches in a row, and there will be five rows, which will contain one hundred and twenty flitches; as many hams may be hung at the same time above the flitches contrived in the best manner we can. The lower end of the flitches will be within two and a half or three feet of the floor, which must be covered five or six inches thick with saw-dust, and must be kindled at two different sides; it will burn, but not cause any flame to injure the bacon. The door must be kept close, and the hut must have a small hole in the roof, so that part of the smoke may ascend. That let of bacon and hams will be ready to pack up in a hogshead, to send off in eight or ten days, or a little longer, if required, with very little loss of weight. After the bacon is salted, it may lie in the salt-house as described, until an order is received, then immediately hang it up to dry. Henderson found this smokehouse to be a great saving, not only in the expense and trouble of employing men to cart and hang it through the country, but it did not lose nearly so much weight by this process.

6580. In the disposal of bacon, whatever is shipped for the London market, or any other, both bacon and hams, must be packed into a sugar hogshead, or something similar, to hold about ten hundred weight. Bacon can only be cured from the middle of September, until the middle of April. (Henderson's Treatise on Swine, p. 39.)

SECT V. Of the Diseases of Swine.

6581. Swine are subject to various diseases, but according to Laurence, they are not easily doctored. They are subject, he says, to pox or measles, blood striking, staggers, quincy, indigestion, catarrh, peripneumonia, and inflammation of the lungs called heavings. When sick, pigs will eat, and they will take medicine in their wash; when they will not eat, there is no help for them. As aperients, cleansers, and alteratives, sulphur, antimony, and madder, are our grand specifics, and they are truly useful. As cordials and tonics, treacle and strong beer, in warm wash, and good pease and pollard. In the measles, sulphur, &c. and, if the patient require it, give cordials now and then; in staggers, bleeding, fresh air, and perhaps nitre; in catarrh, a warm bed, and warm cordial wash, and the same in quincy, or inflammation of the glands in the throat. If external suppuration appear likely, discharge the matter when ripe, and dress with tar and brandy, or balsam. The heavings or unsoundness of the lungs in pigs, like the unsoundness of the liver in lambs, is sometimes found to be hereditary; there is no remedy. This disease in pigs is often the consequence of colds from wet lodging, or of hasty feeding in a poor state; in a certain stage it is highly inflammatory, and without remedy. Unction with train oil, and the internal use of it, have been sometimes thought beneficial.

1

1

Of the Goat, Rabbit, Hare, Dormouse, Deer, and various other Animals, that are or may
be subjected to British Agriculture.

of

691

6582. The goat, (Capra ægagrus, L., fig. 691.) is a native of many mountainous parts
of Europe, Africa, Persia, and India; he is domestic-
ated throughout Europe, feeds en branches
shrubs, on lichens, hemlock, &c. ; is seldom destitute
of horns, of active habits like the deer, treacherous,
petulant, roaming, and lascivious; gravid four months
and a half, brings from one to two at a birth, and
The female will allow it-
lives ten or twelve years.

The

self to be sucked by the young of various other
animals, and a foal which has lost its mother has
been seen thus nourished by a goat, which, in order
to facilitate the process, was placed on a barrel.
attachment between the nurse and foal appeared
strong and natural in its internal structure, it extremely resembles sheep, but is far
superior to them in alertness, sentiment, and intelligence. The goat approaches man
The extremely un-
without difficulty, is won by kindness, and capable of attachment.
pleasant odor attending these animals, is supposed to be beneficial, and horses appear so
much refreshed by it, that a goat is, on this account, often kept in the stables of the great.
It is a singular local peculiarity, that in Angora only, the animals of the Capra, Ovis,
and Lepus tribe, have long soft silky hair.

6583. The Angora goat, a native of Turkey, is chiefly valued for its exquisitely fine A considerable number hair down, which grows under its coarse hair, and of which the Cashmere shawls are manufactured. The down is obtained by gently combing them.

of this breed were imported to France from Persia, in 1819, and stationed at St. Omers,
with a view to their increase, and the establishment of the shawl manufacture. The
It is a common
kids of this flock are said to be abundantly covered with down and hair, and superior in
strength and appearance to indigenous French kids of the same age.

opinion, that the down of this goat degenerates when the animals are removed from
the pasturage of Angora; but this is likely in part to arise from the neglect of cleaning
and washing them, which at Angora is so assiduously attended to. By a late Report of
M. Terneaux to the Paris Agricultural Society, the French Angoras have increased in
number, and prosper equally with the native variety.
6584. The Syrian goat (fig. 692.) is remarkable for its pendulous ears, and is common
in various parts of the East. The animals of this
variety are driven in flocks through the Oriental towns
every morning and evening, and each housekeeper
sees drawn from them, before her door, as much milk
as she is in want of.

6585. The Chamois goat, a native of Switzerland, is a species of antelope, and will be afterwards noticed.

6586. The goats of Wales are generally white, and are both stronger and larger than those of other hilly countries. Their flesh is much used by the inhabitants, and often dried and salted, and substituted for bacon. The skins of the kids are much valued for gloves, and were formerly employed in furniture, when painted with rich colors, of which they are particularly capable, and embellished with ornamental flowers, and works of silver and gold. The goat may be of some advantage in rocky barren countries, where nothing else can get a support for life. They will climb the steepest rocks, and there browse upon briers, heath, and shrubs of various kinds, which other creatures will not taste of. They will feed on grass in pastures; but, as they love browsing on trees much better, great care should be taken to keep them from valuable plantations.

6587. The produce of the goat, from which advantage is chiefly obtained, is the milk, which it yields in large quantities, and which is accounted the best milk of all animals. They mix this and cows' milk together in some parts of the kingdom, and a very valuable cheese is made from it. Besides this, the kids or young goats are very fine food, and the best kinds bring forth two or three at a time, and that twice a year.

6588, Goat's hair is also valuable; it may be sheared as the wool from sheep, and is excellent for making ropes that are to be used in the water, as they will last a great while longer than those made in the common way. A sort of stuff is also made of it in some places.

6589. The suet of the goat is also in great esteem, and many of the inhabitants of Caernarvonshire kill them merely for the sake of their fat, which makes candles of a superior quality to the common. Of their horns excellent handles are made for tucks and pen-knives. The skin is peculiarly well adapted for the glove manufactory, especially that of the kid; as it takes a dye better than any other skin. The old skin is also of great use, being preferred to that of the sheep, and the flesh affords a cheap and plentiful provision in the winter months, particularly when the kids are brought to market. The haunches of the gost are frequently salted and dried, and supply all the uses of bacon: this by the Welsh is called cock yr wden, or hung venison.

6590. The kind of goats for keeping to advantage should be chosen in this manner: the male should have a large body, his hair should be long, and his legs straight and stiff; the neck should be plain and short, the head small and slender, the horns large, the eyes prominent, and the beard long. The female should have a large udder, with large teats, and no horns, or very small ones. Goats should be kept in flocks, that they may not straggle; and they should have good shelter both in summer and in winter, the heat and cold being both prejudicial to them, and coupled in December. They should have no litter in winter, but only a paved floor kept clean. The kids are to be brought up for the table in the same manner as our lambs are.

In a

693

6591. The rabbit (Lepus cuniculus, L., fig. 693.), is indigenous in most temperate climates, but not so far to the north as the hare. wild state it forms long-winding burrows; keeps its hole by day; feeds morning, evening, and night on vegetables and grain; is the prey of hawks, badgers, polecats, and caught by ferrets; gravid thirty days, brings from four to eight young seven times a year. The varieties common in Britain are the white, black, variegated, and silvery grey. The hare and rabbit are distinguished from cach other externally, chiefly by the proportional length of the hind legs to that of the back, and in the ears of the hare being longer, and those of the rabbit shorter than the head. The haunts of rabbits are called warrens; which are most nume. rous in the sandy soils of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. They sometimes extend to 2000 or 3000 acres, and many have been hitherto considered to pay better in that state than in any other. Arthur Young, however, has shown in his Survey of Lincolnshire, that though a rabbit-warren may afford a high interest on the capital of the occupier, yet the rent it affords to the owner of the soil is less than would ultimately be obtained by planting or breaking up, and laying down with chiccory or some other suitable herbage plant. In the meantime, as they continue to exist, and are subjected to a kind of management, we shall submit a short outline of it under the heads of extent, soil and situation, fenc ing, stocking, breeding, rearing, and produce. Afterwards we shall take a view of the mode of managing rabbits in hutches.

6592. The extent of warrens varies from 100 to 3000 acres, but a convenient size is considered to be 1500 or 2000 acres. The soil and situation should be dry, sandy, warm, and poor; rich grass or herbage being found to produce a scouring, which sometimes carries off the greater part of the stock. Warrens are generally inclosed with walls either of stone or turf, an essential addition to the latter being a coping of furze, reeds, or stiff straw. Paling is used in some places, but a brook is found insufficient, as the rabbits have been found to swim across.

6593. Warrens are often stocked by nature, and all that art has to do in that case is to protect the produce; but in some cases they are formed on ground where rabbits do not exist naturally, or where they exist it is considered desirable to change the breed.

6594. In stocking a warren, whether the surface be flat or hilly, artificial burrows are sometimes made, to reconcile the rabbits to the ground, and to preserve them frem vermin, until they have time to make their own burrows. These are bored with an auger of a diameter large enough to make a burrow of a sufficient width. In a level warren, these augers may, from time to time, be found useful in forming such holes. They, however, in most cases, are capable of making burrows for themselves. Some warren lands are stocked in the proportion of three couple to an acre; while in others it is in a considerably larger proportion. In Lincolnshire, one buck or male rabbit is said to be sufficient for one hundred does, or females; but this is certainly a much larger proportion, than in most other districts. On the wold warrens of Yorkshire, according to Marshal, one male is considered sufficient for only six or seven females, and the nearer they can be brought to that proportion the greater the stock of young ones that may be expected, it being the nature or economy of the males to destroy their young, especially when the propor tional number is too great.

6595. The varieties employed as stock for warrens are the common grey and silver grey breeds. The former of which is found to be considerably more hardy and much better for the purposes of food; but the latter has greatly the advantage in the value of the skin. Till lately the common grey rabbit, probebly the native wild rabbit of the island, was the only species. At present, the silver-haired rabbit ** sought after, and has, within the last few years, been introduced into most warrens. The skin of the grey rabbit is cut; that is, the wool is pared off the pelt, as a material of hats: whereas, that of the silverhaired rabbit is dressed as fur; which, it is said, goes principally to the East Indies. The color is a black ground, thickly interspersed with single white hairs. The skins of this variety sell for about four shil. fings a dozen more than those of the common sort; a sufficient inducement for propagating it in preference to the grey breed.

6596. The rabbit begins to breed at an early age, as at eight, ten, or twelve months, going only about thirty days with young, the young being little more than three weeks old before they appear from the burrows, during which time they are suckled twice in the day by the mother. It is therefore evident, that they may breed three or four times in the course of the year under good keep, as the does take the buck almost immediately after producing their young. In warrens that are inclosed, it is, however, sad that they seldom breed more than two or three times in the year.

6597. The management of a rabbit warren is a very simple business. Birds and beasts of prey are to be kept off by taking them in traps; dogs and cats kept off, and rats, moles, mice, and other vermin destroyed if abundant or troublesome. Man himself is to be guarded against in some situations. Additional food is to be supplied in the winter season, when the weather is severe, such as fine green hay, saintfoin, clover

Book VII.

THE RABBIT.

turnips, and others of the same sort, which must be distributed over the warrens. It is supposed that turnips answer the best in deep snows, as the rabbits can discover them by the scent. This sort of food is given in the quantity of two or three large eartfulls to a thousand couple per day, and one load of hay in the same time during a storm. It is likewise sometimes the practice to distribute billets of new cut ashboughs, gorse or whins, and other similar woods in the warrens, the bark and other parts of which is eaten, by which the proportion of hay is lessened in a considerable degree. In great snows it is necessary to clear it away from the ditches or fences to prevent the rabbits from getting over them.

6598. This sort of stock is mostly taken by nets or traps, set in the form of a fold between the places where they run, and those where they feed, the rabbits being hunted into them as they return from feeding. Sometimes they are taken by ferrets and terriers. The wold warreners, Marshal says, have three ways of catching their rabbits: with fold nets; with spring nets; and with types, a species of trap. The fold nets are set about midnight, between the burrows and the feeding grounds; the rabbits being driven in with dogs, and kept inclosed in the fold, until morning. But the spring net, when used, is, he believes, generally laid round a hay stack, or other place, where rabbits collect in numbers. It is added that the trap is a more modern invention. It consists of a large pit or cistern, formed within the ground, and covered with a floor: or with one large falling door, having a small trap-door towards its centre, into which the rabbits are led by a narrow mouth. This trap on its first introduction, was set mostly by a hay-stack; hay being, at that time, the chief winter food of rabbits; or on the outside of the warren wall, where rabbits were observed to scratch much, in order to make their escape. Since the cultivation of turnips, as a winter food for this species of stock, has become a practice, the situation of the trap has, he says, been changed. Turnips being cultivated in an enclosure within the warren, a trap is placed within the wall of this enclosure. For a night or two, the mouth is left open, and the trap kept covered, (with a board or triangular rail), in order to give the rabbits leave to retreat.

6599. The annual produce per acre, is mostly estimated at from three or four, to eight or ten couple, yielding a profit of from eight to ten, or even fifteen shillings, where they are conducted under a good system of management. The produce is the largest on new lands; however, much of the profit must always depend on situation, so as to be near good markets. These animals are in what is termed season from the end of October to the beginning of January, in which period the best skins are produced, of course a large proportion of them is killed in this short time. The farmer often sustains great loss in what by the purchasers are called half skins, quarter skins and racks, sixteen of which are only considered as a whole skin. The rabbits are disposed of by the hundred, six score couple being considered as an hundred.

We shall give a view 6600. The breeding and rearing of tame rabbits is carried on in hutches or stores of boxes placed in sheds or apartments of any kind secure from vermin. of the practice as to rabbitry and furniture, varieties, breeding, feeding, and produce. 694 6601. The rabbit house, should be particularly dry and well ventilated, as these quadrupeds are very subject to the rot, and to liver complaints like sheep.

6602. The huts or hutches, (fig. 694.) are boxes or chests eighteen inches or more high, and from two and a half to three feet wide, generally divided in two (a and b), and the rooms thus formed communicating by a sliding door, the use of which is to confine the rabbits in the inner division (a), whilst the outer, which has a wire door, (fig. 695,) is cleaned.

695

Generally these hutches

are placed in rows above each other against
one side of the rabbit-house, and sometimes
they are placed in the open air, against a

wall within a wired or netted enclosure. Sometimes they are ranged along the floor; but the neatest mode is to place them on brackets round the room, or on stands about three feet high on the floor. In both these cases it is to be understood that they are not allowed to run about the rabbit room, the use of which is solely to enclose and protect them in an atmosphere of moderate temperature, and to contain a bin with corn, a truss of clover, hay, and any such food as sheep will live and thrive upon. The utensil for feeding rabbits so hutched is simply a trough (c), which may be formed of pewter, very hard wood, carthenware, or cast iron, as rabbits are very apt to gnaw them; and it should be divided on the surface cross ways every four or six inches to prevent them from scratching and throwing out their corn. Some add a small rack for their clover, but that will not be lost if given on the floor in small quantities.

6603. There are numerous varieties of tame rabbits; but the broad-chested and shortThere is a large variety legged are the most hardy, and fatten most expeditiously.

of the hare color, which has high colored and high flavored flesh, more savoury than that of the common rabbit; they make a good dish cooked like the hare, which at six or eight months old they nearly equal in size. The large white, and yellow and white species, have whiter and more delicate flesh, and, cooked in the same way, will rival the turkey. The Turkish or French rabbit is esteemed by some, but differs little from the common All these and other varieties are to be had from the London dealers and variety.

poultrymen.

6604. Breeding. The doe will breed at the age of six months; and her period of gestation is thirty or thirty-one days. It should be premised, that the buck and doe are by no means to be left together; but their union having been successful, the buck must be immediately withdrawn, and the doe tried again in three days: in fact, with rabbits, this business is conducted on the same principle as in the stud. Like chickens, the best breeding rabbits are those kindled in March. Some days before parturition, or kindling, hay is to be given to the doe, to assist in making her bed, with the flue, which nature has instructed her to tear from her body for that purpose. She will be at this period seen sitting upon her haunches, and tearing off the flue, and the hay being presented to her, she will with her teeth reduce and shatter it to her purpose. Biting down of the litter or bed, is the first sign of pregnancy. The number produced, generally between five and ten; and it is most advantageous always to destroy the weak or sickly ones, as soon as their defects can be perceived, because five healthy and well-grown rabbits are worth more than double the number of an opposite description, and the doe will be far less exhausted. She will admit the buck again with profit at the end of six weeks, when the young may be separated from her and weaned. Or the young may be suckled two months, the doe taken back at the end of five weeks, so that the former litter will leave her about a week before her next parturition. A notion was formerly prevalent, of the necessity for giving the buck immediately after the doe had brought forth, lest she should Great care should be taken that the doe, during pine, and that no time might be lost; and if it were intended that no time might be lost in destroying the doe, such indeed, would be the most successful method. her gestation, be not approached by the buck, or indeed by any other rabbit; as, from being harassed about, she will almost certainly cast her young. One doe in a thousand may devour her young; the sign

that she ought to be otherwise disposed of. Some does admit the buck with difficulty, although often apparently in season; such should be immediately fattened off, since it can never be worth while to keep any individual for breeding of a stock to be produced in such multitudes, against which there bes an objection. Should the doe be weak on her bringing forth, from cold, cough, or other causes, she will drink beer-caudle, as well as any other lady; or warm fresh grains will comfort her; a salt-mash; scalled fine pollard, or barley-meal, in which may be mixed a small quantity of cordial horse-ball. With due attention to keeping them warm and comfortable, and guarding against every sudden impression from cold, and more particularly moist air, and with the aid of the best and most nourishing food, rabbits may be bred throughout the winter, with nearly equal success as in the summer season. But, in truth, their produce is so multitudinous, that one might well be satisfied with four or five litters, during the best part of the year, giving the doe a winter fallow.

6605. Feeding. According to Mowbray, it is better to feed three times than twice a day. The art of feeding rabbits with safety and advantage, is, always to give the upper hand to dry and substantial food. Their nature is congenial with that of sheep, and the same kind of food, with little variation, agrees with both. All weeds, and the refuse of vegetation, should be banished from rabbit feeding. Such articles are too washy and diuretic, and can never be worth attention,whilst the more solid and nutritious productions of the field may be obtained in such plenty, and will return so much greater profit. Rabbits may, indeed, be kept, and even fattened upon roots, good green meat, and hay; but they will pay for corn; and this may be taken as a general rule: rabbits which have as much corn as they will eat, can never take any harm from being indulged with almost an equal portion of good substantial vegetables. However, the test of health is that their dung be not too moist. Many, or most, of the town feeders never allow any greens at all; the reason, I suppose, because they feed almost entirely on grains. The corn proper for rabbits, is oats, peas, wheat, pollard, and some give buck-wheat. The greens and roots, the same as our cattle crops, namely carrots, Jerusalem artichokes, and if potatoes, baked or steamed. Lucerne, cabbage leaves, clover, tares, furze. Mowbray has had them hoven, from eating rape; and not improbably, field-beet might have a similar effect. The best dried herbage is clover and meadow hay, and pea and bean straw.

6606. Rabbits are generally sold from the teat, but there is also a demand for those of larger size, which may be fattened upon corn and hay, with an allowance of the best vegetables. The better the food, the greater weight, better quality, and more profit, which is generally the case in the feeding of all animals. Some fatten with grains and pollard. Mowbray tried wheat, and potatoe oats, comparatively; but could find no difference in the goodness of their flesh. The rabbit's flesh being dry, the allowance of succulent greens may tend to render it more juicy; and probably the old complaint of the dryness of the flesh in Devon beef, entirely fed with hay, might be remedied in the same way. Rabbits are in perfection for feeding at the fourth or sixth month; beyond which period, their flesh becomes more dry and somewhat hard. It requires three months, or nearly so, to make a rabbit thoroughly fat and ripe; half the time will make them eatable, but by no means equal in the quality of the flesh: they may yet be over fattened, as appears by specimens exhibited a few years since at Lord Somerville's show, which were loaded with fat, without and within, like the best feeding sheep.

6607. The flesh of the rabbit is esteemed equally digestible as that of fowls, and equally proper for the table of the invalid.

6608. Castrated rabbits might be fattened, no doubt, to the weight of upwards of ten pounds, at six or seven months old. It is said to be successfully practised in Sussex, near Chichester, where on the average, not one in three hundred is lost by the operation, which is performed at five or six weeks old. With respect to the quantity of corn consumed in fattening; a young buck, which weighed three pounds, fit for the spit, was put up in good case in August, and was only one month in feeding, consuming not quite four quarts of oats, with hay, cabbage, lucerne, and chicory; the skin, silver and black, worth four pence.

6609. In slaughtering full-grown rabbits, after the usual stroke upon the neck, the throat should be perforated upwards towards the jaws with a small pointed knife, in order that the blood may be evacuated, which would otherwise settle in the head and neck. It is an abomination to kill poultry by the slow and torturing method of bleeding to death, hung up by the heels, the veins of the mouth being cut; but still more so the rabbit, which in that situation, utters horrible screams. The entrails of the rabbit, whilst fresh, are said to be good food for fish, being thrown into ponds.

6610. The rabbit is a caressing animal, and equally fond, with the cat, of the head being stroked; at the same time it is not destitute of courage. A whimsical lady admitted a buck rabbit into her house, when he became her companion for upwards of a twelvemonth. He soon intimidated the largest cats so much, by chasing them round the room, and darting upon them, and tearing off their hair by mouthfulls, that they very seldom dared to approach. He slept in the lap by choice, or upon a chair, or the hearth rug, and was as full of mischief and tricks as a monkey. He destroyed all the rush bottomed chairs within his reach, and would refuse nothing to eat or drink, which was eaten or drank by any other member of the family.

6611. Diseases. No live stock is less liable to disease than the rabbit, with regular and careful attention, such as has been pointed out, so that any sudden and accidental disorder is best and most cheaply remedied by a stroke behind the ears. But want of care must be remedied, if at all, by an opposite conduct, and improper food exchanged for its contrary. Thus, if rabbits become pot bellied in the common phrase, from being fed on loose vegetable trash, they must be cured by good hard hay and corn, ground malt or pease, or any substantial or absorbent food. Their common liver complaints are incurable, and when such are put up to fatten, there is a certain criterion to be observed. They will not bear to be pushed beyond a moderate degree of fatness, and should be taken in time, as they are liable to drop off suddenly. The dropsy and rot must be prevented, as they are generally incurable; nor is a rabbit worth the time and pains of a probable cure. 696

6612. The hare, (Lepus timidus, L., fig. 696.) if taken young may be tamed and domesticated, and has occasionally been nursed by a cat. Sonnini the naturalist, and Cowper the poet, had hares in a complete state of domestication. As the fur of this animal is of greater value for hat making than that of the rabbit, it would

be a very desirable circumstance if it could be substituted for that animal in warrens. Its flesh would certainly be deemed preferable, and in general it is a large animal. It lives on the same sort of food as the rabbit, produces generally three young ones at a time, and breeds at least three times in a year. It is not improbable that in some dry situations where the soil is dry and poor, a hare warren or pack might be found to answer; the price in the metropolis being never less than ten times that of rabbits.