agriculturist, who kept
some hundreds of hutched rabbits for the sake of their manure, which
he applied to his turnep crop; added to this, their skins and
carcasses were quite an item of profit, notwithstanding the care of
them required an old man and boy, with a donkey and cart. The food
used was chiefly brewer's grains, miller's waste, bran and hay, with
clover and roots, the cost of keeping not exceeding two pence a
week. The hutches stood under a long shed, open on all sides, for
the greater convenience of cleaning and feeding. I was told that the
manure was much valued by the market gardeners round London, who
readily paid 2s. 6d. a bushel at the rabbitries. These rabbitries
are very numerous in all the towns and cities of England, and form a
source of amusement or profit to all classes, from the man of
fortune to the day laborer. Nor is it unfrequent that this latter
produces a rabbit from an old tea-chest, or dry-goods box, that wins
the prize from its competitor of the mahogany hutch or ornamental
rabbitry.

"The food of the rabbit embraces great variety, including grain of
all kinds, bran, pea-chaff, miller's waste, brewer's grains, clover
and other hay, and the various weeds known as plantain, dock,
mallow, dandelion, purslain, thistles, &c., &c.

"The rabbit thus easily conforms itself to the means, condition, and
circumstances of its owner; occupies but little space, breeds often,
comes early to maturity, and is withal, a healthy animal, requiring
however, to be kept clean, and to be _cautiously_ fed with
_succulent_ food, which must always be free from dew or rain--water
is unnecessary to them when fed with 'greens.' My own course of
feeding is, one gill of oats in the morning, with a medium-sized
cabbage leaf, or what I may consider its _equivalent_ in any other
vegetable food, for the rabbit in confinement must be, as already
stated, cautiously fed with what is succulent. At noon, I feed a
handfull of cut hay or clover chaff, and in the evening the same as
in the morning. To does, when suckling, I give what they will eat of
both green and dry food. The cost to me is about three cents per
week, per head.

"I by no means recommend this as the best, or the most economical
mode of feeding, but it happens to suit my convenience. Were I in a
town, or near mills, I should make use of other and cheaper
substitutes. My young rabbits, w