My experience is that too much meat is not good for the foxhound, and if they get a mess of old stale meat just before you want to run them, the chances are that they can't make the race. I have seen good dogs that couldn't run an hour, simply because they were filled up with old dead hog or horse. If you want to make a good race with your dog, keep him tied two or three days before you intend to run him, feed him corn bread (well baked) and sweet milk. If you run at night, give your dog a good feed at noon and very little at night when you start, and if your hound has the "stuff" in him he is good for all night.
I think rotten meat will affect the smelling of a dog as well as heat them up, so they can't make a good race. To let your dog run loose until you are ready for a chase, where he can find slop and such stuff to be filled up on, and have your friend meet you with his hounds in fine shape and lead your hound all the time, well you know how you would feel.
Some say you must have it bred in a hound to run. That is all true enough, but a well bred hound with all grit can't make a good race if he isn't in shape to do it.
The foregoing is borne out and added detail given in the following contribution from New York State:
I find that fox hounds which I feed on old stinking pork or stinking meat of any kind are quite stupid and very careless about hunting. They cannot keep on the trail, neither do they wish to run fast or continue running long. Old stinking pork seems to be the worst I could feed to a fox hound, and corn bread and some milk on it seems to be the best.
When my dogs are fed on cornbread and milk they display the most activity, and can follow a fox or rabbit more accurately and accordingly run faster. When I want to make my hound run slow I feed him some meat, and the more it stinks the less he can smell anything but the fumes of this in his stomach. I can easily tell by the smell of my dog's breath whether he has eaten fresh mutton or rotten horse recently, and I think any healthy person can easily.
Here are another hunter's views on this same subject:
In rearing hounds, to have them hardy and intelligent you must feed them right and provide them with a lot of good fresh water as well as to give them daily exercise. When I feed beef, I have a small axe with which I chop all the bones into fine pieces. They also get scraps from the table with some vegetables mixed with cooked rolled oats. I feed the old ones once a day with raw meat and once with porridge. I see that they get just enough to keep them always in good running condition, that is neither fat nor thin. I like a dog with a good rolling skin. I never take a skeleton dog in the woods as I have often seen hunters going deer hunting with dogs which you could read a newspaper through.
Now of what use are such animals as these? Some say that a thin dog will run better than a fat one. Yes, if the fat one is hog fat; but a dog with about one-half inch of hard fat on the ribs will out-do a dozen of these starved dogs of which you can count the bones at one hundred yards from them. No, a dog with just the skin and bones cannot stand any work for the reason that he has no bottom.
Young pups should be fed at the very least three times daily, four times is still better. Never give them more than what they can eat, and in the meantime see that they just get enough so as to clean the dish well at every meal and in no case should the pan containing the food be left in the intervals with the puppies if they have not cleaned it out as they will become disgusted with it and next time refuse to feed. Keep everything clean and dry and always feed at the same hour daily. It is much easier to rear a pair of pups than a single one.