LIGHT. 349 



accumulate until it reaches almost to the horse's belly, and the bottom ot 

 it is a mass of dung. If there were not often many a hole and cranny 

 IhrouirJi which the wind can enter, and disperse the foul air, the health of 

 the animal would suffer. 



LIGHT. 



This neglected branch of stable-management is of far more consequenc*? 

 than is generally imagined ; and it is particularly neglected by those for 

 whom these treatises are principally, designed. The farmer's stable is fre- 

 quently destitute of any glazed window; and has only a shutter, which is 

 raised in warm, and shut down in cold weather.- When the horse is in the 

 stable only during a few hours of the day, this is not of so much conse- 

 quence; nor of so much, probably, to horses of slow work; but to car- 

 riage horses and hackneys, so far at least as the eyes are concerned, a 

 dark stable is little less injurious than a foul and heated one. To illus- 

 trate this, reference may be made to the unpleasant feeling and the utter 

 impossibility of seeing distinctly, when a man suddenly emerges from a 

 dark place into the full blaze of day. The sensation of mingled pain and 

 giddiness is not soon forgotten ; and some minutes pass before the eye can 

 accommodate itself to the increased light. If this were to happen every 

 day, or several times in the day, the sight would be irreparably injured; 

 or, possibly, blindness would ensue. Can we wonder, then, that the horse 

 taken from a dark stable into a glare of light, and feeling, probably, as we 

 should under similar circumstances, and unable, for a considerable time, to 

 see any thing around him distinctly, should become a starter, or that the 

 frequently repeated violent effect of sudden light should induce inflamma- 

 tion of the eye, so intense as to terminate in blindness? There is, indeed, 

 no doubt, in the mind of any one familiar with the subject, that horses kept 

 in a dark stable are frequently notorious starters, and that starting has been 

 evidently traced to this cause. 



Farmers know, and should profit by the knowledge, that the darkness of 

 the stable is not unfrequently a cover for great uncleanliness. A glazed 

 window, with leaden divisions between the small panes, would not cost 

 much, and would admit a degree of light somewhat more approaching to 

 that of day; and, at the same time, would render the concealment of gross 

 inattention and want of cleanliness impossible. 



If plenty of light be admitted, the walls of the stable, and especially 

 that portion of them which is before the horse's head, must not be of too 

 glaring a colour. The constant reflection from a white wall, and especially 

 if the sun shines into the stable, will be as injurious to the eye as the sudden 

 changes from darkness to light. The perpetual slight excess of stimulus 

 will do as much mischief as the occasional, but more violent one, when 

 the animal is taken from a kind of twilight to the blaze of day. The 

 colour of the stable, therefore, should depend on the quantity of light. 

 •Where much can be admitted, the walls should be of a grey hue. Where 

 darkness would otherwise prevail, frequent whitewashing may in some 

 degree dissipate the gloom. 



For another reason it will be evident that the stable should not possess 

 00 glaring a light. It is the resting-place of the horse. The work of the 

 farmer's horse, indeed, is confined principally to the day, but the labours 

 of others are demanded at all periods. The hour of exertion having 

 passed, the animal returns to his stable to feed and to repose, and the latter 

 is as necessary as the former, in order to prepare him for renewed work. 

 Something approaching to the dimness of twilight is requisite, to induce the 



