NECESSITY FOR AIRING NEW STABLES 243 



three horses within it, which can scarcely be done in any other way. But 

 while I give him credit for his ingenuity/ I would strongly object to the 

 general adoption of the plan when it can be avoided, on account of the 

 danger of injury from kicking caused by the proximity of the heels of two 

 of the horses to one another. The loose box, moreover, is very small, but 

 still we cannot expect to place three horses without crowding them in such 

 a limited space as this. Two feet more in length (that is eighteen feet) 

 and one foot less in breadth (or fifteen feet) will give three good stalls ; or 

 two feet more each way (that is eighteen feet by eighteen) will make the 

 above plan practical. 



SERVANTS' ROOMS 



Little need be here said of the servants' rooms, but I certainly agree 

 with Mr. Miles in his objection to placing them over the horses. Quiet is 

 essential to the sleep of these animals, and if grooms are to be walking 

 overhead at all hours their sleep must necessarily be disturbed. It is 

 always well to have a groom's room within hearing of his horses, so that 

 if any of them get cast, or are taken ill, he may be able at once to go to 

 their assistance, but this can readily be done without placing any lodging- 

 rooms over the stalls or boxes. If grooms sleep over the stables, the floor 

 should be " dead-sounded " for the sake of the horses, and made air-tight for 

 the sake of the man and possibly his family. Cases of glanders are said to 

 have been communicated in this way, and despite the statement that " of 

 the horse and groom, the horse is the nobler animal," modern sanitary 

 science is against the plan of overhead living-rooms, where the ammonia 

 of the stable must necessarily rise if the communication between it and the 

 sleepers above is of such a nature as to permit the latter to hear a griped 

 or cast horse struggling in the night. 



NECESSITY FOR AIRING NEW STABLES 



To PUT HORSES INTO NEW STABLES without airing them is to give them 

 cold or rheumatism. Indeed those which have been merely uninhabited 

 for some months are not fit for horses that are accustomed to be kept 

 warm and dry, without taking the following precautions. If the walls 

 are very new some open stoves should be kept burning for at least a 

 week, not with the windows and dooi's shut, as is often done, but with 

 a good current of air blowing through the whole building. In the absence 

 of regular stoves loose bricks may be built up so as to allow a good draught 

 of air through the coke or wood burnt in them, and thus to give out as 

 much heat as is wanted. For sta,bles that have merely been closed up for 

 a month or two, a fire kindled on the floor and kept burning for a few 

 hours will suffice, but when the horses are first brought in, their beds 



^ A very great number of such stables have since been fitted up, especially in the 

 West End of Loudon, where space is costly, and proximity to the owner's residence a 

 sine qua non. 



