HOVEL AND PADDOCK. VET 
instance, in that belonging to the Rawcliffe Company, near York, the 
enclosures are very large, and a dozen, or even as many as eighteen, mares 
and their foals are turned out together as soon as the weather permits, 
and the spring grass grows high enough. In others, as at the Hampton 
Court and Middle Park establishments, the paddocks are each only calcu- 
lated to take three or four mares and their foals; and the yearlings, also, 
are never allowed to exceed four in any one paddock. Mr. Martin, the 
clever and experienced manager of the first-named stud, is of opinion that 
colts should have room enough to gallop, and thus early azcustom their 
joints and sinews te, bear the strains which they must, sometime or other, 
be subjected to. On the other hand, the argument is held that in a small 
paddock the foal gallops quite as much as in the larger one, and puts his 
joints to the strain in stopping himself at the corners, whilst there is less 
injury from other accidental causes, such as kicks and the jamming of a 
lot together in a narrow gateway. On the whole, I am inclined to believe 
that the latter plan is the best, for experience shows that a well-fed foal 
will gallop daily, for hours together, even in a two-acre paddock. 
AT FOALING TIME each mare must have a separate hovel or loose-box, 
but as, practically, it is found that she always gives some few hours’ notice 
of her approaching parturition, it is the custom to bring her into the 
close neighbourhood of the house of the stud-groom at night, so that he 
may be at hand to render her assistance, if necessary. Any loose-box 
answers for that purpose, if it does not open to a warm stable, which 
would render it too hot for an animal which has been for months exposed 
to the open air. But after foaling the mare will also require a hovel to 
herself for six weeks or two months, when the foal will be strong enough to 
take care of itself in running among other mares, Indeed, at all times, 
the mares should at night be in separate hovels, even when during the 
day they run in the same paddock with two or three others. This hovel 
should be about twelve to fifteen feet long, and not less than ten feet 
wide. The height may easily be too great, because in the early spring the 
weather is often so severe that the mare cannot impart sufficient heat to 
a very large volume of air. From eight to nine feet will therefore be 
ample, the former being well suited to the larger area which I have given 
above, and the latter to the smaller. It is a very common plan, when 
economy is much studied, to build four hovels back to back, at the angles 
formed by four small runs, by which a saving in the internal walls is 
effected. This, however, necessitates a northerly or easterly aspect for 
two out of the four, either of which is objectionable. Two hovels may 
readily be placed side by side in the most desirable situation, and these 
may be made to open into separate runs. The walls should be built of 
brick or stone, whichever is locally the cheaper material, or where gorse is 
abundant they may be formed from it, being the cheapest of all. In some 
counties what is called “wattle and dab” is very generally employed for 
outbuildings of this kind, and when they are roofed with thatch, which 
carries the water well off the sides, it answers very well. It is composed 
of common wood quarterings, with the uprights connected together by 
transverse bars like the rounds of a ladder, about eight inches apart. 
When the whole framework is put together thus, some soil, which should 
be clay or loam, is well worked together with straw and water into a 
tenacious mixture, which is forked over each transverse bar in succession, 
and the whole smoothed down till it assumes a regular and even surface. 
Cottages and outbvildings are put up in this way in Devonshire and Dor: 
setshire at very little expense, straw costing the farmer little or nothing, 
