STABLE APPENDAGES 63 



placed in the loft, a wooden tube can bring the grain to the 

 stable. The chest may be fixed, and have its bottom sloping 

 like a hopper to the tube by which the grain runs down to the 

 stable. The lower extremity of the pipe may be enclosed in 

 a cupboard, or it may lie against tho wall. The grain is ob- 

 tained by drawing out an iron slide 



The chest may be divided into four compartments ; one 

 for oats, one for [shorts or bran, one for Indian corn, one for 

 barley, and one for meal of different kinds.] 



BOILER-HOUSE. A copper for heating water or cooking 

 food, is a very necessary appendage to all stables. Hot 

 water is frequently required for numerous operations, which 

 are not performed if the water can not be easily procured. 

 But this is not the principal use of a boiler. It is wanted so 

 often for cooking food, that in town as well as country it ought 

 to form a permanent appendage. [When hay and grain are 

 cheap, it is no object to cut the one or cook the other.] The 

 boiler is usually made of cast-iron, and placed in some corner 

 of the yard. On large establishments it would be an advan- 

 tage, a saving, to have the boiler of malleable iron. It is in 

 almost constant use, and intrusted to so many different per- 

 sons, most of them sufficiently careless, that it is generally 

 broken once or twice a year. Mr. Mein has one of plate-iron, 

 oval in form ; and it is not injured by the worst of usage. 



The boiler should be placed in a house which will afford 

 convenience for keeping all the cooking implements, coals, 

 coolers, and pails. There should be an iron ladle for mixing 

 or measuring the food ; a water-pipe, with the stopcock run- 

 ning into the boiler. The door should have a good lock upon 

 it. The entrance should be wide enough to admit a wheel- 

 barrow, or the cooler, which is just a long wooden trough, 

 sometimes placed upon wheels. A part of the boiler-house 

 may be allotted to roots intended for cooking. 



When the food is steamed, there is still more need for 

 shelter from the weather, convenience for carrying on the 

 processes, and security from the intrusion of thievery and 

 mischief. 



WATER-POND. At the seats of country gentlemen, this is 

 rather a common appendage to the stables. It is employed 

 for washing, and for watering the horses. They, and some- 

 times the carriage, are dragged through it twice or thrice to 

 remove the road-mud. The horses are allowed to drink from 

 it, the ducks and geese to swim in it, and the place appears 

 to be useful for drowning supernumerary pups and kittens 



