106 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Chap. I. 



people forget that warmth is obtained at a sacrifice of pure air and the 

 Iiealth of tiie animal. Shut a man up in a tight, small box ; the air may 

 be warm, but it will soon lay him out dead and cold if he continues to 

 breathe it. If stables are tight, they should have high ceilings; if they 

 are not tight, but open to admit cold currents of air from all directions, they 

 are equally faulty. 



Slatted floors are getting into vogue. My own stable is built with a tight 

 floor nine feet long and four and a half feet wide for each stall, with a pitch 

 of two inches. At the end of tiie plank there is a slatted portion, four feet 

 wide, two inches lower than the plank. Through these slats all the urine 

 runs into the manure pile in the cellar, and so leaves the beds of the horses dry. 



145. Sand for Horses' BcdSi — JR-. Small, of Dundalk, Scotland, a veteri- 

 nary surgeon of considerable experience, states that sand is not only an ex- 

 cellent substitute for straw for horses' beds, but superior to straw, as the 

 sand does not heat, and saves tlie hoofs of the horses. lie states that sand is 

 exclusively used for horses' beds in his repository. 



14G. To Remove Horses from a Building on Fire. — The great difliculty of 

 getting horses from a stable, where surrounding buildings are in a state of 

 conflagration, is well known. Wilkes' Spirit of the Times says, a gentleman 

 wlio?e horses had been in great peril from such a cause, having in vain tried 

 to save them, hit upon the experiment of having them harnessed, when, to 

 his astonishment, they were led from the stable without difficiUty. Throw- 

 ing a blanket over a horse's head will often answer, also, and may be easily 

 tried before harnessinsr. 



147. Proportion of Horses to 3Icn. — The following curious account is given 

 in Appleton's Encyclopedia, of the number of horses in the various parts of the 

 world : " The general estimate has been eight to ten horses in I^urope for every 

 hundred inliabitants. Denmark has 45 horses to every hundred iidiabitants, 

 which is more than any other European country. Great Britain and Ire- 

 land have 2,500,000 horses ; France, 3,000,000 ; Austrian Empire, exclusive 

 of Italy, 2,500,000 ; Eussia, 3,500,000. The United States have 5,000,000, 

 which is more than any European country. The horses of the whole world 

 arc estimated at 57,420,000." , 



14S. What Constitutes Legal I'lisoundness in Horses. — A Knee-sprung horse 

 can hardly be said to be unsound. He may be a very fast horse, and can 

 endure with ease the labor of any common, ordinary horse, although there 

 is an alteration of structure which unfits him for the race-course. This 

 would not be likely to produce disease or lameness ; he would be more 

 likely to gi'ow better than worse, if used for common purposes. But if so 

 bad as to produce stumbling and falling, he would be unsound, and a war- 

 ranty should be taken against such defocts. 



Capped Ilocks can not be considered imsoundness, if produced by an un- 

 even stable floor or by kicking ; but if produced by a sprain, and a perma- 

 nent thickening and enlargement of the membranes, there would be unsound- 

 ness. A special warranty should be required in such cases. 



