178 WALL'S MANUAL 



tluin good wholesome food. The lungs are capable 

 of transmitting other gases, besides oxygen, to the 

 blood. If stables are not well aired, the horses 

 necessarily breathe ammonia and other affluvia in 

 mixture with the confined air in which they live. 

 This will soon enfeeble their health. Ventilation 

 and the sprinkling of plaster, or woods mold in 

 their stalls, is the remedy. 



The temperature of stables should not bo disre- 

 garded. They should be neither too warm nor too 

 cold. If they are very warm, the horses become 

 severely chilled when brought out in the cold air. 

 If very cold, the waste of animal heat requires a 

 largely increased consumption of grain food. Kind- 

 ness does more to bring animals completely under 

 the control of man than any and all the other means; 

 and, of all animals, the horse is the most sensitive to 

 kind treatment. When colts arc treated with a kind 

 hand from the very commencement of life, if dealt 

 with gently when first trained to the saddle or 

 'harness, they seldom give their owners much trouble, 

 and are afterwards more safe and useless. 



CATTLE. 



Dry, clean sheds, well littered, and opening toward 

 the south, make the best protection for horned cattle 

 in the winter. In very cold, wet weather, it may be 

 w T ell to confine them to their shelters ; but generally 

 in fair weather they thrive better if they have the 

 use of an open lot, supplied with corn stalks r straw 

 or leaves, to keep down the mud and make manure. 

 When cattle are to be fattened they should be kept 

 as quiet as possible. If allowed to run at large they 



