228 



THE HORSE 



slippery, and must be scored so as to give foothold. The ordinary blue 

 Staffordshire chequered brick is hard, but the cross grooves prevent the 

 urine running off freely, or dirt being swept out readily. The best material 

 I know is a brindled brick, very hard but gritty, patented by the St. 

 Pancras Iron Works Company, a house which has carried out the late 

 Professor Varnel's ideas about drainage, and has taken a leading part 

 in the modern improvements in paving and draining of stables. These 

 bricks have only one groove down the middle, and when laid in a stall or 

 box they form together a series of little gutters which allow wet or dirt to 

 run or be swept away readily. The joints must be grouted with thin neat 

 Portland cement. 



The illustrations show one of the bricks to a large scale, and a stall 

 laid with them to a small scale ; the diagonal lines in the latter represent 



PATENT PAVING BPJCK. 



PLAN OF STALL PAVING 



the continuous channels in the bricks, leading into the surface gutter. 

 This plan gives excellent foothold to the horse. About sixty go to a 

 square yard. 



For the passages of the stable nothing is better than the yellow 

 adamantine clinker, which has superseded the Dutch clinker, very similar 

 in size and quality, but inferior in appearance and cheapness. One 

 hundred and twenty clinkers are required to a square yard. None of these 

 bricks should be laid by an ordinary bricklayer, as they require special 

 management, gained only by experience. The best plan is to contract 

 with a respectable house to lay them at a certain sum per yard, when 

 full advantage may be expected to be obtained of accurate, regular, and 

 moderate falls. If the paving is carelessly laid, either the water does not 

 drain off properly, or else the falls given are greater than necessary, and 

 it is of the utmost importance that the floor should be nearly level. If 

 the fall is more than 2 in. in 1 ft. in a stall, the weight of the horse 

 is thrown on his quarters, and he is liable to be strained. 



Another material is sometimes used in place of brick, on account of 

 cost, namely Portland cement concrete, finished off with fine cement ; but 

 although this when thoroughly well done is impervious and lasts well, 

 it is apt to become greasy, and I have known accidents happen from horses 

 slipping upon it, or straining themselves in rising. 



Mr. Haycock, in his Gentleman's Stable Manual, advocated the revival 

 of a plan extensively used at the beginning of this century, of a perforated 

 wooden floor, so as to allow the urine to pass away, and thus keep the litter 



