642 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



the coat of the horses getting too long in a stable of 50 degrees 

 temperature. Those who use horses for fast driving, and warm 

 them up to a lather, may find they can clean them more easily 

 when the coat is light. For this reason the practice of clipping 

 has become common. The clipped horse needs a warmer stable 

 and must be carefully blanketed as soon as exercise ceases. In 

 general, it is true that warm stables are close and ventilation is 

 limited. Dangers of impure and impoisoned air increase as ven- 

 tilation diminishes. 



The Size of the Stable. If the stable is to be kept close 

 it must be greatly enlarged. A small close stable is but a 

 dungeon or a pest-house. A man needs a bed-room containing 

 800 cubic feet, a horse needs one three times as large if the 

 room is close. The size may be lessened as the ventilation is 

 increased. Youatt says : *' A stable for six horses divided into 

 stalls should not be less than forty by sixteen, and the ceiling from 

 nine to twelve feet high." If there be no ventilator connecting 

 with the roof, the atmosphere of such a pen would be stifling by 

 morning if closed tight enough to keep the temperature at 50 

 degrees when thermometer is below zero without. Gratings in 

 the walls are not enough to secure pure air in the average stable. 

 Ventilators. The farmer who has his horses and cattle in 

 the barn where hay and other feed is stored, has an additional 

 reason for providing ventilators connecting with the roof to allow 

 the free escape of impure air. He is to provide not only pure 

 air for his animals, but he is to protect his feed from contami- 

 nation. Ventilating shafts may be so arranged as to do double 

 duty. They can be used as exits for impure air and a great con- 

 venience in the mow for throwing down hay or straw. 



The taller the barn the more readily can it be ventilated, as 

 the draft will be better. A ventilating shaft 4x5 feet, or better 

 5 feet square, extending from the barn floor to the cupola in 

 in the roof, will keep fresh and wholesome the air in a stable 

 where there are thirty to fifty head of animals. It may have 

 at convenient points in the mow doors hinged at their upper 

 ends, so as to yield readily to the fork full of hay and fall back 

 as soon as the hay has dropped into the ventilating shaft. By 



