STABLES AND OTHER SHELTER. 227 



Thus the animals are always clean, and the upper floor is readily raised 

 tor the daily washing it should receive. The solid dung and litter may 

 be wheeled outside, or if there is a basement, throw it down through a 

 trap door, to be made into compost. 



If the expense of such a floor, as that described, is deemed too 

 great, the floor may be made of hard-wood plank, or better, of smooth 

 cobble stone laid in sand. Hard-rammed clay makes a most comfortable 

 floor to stand on, if it be kept repaired, and straw enough is used for 

 bedding to keep the animals clean. Plenty of straw must be used, what- 

 <iver the floor, where the animal lies down. 



The Economy of Bedding. — It is mistaken economy to stint the bed- 

 ding. With a full bed, so that the animal may not only lie clean, but 

 comfortably in other respects, there is no more straw soiled than with a 

 thin bed. What remains clean can be used again. And, if it be an object, 

 much of the soiled straw may be dried and used again. On farms where 

 there is much straw wasted, it is incomprehensible that an animal should 

 be scantily bedded. The soiled straw, contains the most valuable por- 

 tion of the manure — the urine — and is a mine of wealth to a careful 



farmer. 



VI. Construction of Mangers and. Backs. 



The construction of the manger should be such as to allow plenty of 

 room for hay. It should be built from about eighteen inches above the 

 floor, with a slat bottom or a tight bottom as preferred. It need not be 

 more than two feet four inches wide at the top, by eighteen inches at the 

 bottom, and about three feet four inches high. It should extend clear 

 across the stall, the top rail being of sound, solid oak, with a feed-box 

 two feet wide, for grain and cut feed, and as long as the manger is wide ; 

 sixteen inches will be depth enough, and if it slope to about eighteen 

 inches at the bottom, so much the better. 



On the other side may be an iron vessel that will hold a pail of water, 

 and so arranged that it may be fastened in and removed at pleasure, 

 for cleaning. An iron feed-box similarly arranged is better than one of 

 wood, on the score of cleanliness. If there is to be a hay rack, the 

 manger should not be omitted, and this should be larger at the top than at 

 the bottom, and so arranged that the hay may be thrown in from the loft. 

 The bars of the rack should be about six inches apart, and these also may 

 be bought, of iron, if it can be afforded, and hung so as to open and fall 

 back against the wall, for ease in putting in hay. The manger should 

 have a substantial ring at the top, with not less than a two-inch opening, 

 to tie to. 



The manger may be built of yellow pine or oak, an inch and a half 

 thick for the front, back and ends, and the bottom of two-inch plank, 



