DRAINAGE— WATER SUPPLY— VENTILATION. 165 



gas if the pressure is greater than that of the atmosphere, and in 

 many cases decomposing animal matter at a high temperature 

 evolves gas under one considerably greater. The best stench trap 

 will then be offensive, but a bad one choked with solid matter will 

 be doubly so. By thus doing away with all internal traps, and 

 simply using wrought iron gutters of the annexed form, which are 



IRON SURFACE GUTTER. 



provided with moveable covers, that allow of their being regularly 

 cleaned out with a common besom, such perfect drainage may be 

 attained that the stable neither smells badly nor feels at all damp. 

 It will be seen that angular joints are forged so as to connect the 

 stall drains with those at the backs of the horses, and in this way 

 there is no difficulty whatever in keeping the litter perfectly dry 

 excepting just at the spot where the urine or water first falls. If 

 the drain at the backs of the horses is a very long one it must be 

 sunk beneath the surface and carried on by means of glazed 

 earthenware or iron pipes, with grated openings behind each horse 

 (not trapped), but the iron gutters above described are quite suffi- 

 cient to provide for three or four horses. 



Water-Pipes, where there is no pump, must be laid in the 

 ground so as to be out of the reach of frost, and should be furnished 

 with a good-sized cistern in or near the saddle-room, where it can 

 be kept from freezing. The system of laying on water pipes to 

 the mangers, by which they may be readily filled, is a good one, 

 but it costs money and is by no means necessary. If the iron sur- 

 face drains which I have described are used no flushing is required, 

 a besom easily cleaning them out, but pipe drains are certainly the 

 better for a good flushing now and then. Hard pump water is not 

 BO good for drinking as soft or river water, but in many situations 

 nothing else can be obtained. When soft water is within reach it 

 may easily be conducted into a cistern in the saddle-room, where 

 its temperature will be always nearly that of the stable. 



VENTILATION AND LIGHTING. 



I HAVE ALREADY entered to some extent upon the best form of 

 wiodows for stabling, and have shown how fiu- they may be applied 

 to the purpose of supplying air from without. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, there are already in the building windows of the ordinary 

 construction ; and in that case it will be necessary to introduce 

 ventilators, of some shape or other, to admit the external air. In 

 all cases, some provision should be made for preventing any 



