LIGHT. 369 



Everything liastening to decomposition should be carefully removed where life and 

 health are to be preserved. The litter that has been much wetted or at all softened 

 by the urine, and is beginning to decay, should be swept away every morning ; the 

 greater part of the remainder may then be piled under the manger ; a little being left 

 to prevent the painful and injurious pressure of the feet on the hard pavement during 

 the day. Tlie soiled and macerated portion of that which was left should be removed 

 at night. In the better kind of stables, however, the stalls should be completely 

 emptied every morning. 



No heap of fermenting dung should be sutfered to remain during the day in the 

 corner or in any part of the stable. With regard to this, the directions of the master 

 should be peremptory. 



The stable should be so contrived that the urine shall quickly run off, and the 

 offensive and injurious vapour from the decomposing fluid and the litter will thus be 

 materially lessened : if, however, the urine is carried away by means of a gutter run- 

 ning along the stable, the floor of the stalls must slant towards that gutter, and the 

 declivity must not be so great as to strain the back sinews, and become an occasional, 

 although unsuspected, cause of lameness. Mr. R. Lawrence well observes, that, 

 "if the reader will stand for a few minutes with his toes higher than his heels, the 

 pain he will feel in the calves of his legs will soon convince him of the truth of this 

 remark. Hence, when a horse is not eating, he always endeavours to find his level, 

 either by standing across the stall or else as far back as his halter will permit, so that 

 his hind-legs may meet the ascent of the other side of the channel." 



This inclination of the stall is also a frequent cause of contraction of the heels of 

 the foot, by throwing too great a proportion of the weight upon the toe and removing 

 that pressure on the heels which tends most to keep them open. Care, therefore, 

 must be taken that the slanting of the floor of the stalls shall be no more than is suf- 

 ficient to drain off the urine with tolerable rapidity. Stalls of this kind certainly do 

 best for mares ; but for horses we much prefer those with a grating in the centre, and 

 a slight inclination of the floor on every side towards the middle. A short branch 

 may communicate with a larger drain, by means of which the urine may be carried 

 off to a reservoir outside the stable. Traps are now contrived, and may be procured 

 at little expense, by means of which neither any offensive smell nor current of air 

 can pass through the graling. 



The farmer should not lose any of the urine. It is from the dung of the horse that 

 he derives a principal and most valuable part of his manure. It is that which earliest 

 takes on the process of putrefaction, and forms one of the strongest and most durable 

 dressings. "^I'hat which is most of all concerned with the rapidity and the perfection 

 of the decomposition is the urine. 



Humanity and interest, as well as the appearance of the stable, should induce the 

 proprietor of the horse to place a moderate quantity of litter under him during the 

 day. The farmer who wants to convert every otherwise useless substance into ma- 

 nure, will have additional reason for adopting this practice : especially as he does not 

 confine himself to that to which in towns and in gentlemen's stables custom seems 

 to have limited the bed of the horse. Pea and bean-haum, and potato-tops, and 

 heath, occupy in the stable of the farmer, during a part of the year, the place of 

 wheaten and oaten straw. It should, however, be remembered, that these substances 

 are disposed more easily to ferment and putrefy than straw, and therefore should be 

 more carefully examined and oftener removed. It is the faulty custom of some farm- 

 ers to let the bed accumulate until it reaches almost to the horse's belly, and the boi- 

 om of it is a mass of dung. If there were not often many a hole and cranny through 

 which tiie wind can enter and disperse the foul air, the health of the animal would 

 materially suffer. 



LIGHT. 



This neglected branch of stable-management is of far more consequence than is 

 generally imagined ; and it is particularly neglected by those for whom these trea- 

 tises are principallv desi^r.rd. The farmer's stable is frequently destitute of any 

 glazed window, and has ordy a shrAtcr, which is raised in warm weather, and closed 

 when the weather becr>me3 cold. When the horse is in the stable only duiing a few 

 hours in the day, this is not of ao much consequence, nor of so much, probably, with 

 regard to horses of slow work ; but to carriage-horses and hackneys, so far, at least, 



3w 



