1^6 LIGHT. 



litter will thus be materially lessened : if, however, the urine is carried 

 away by means of a gutter running 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 

 Avill 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 endeavour.s 

 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 at times the 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 keeji them open. Care, therefore, must be taken that the slanting of the 

 floor of the stalls shall be no more than is sufficient 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 aii* can pass through the grating. 



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

 horse that he derives a principal and the 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 di^essings. That 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 manure, 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 Hmited 

 the bed of the horse, viz. wheat and oat straw, and sometimes, dui-ing 

 the summer months, tan or saAvdust. Pea and bean haulm, and heath, 

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

 Avheaten and oaten straw. It should, hoAvever, be remembered that these 

 substances " are disposed more easily to ferment and putrefy than straAV, 

 and therefore should be more carefully examined and oftcner removed. It 

 is the faulty custom of some fai'mers to let the bed accumulate until it 

 reaches almost to the horse's belly, and the bottom of it is a mass of dung. 

 If there Avere not often many a hole and cranny through which the wind 

 can enter and disperse the foul air, the health of the animal would mate- 

 rially 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 treatises are principally designed. The farmer's stable is 

 frequently destitute of any glazed windoAV, and has only a shutter, Avhich 

 is raised in warm weather, and closed Avhen the weather becomes cold. 

 When the horse is in the stable only during a few hours in the day, this 

 is not of so much consequence, nor of so much, probably, with regard to 

 horses of slow Avork ; but to carriage horses and hackneys, so far, at least, 



