AGRICULTURE AND THE HORSE. 405 



leave it for the invigorating influences of the northern 

 blasts in winter, and for the cooling and indurating 

 effects of a coating of snow and hail. He seems to 

 understand by instinct, that if he confines himself to the 

 hot air of an elaborate, well-finished, model stable, his 

 - energies will wilt and fade. He seems to know that a 

 glossy, shining coat is to him a sort of white wall of a 

 whited sepulchre, — pleasing without, but within full of 

 all equine disabilities ; and so he only asks for room 

 to stretch his growing limbs, and a roof sufficient to 

 shield him from the storm, undisturbed if he should see 

 a star through the crevice above him, and feel the fresh 

 breeze whistling through a crack by his side. He wants 

 a well-ventilated stable, and a chance to get out of it 

 whenever he has a desire to do so. And, above all 

 things, let him stand on the ground, if possible, while in 

 his box ; and, at any rate, in a yard into which his box 

 opens. A floor, especially a wooden floor, is bad enough 

 for a mature working-horse ; but to a colt it is almost 

 destruction. I have no shadow of doubt that we ruin 

 thousands of horses' feet in this country by our plank- 

 floors. The wood, when dry, is a non-conductor of heat, 

 and tends to keep the hoof above its natural temperature, 

 and to remove from it all its natural moisture ; and, when 

 wet, it has a tendency to rise above the surrounding tem- 

 perature by fermentation. Wet or dry, therefore, wood, 

 whether in the form of a plank-floor or of sawdust- 

 bedding, is very injurious to the horse's foot. And so 

 thoroughly convinced of this am I, that I always pro- 



