FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



stimulants, medicines, etc., for general and regular 

 use, for that is not the case ; but there are not a few 

 useful and appropriate methods and medicaments 

 which we are prone to condemn wholesale because 

 we have seen them abused and not used. 



The water and drinking vessels must be of the 

 purest. Can you expect a sensitive creature to 

 relish drinking from the pail which has just held 

 soap, and is contaminated with the other stable 

 uses to which it may be put ? or to be other than 

 nauseated when the same sponge is used to wash 

 his mouth, his legs, and his feet? And can the 

 creature relish a mash mixed by hands uncleaned 

 from the filth of stable labor ? Or does a sour 

 manger under his nose all day, a steaming hay- 

 rack beside that, and a reeking straw-bed under 

 him, sound like a combination likely to create a 

 thirst to be acceptably assuaged only from a 

 bucket about which clings the filth of months ? 

 No wonder we have some light feeders ! 



Horses should have their hay on the ground 

 in front of them. They may waste some, but it 

 is generally only that which has become distaste- 

 ful to them, anyway, by being breathed upon. 

 Besides, hay nowadays is as cheap as rye-straw, 

 and no more expensive if used as bedding. Feed- 



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