6 Management and Treatment of the Hoj'se. 



Newmarket, whicli when opened on a frosty morn- 

 ing, the hot impure air would rush out so that 

 any one might suppose the stable to be on fire. 

 The true principle of ventilation is to obtain 

 a constant supply of fresh air without causing 

 draught. This should be accomplished by grates 

 on the outside of the stable wall, and brought up 

 under the floor into the stable, which should have 

 a double grate, the under portion made to slide, 

 so as entirely to stop the upper space through the 

 bars of the grate and enable the groom to regu- 

 late the quantity of air required ; by this a supply 

 of cold air would be brought upon the floor of the 

 stable through the foundation of the walls. The 

 hot air should be carried off through large grates 

 up in the ceiling, to allow the hot or consumed air 

 to escape. These should be connected with air 

 shafts, which should go through the roof. I 

 don't mean those stove pipes so commonly used, 

 which are not more than six inches in diameter, 

 but shafts at least two feet square to carry off the 

 foul air and ammonia that constantly arise in the 

 stable. I have seen some stables, which were pos- 

 sessed of these blessings, made into dens as foul 

 as it is possible to conceive, by the ignorance of 

 grooms who had charge of them, keeping the air 

 passages entirely stopped with hay or other litter 

 to keep the stable hot, and make the horse's coat 

 shine like silk and lay close, not thinking that the 

 same animal had to go out of his hot stable 

 on a cold wet day, and perhaps stand in the wet 

 and cold at a covert side for an hour at a stretch, 

 shivering like a dog in a wet sack ; and the 



