298 STABLES AS THEY SHOULD BE. 



the most economical purchases which the horse owner can invest his 

 cash in. It is folly to pay large sums for thew and muscle, when the 

 place in which such properties are to be lodged will destroy the health 

 and undermine the strength that are imperative to their preservation. 

 One or two deaths in a prime stud may cost more dearly than would the 

 largest of the proposed buildings. 



The money which shall be expended upon the improved stable must 

 not be viewed as cash sunk in an unremunerative object, but as a sum 

 invested in that which will immediately yield an exorbitant interest. It 

 will decrease the veterinary surgeon's bill ; it will conserve the health 

 and prolong the usefulness of the horse ; it will put the animal in better 

 heart, and will enable the proprietor to dispense with those repeated 

 purchases which now occasion the horse owner to stare at every fresh 

 steed he chances to meet, and to inquire "if it be for sale?" 



"When we wish to raise any erection, we should, before we begin to 

 plan, thoroughly comprehend the purposes which the new edifice is to 

 serve. A stable is not the home of a horse, in the same sense that a 

 house is the home of a human being. The animal has not one room 

 for day and another for night. It cannot retire ; it must remain in its 

 compartment ; and it becomes the author's duty to point out what is im- 

 perative to render the limited space a healthful abode. 



In the first place, everything like a stall must be abohshed — the uses 

 of such abominations being supplied by loose boxes. Each box is to be 

 eighteen feet square ; of these there are to be six, ranged in pairs ; three 

 upon either side of the interior. Every box shall be rendered dry and 

 sweet by six deep gutters, three on either side; and all emptying into 

 a central branch drain, which discharges its contents into a main drain, 

 running through the length of the entire building. 



The gutters commence eighteen inches from the side divisions of the 

 boxes ; the first is situated three feet from the external wall. Six feet 

 divides the first from the second gutter ; the same space separates the 

 second from the third gutter, which is removed only three feet from the 

 central partition. 



The flooring or pavement between the gutters is arranged in gentle 

 undulations, like the walks in a gentleman's garden. It is raised three 

 inches higher in the center of each division than where its borders term- 

 inate in the gutter. The two pieces of pavement at either end of the 

 box begin at the elevation of three inches, and sink to the level of the 

 lowest surface as they approach the gutter. Thus every portion of the 

 pavement will incline one in twelve, a fall of fully sufficient magnitude 

 to allow of the speedy disappearance of fluid, which is always ejected 

 with force and in quantity. The gutters all terminate in "stink traps," 



