78 DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 



STABLES. 



Stables should be on an elevated, dry situation, so 

 that a horse can go in and out, clean, in bad weather. 

 He delights in cleanliness, and would snuff the pure 

 breeze, and slake his thirst at the crystal fountain. Sta 

 bles should be capacious, and well ventilated. These are 

 important requisites to the health and comfort of the 

 horse. All offensive matters should be removed from 

 the stable, lest diseases be generated. After cleaning 

 the stall, strew plaster on the floor, to absorb the gas. 

 This will pay all expense, in the improvement in the 

 manure. 



Stables should be light, but a very strong, glaring light 

 should be avoided. Dark stables are injurious to the eyes ; 

 so is the ammonial gas that arises from impure stables. 

 Close, hot, foul stables, are very unwholesome. They not 

 only cause disease, but they make the horse tender, and 

 predispose him to other diseases than those generated in 

 the stable. 



Over the horses, stables should be ceiled tight or plas- 

 tered, to prevent the hay from being scented by the 

 exhalations from the dung, urine, perspiration, and 

 breath. 



The rack should be smooth, and the uprights about 

 four or four and a half inches apart, so that the horse 

 can conveniently draw out the fodder, and yet not draw 

 it out so fast as to waste it. The part of the rack next 

 the horse should be upright, that the chaff, dust, and 

 seed, may not fall down into the horse's fa :e, eyes, ears, 

 and mane. In some stables in England, there is no 

 rack, all the fodder being cut, and fed into the manger. 

 The halter should run through a ring, or hole in the 

 manger, and be kept tight by a weight of about one 

 pound ; then, when the halter is slack by the horse's 

 advancing, it is drawn up out of the way, so that he 

 cannot step over it. If the length of a halter is station- 

 ary, it is too short to allow the horse to lie down ;. or so 

 long that there is danger of his stepping over it, and 



