THE GENESEE FARMER. 



343 



enquire how many occar in stabled, and how many in 



pastured animals. We think, however, that such an 

 enquiry, or at least such a comparison should be 

 made, because if disease be found to occur almost ex- 

 clusively among horses in the stable, we are shut up 

 to the conclusion that something connected with sta- 

 ble management must act as the predisposing or ex- 

 citing cause. But the fact that diseases of the re- 

 spiratory organs are more common in stabled than 

 pasture fed horses, applies to all seasons alike. The 

 fact is a fact in summer as well as in winter. Now 

 it is not a satisfactory thing for a farmer or other 

 horse proprietor to be continually requiring a veteri- 

 nary surgeon to cure horses on the shortest notice, in 

 order they may be at work almost without loss of 

 time. The surgeon also, we think, would prefer be- 

 ing paid for keeping horses healthy, in other words 

 he woui<l rather prevent disease than undertake an 

 uncertain cure. We have ever considered that far- 

 mers and veterinarians do not always act in the man- 

 ner best calculated for the good of both, and yet we 

 feel confident that in a general way they might do so. 



Returning, however, to the case in hand. We 

 have recently heard of scores of stabled horses being 

 ill in town and country. In the great majority of 

 cases, fortunately, the ailment is but trifling, and 

 amounts to nothinsr more than a cough and sore 

 throat, requiring a few days rest. The surgeon, there- 

 fore, is not called in. In other cases, the symptoms 

 are mild in the outset, but become serious eventually, 

 and the surgeon's aid is often required when disease 

 has assumed a threatenina: aspect. Now, seeing that 

 the present cattarrhal complaint appears almost, if 

 not exclusively among stabled horses, is it not possi- 

 ble to explain its dependance upon in-door manage- 

 ment^ so as to indicate means of prevention ? 



It is very generally supposed by those who do rea- 

 son on the subject, that this and allied diseases are 

 merely due to the unnatural heat of stables. We 

 are fully inclined to admit that much harm may be 

 traced to unduly warm stables, but we must not for- 

 get that the horses can endure heat as well as most 

 animals. In the warmest cUmates he seldom seems 

 to suffer from heat alone, provided he be not confin- 

 ed in stables. Xow, so far as mere heat is concern- 

 ed, we do not suppose that any of our stables are 

 kept at anything approaching the temperature of 

 those tropical kat-, and even summer heats in this 

 country, which a horse can bear with impunity. A 

 horse, in fact, so far as experience teaches, can bear a 

 high temperature alone, and as such ; but can he en- 

 dure a high temperature and an impure atmosphere? 

 He cannot without becoming disea.sed. Xow, the 

 eo-existeuce of unnatural heat and bad ventilation 

 are just what we find in very many stables at all sea- 

 sons of the jear. When the season, however, is cold, 

 there is somewhat less danger to be apprehended 

 from bad ventilation than when the weather is hot ; 

 and yet we find that stablemen do not, as a general 

 rule, make these corresponding differences in their 

 ventilating arrangements which summer and winter 

 respectively require. We have often, it is true, seen 

 the windows of stables and certain upper air holes 

 left open. But it is a well known fact, that cool air 

 enters best and most effectively at the ground level, 

 aad hot air escapes easily from the toj) of a room. 



So that unless there be apertures below, we do not 

 ensure a proper circulation of air by merely having 

 open windows. We have also observed that stables 

 are healthiest which contain fewest horses. There is 

 more chance of one horse in an apparently small sta- 

 ble being properly supphed with air, than there is of 

 twentj- horses in a stable of larger size. Builders 

 seem to forget that twenty horse stables require more 

 air holes than stables containing one horse. A paper 

 was read last winter at one of the Highland Socicly's 

 meetings, by Mr. Barlow, in which that gentleman 

 recommended each horse to be ventilated separately. 

 He advised a hole or holes facing the head, level 

 with the floor, and another apertuie near the stable 

 ceiling. The pure air would enter below and be in- 

 spired; the hot impure air would ascend and pass 

 out above. This plan is not new ; it was recommen- 

 ded by the late Professor Coleman of Loudon, and 

 has been found exceedingly successful when practi- 

 cally applied. The holes can have shdes or plugs of 

 wood so arranged as to graduate the amount of ad- 

 mitted air to the utmost nicety. In hot weather they 

 may be wide open ; in cool weather they may be par- 

 tially, and perhapssometimes almost completely clos- 

 ed. We are enabled to state that a well-known army 

 veterinary surgeon, a pupil and admirer of Coleman, 

 has tried this plan extensively, and he is known to 

 have fewer cases of chest diseases in his own, than is 

 usual in other regiments. 



We are convinced of the fact that a due supply of 

 pure air, be it warm or cool, is the great security 

 against diseases of the respiratory organs in stabled 

 horses. Supplying plenty of good air in the stable, 

 places horses in-doors, as near on an equality as possi- 

 ble with those at pasture, and by doing so lessens the 

 tendency to disease. 



' Some persons imagine, and with good grounds of 

 reason in some cases," that stabled horses are liable to 

 disease, because of being exposed to great variations 

 of heat and cold during work hours, or when stand- 

 ing after being fatigued, or by the differences between 

 out and in door temperature. At a time of year 

 such as the present, however, these supposed causes 

 of disease can scarcely apply, for we must bear in 

 mind that horses at piisture are now those which pro- 

 bably experience the greatest changes in regard to 

 the transitions from heat to cold, or from cold to 

 heat. The days, for instance, have been moderately 

 warm for weeks past, the nights have often been cold 

 and yet these out-door horses are not those which 

 sicken most extensively. Here, again, we seem driv- 

 en to the conclusion that the confined stable air is 

 the atmosphere at fault. We think less of its mere 

 temperature in regard to what may be termed heat 

 or cold, than we do of its impurity in consequence of 

 imperfect renewal from without When stables or 

 other buildings for farm stock, are ventilated only by 

 doors and windows, it frequently happens that the 

 cold wind comes in so freely as to chill the hoi-ses 

 standing near. This renders it needful to shut the 

 windows or doors altogether, and the consequence is, 

 a rapidly poisoned atniosphere. that fruitful cause of 

 conjh?. colds, and chest disease in general. On the 

 other hand, when each stall is as it were separately 

 ventilated, the aperatures are individually small, and 

 may be so managed as to prevent all drougth. ' If 



