CLEAXLIXESS. 251 



stand on bricks on flagstones. Many favor boarded 

 floors, and much can be said in their favor on the score 

 of cleanliness. If you lay such a floor have a little 

 slope in it to carry the liquid excrement down to the 

 draining gutter, but the slope must be very slight 

 indeed, so that the departure from the true level will 

 not be perceptible to the horse. I have had experience 

 with several kinds of flooring, and I am free to say I 

 like a ground floor best. Some object that the earthen 

 floor gets saturated with excretions, and it is difficult 

 to keep clean. I have not found it so. I use lime 

 liberalh^— sometimes chloride of limCo With careful 

 and regular cleaning, and liming, the box can be kept 

 perfectly clean and the air free from the health destroy- 

 ing ammonia that pervades wet and imperfectly 

 cleaned and ventilated stables. For bedding I like rye- 

 straw, and plenty of it. As to the details of stabling 

 I need not speak, as every man " must cut the garment 

 according to the cloth," and arrange his plans accord- 

 ing to the size of his stable and the demands upon 

 it. Every good horseman is orderly. He has " a place 

 for everything and everything in its place," and the 

 harness-room of a well-ordered stable should be kept 

 as neat looking as a city harness-shop. 



With all that has been written on feeding, the public 

 ouD^ht to know it all, but still the writers write. After 

 all we have not got beyond the simple facts that the 

 horse's natural food is grass, hay and oats ; that he 

 should be fed and watered regularlv with healthv solid 

 and fluid, and that the object to be kept in view m 

 feeding is to strengthen and nourish the body and keep 

 it healthy. Tiiese are the elementary principles 

 involved in all discussions on feeding. 



