56 THE PRACTICAL HORSE KEEPER. 



this part, gradually deepen as they pass outwards and back- 

 wards to a longitudinal channel on each side of the stall, these 

 entering the heel channel. 



The passage behind the stalls, if smooth on the surface, 

 should be cut or grooved, to prevent slipping. 



Some draught-horse stables are arranged with stalls nine 

 or ten feet wide, to contain a pair of horses, by which a saving 

 of ten feet in a ten-stall stable is effected ; but this may be 

 questionable economy. 



Loose boxes in stables should have the woodwork as low as 

 possible, the necessary height being obtained by an iron rail 

 around the top. They should be drained in the same manner 

 as the stalls, and it is needless to remark that they ought to be 

 as spacious as possible. 



DRAINS. 



The grooves, or channels, in the floor of the stalls and loose 

 boxes lead to the channel behind (heel channel), and this 

 should, having a proper fall, carry the urine out of the stable. 

 This constitutes surface drainage, the only kind which should 

 be tolerated inside stables ; underground pipes, drains, and 

 traps are an abomination, from their becoming foul-smelling 

 and filthy. These surface drains can be swept clean and 

 washed with water, and they dry quickly. The urine, carried 

 outside the stable by the surface drains, may run into other 

 drains of the same kind, and so be carried out of the way into 

 the sewer or manure pit. 



At intervals of time, the floors, as well as the walls, 

 windows, mangers, and woodwork, should be thoroughly 

 cleaned by washing ; indeed, the drains should frequently be 

 flushed with water. 



After such cleaning, and especially if the weather be damp, 

 and even when there is no cleaning, but a prevalence of wet 

 and cold, fires of coke or gas may be burned in the stables 



