Planning a Stud Farm. 11 



to get filled up with dirt if the daily sweep-out is scamped. 

 Next to chalk, the author would prefer a concrete of very 

 coarse gravel and cement. This gives a safe foothold for the 

 horses, prevents percolation of the urine, and, with 

 periodical washing down with water and Jeyes' Fluid, gives 

 clean, wholesome quarters. As to drains, unless they are 

 scientifically designed, and, more important still, intelli- 

 gently supervised, they are better dispensed with altogether. 



VALUE OF A BIG STRAW YARD. 



In planning an ideal stud farm, both with regard to 

 stabling and paddocks, the architect should ever keep in 

 view the desirability of convenient and labour-saving 

 arrangements. Provided always that such arrangements are 

 solely in the interests of the stock, and not merely for the 

 convenience of the staff. If the author were invited to state 

 the most desirable object to be kept in view in stud planning, 

 he would promptly declare for a big straw yard. When 

 during the Winter months the paddocks are frost-bound, or 

 are greasy and treacherous from subsequent thaw, the stud 

 groom regards with growing anxiety the heavy in-foal 

 mares, the mares with young foals at foot, and the yearlings 

 confined to their boxes for days, perhaps weeks. As the 

 engine driver watches his steam gauge, ready, if necessary, 

 to open the safety valves, so, too, the stud groom watches his 

 charges daily growing fresher from continued inactivity, 

 and longs for a safety valve in the shape of a roomy straw 

 yard, where they might " blow off " their superfluous energy 

 in safety. In showery weather, when brief bursts of sun- 

 shine are sandwiched in between drenching downpours, and 

 when to turn mares and foals into distant paddocks would be 

 courting a wet skin before the stables could be regained, the 

 straw yard is once more a "boon and a blessing. " When 



