140 HOW TO STABLE 



or ''grease," as one oi the most baneful, as it is the most 

 disgraceful to the groom and stable-master, — has its origin. 

 Lastly, it should be perfectly well lighted, as well as thor- 

 oughly aired, since it is not only cruel to animals, which 

 are of a gay, cheerful and sociable nature, to keep them 

 constantly in the dark, and not only depresses their spir- 

 its, and thus injures tneir animal health, but it is a frequent 

 cause of blindness. To keep an animal continually in al- 

 most total darkness, as is the case in many city stables and 

 in most country farming stables, occasionally bringing him 

 out to do his work, with no protection to his eyes, in the 

 full glare and blaze of an American summer or winter, 

 sunlight, must naturally and necessarily tend to produce 

 blindness. 



It is not too much to say that, on nine-tenths of the farm- 

 steads of America, excepting always those of a few model 

 farmSj and what may be called show agricultural establish- 

 ments, the property of wealthy amateurs, the stables are a 

 disgrace to common sense and common humanity ; and 

 for the most part are unfit to be used as pig-styes, much 

 less for the dwelling of so noble, so intelligent, so cleanl}^ 

 an animal, and one so acutely sensitive to all impurities of 

 air, food or water, as the horse. 



In the first place, a stable should never be under ground, 

 wholly or in part ; in the second, it should be, invariably, 

 undcrdrained, with a sufiicient fall to the drains, and with 

 a grating, or perforated slate or flag-stone in the middle of 

 each stall, to which the floor, of whatever substance it is 

 composed, should descend on all sides, with a grade not to 

 exceed an inch to the yard. The expense of this work may 

 seein, to an unthrifty and thoughtless farmer, useless and su- 

 pererogatory ; but, supposing him to work three or more 

 horses of the first cost value of $100 to $150 each, and sup- 

 . posing that these horses last him twice as long, are not half 



