144 KOW TO STABLE 



the distance of nine inches, or, better, one foot, with well 

 grooved and tongued inch boards, or inch and a quarter 

 planks, — ^liaving the intermediate space filled with tan bark. 

 This will preserve an equal temperature through the whole 

 year, and the stable will always be cool in summer and 

 warm in winter. If external sliding shutters be appended 

 to the windows, contrived to open and shut by means of a 

 cord and pulley, and if fly-nets of coarse gauze be added in 

 summer, to exclude the winged pest?, which are such tor- 

 ments to horse-flesh, the expense will not be one of many 

 dollars, and will add hundreds of dollars worth to the com- 

 fort of the horses. We will only add that the new construc- 

 tion of con Crete moulded walls is excellently well adapted for 

 country stables, and will, more easil}^ than any other form, 

 admit the introduction of air pipes, as described above. 



And now, the question of stabling disposed of, we pass 

 to that of grooming and clothing, which is the next in im- 

 portance, and scarcely secondary to those of food and sta- 

 bling, as regards the health and comfort of the horse, and, 

 what is the same thing, the true interest of his owner. 



Grooming. " Of this," says Mr. Youatt, " much need 

 not be said to the agriculturist ; since custom, and appar- 

 ently without ill effect, has allotted so little of the comb 

 and brush to the farmer's horse. The animal that is worked 

 all day and turned out at night, requires little more to be 

 done to him than to have the dirt brushed off his limbs. 

 Eegular grooming, by rendering his skin more sensible to 

 the alteration of temperature and the inclemency of the 

 weather, would be prejudicial. The horse that is altogether 

 turned out needs no grooming. The dandruff or scurf 

 wdiich accumulates at the roots of the hair, is a provision 

 of nature to defend him from the wind and the cold. 



This, however, whi(jh may be true, and correct as of 

 til? horse which is turned out every night, during the 



