Book IV. 



BUILDINGS FOR LIVE STOCK. 



445 



the hay, without requiring the interstices to be so wide as to permit him to draw it out in too large 

 quantities. 



2824. Immediately above the racks is an opening in the hay-loft, through which the racks are filled. 

 When it is thought necessary, this may be closed by boards moving on hinges. 



2825. The racks in some of the best stables occupy one of the angles between the wall and trevices, and 

 form the quadrant of a circle. The spars are perpendicular, and wider placed than in the hanging racks. 

 The hay-seed falls into a box below, instead of being dropped on the ground, or incommoding the eyes 

 and ears of the horses. 



2826. Behind the horses, and about nine feet from the front wall, is a gutter, havmg a gentle declivity to 

 the straw-yard or urine-pit. Allowing about a foot for this, there will remain a width of eight feet to 

 the back wall, if the stable be eighteen feet wide; a part of which, close to the wall, is occupied with 

 corn-chests and places for harness. 



2827. IVith a view to save both the hay and the seed, it is an advantage to have the haystacks so near 

 the stable as to admit of the liay being thrown at once upon the loft. In some stables there is no loft, 

 and the hay is stored in a separate apartment 



2828. The stable floor is, for the most part, paved with undressed stones ; but in some instances, the 

 space from the gutter to the back is laid with flags of freestone. 



2829. Horse-hammels, or small sheds, with yards to each, have been used as stables in a few instances, 

 and with great success in Berwickshire. Each shed holds two horses, with a niche for their harness : to 

 each shed there is an open straw- yard, of small size, with a water trough, and a gate large enough to 

 admit a cart to take out the dung. John Herriot, of Ladykirk, has long used these buildings for his 

 horses with great success. He has lost none by death for a number of years, and they seldom have colds 

 or any other disease. His horses lie in these open hammels in winter ; and it is remarked, that in frosty 

 weather, when snow is falling, and lying on the ground, the animals do not go under cover, but prefer 

 to lie out, with their backs and sides covered with snow. It is well known, that if a horse is kept out in 

 winter, he will have no grease, nor swelled legs, and perhaps few other diseases. These hammels seem 

 to have all these advantages, at the same time that they protect the animal from damp, and prevent his 

 back from being kept wet by heavy or long continued rains. Every farmer who keeps a large stock of 

 horses, occasionally loses one by inflammation, brought on by coughs and colds : but the horses of the 

 farmer alluded to become aged, and he has not had occasion to purchase a young horse for several years. 

 {Husb. of Scot. i. 26.) Suffolk cart horses lie out during night throughout the whole year j they are not 

 exempt from grease, but they are probably more healthy than horses in general are. 



2830. Cattle-sheds are used either for lodging milch cows, or for feeding cattle for the 

 butcher. The principal requisites in buildings of this description are, to be capable 

 of being well aired ; to be so constructed as to require the least possible labour in 

 feeding the cattle and clearing away the dung ; and the stalls to be so formed as to 

 keep the cattle as dry and clean as possible, with sufficient drains to carry away, and 

 reservoirs to collect, the urine and dung. There are three ways in which the cattle are 

 placed : first, in a row towards one of the side walls ; secondly, in two rows, either 

 fronting each other, with a passage between, or with their heads towards both side walls ; 

 and, thirdly, across, or upon the width of the house, in successive rows, with intervening 

 passages for feeding and removing the dung. In the first mode, it is usual to have 

 openings in the walls, through which the cattle are supplied with turnips j otherwise they 

 must necessarily be served from behind, with much inconvenience both to the cattle-feeder 

 and the cattle themselves. The plan that is most approved, and now becoming general 

 when new buildings are erected, is to fix the stakes to which the cattle are tied about 

 two and a half or three feet from the wall, which allows the cattle-man, without going 

 among them, to fill their troughs successively from his wheelbarrow or basket, with 

 much ease and expedition. It is also a considerable improvement to keep the cattle 

 separate, by partitions between every two. This will, in a great measure, prevent accidents, 

 and secure the quiet animals from being injured by the vicious ; for in these double 

 stalls, each may be tied up to a stake placed near the partition, so as to be at some dis- 

 tance from his neighbours ; and it is easy to lodge together such as are alike in size and in 

 temper. The width of such stalls should not be less than seven feet and a half, and the 

 depth must be regulated by the size of the cattle. 



2831. Cattle-hammels {fig. 411.) The practice of feeding cattle in small sheds and straw-yards, or what 

 are called hammels in Berwickshire, deserves to be noticed with 

 approbation, when saving of expense is not a paramount object 

 Two cows are usually kept together, and go loose ; in which way 

 they are thought by some to thrive better than when tied to a 

 stake, and, at the same time, feed more at their ease than when 

 a number are kept together as in the common straw-yards. All 

 that is necessary is, is to run partition walls across the sheds and 

 yards of the farmers ; or if these are allotted to rearing stock, one 

 side of the square, separated by a cart-way from the straw-yards, 

 may be appropriated to these hammels. In the usual manage- 

 ment of a row of cattle hammels in Berwickshire, there is one 

 hammel (o b') at one end used as a temporary repository for roots 

 and straw for the cattle ; then each hammel consists of the open 

 yard (d a), and the covered part (c) : the entrance door, of which 

 there is only one to each hammel, is in the wall of the yard (/), 

 and on each side of it are two troughs {e, e) for food, and a crib 



^ .^ - - - _ for hay or straw, and for cut clover or other herbage in summer. 



2832. HarWs cow-house at Glasgow contained one hundred cows. " stood upon a vaulted c^lj^^^^ 

 which was divided into three apartments : the middle one for the manure ; that at one end for potatoes 

 and other roots to be used as'^food; and in the other, cows not f'^^^g "^^1^ were kept The dung 

 was dropped into the centre division through apertures in the g""ers(^g. 412 a. , eighteen inch^^^ 

 in diameter, covered with cast-iron plates. Sometimes a cart was brought into the cellar, and the dung 

 at once dropped into it, and carted away. The covers had fi"ger-holes for lifting them up, and the dung 

 was drawn along the grooves into them by a broad hoe or scraper fitted to the groove. It was often 

 found necessary to mix ashes with the dung, to render it of a fit consistence for being carted away. The 

 second division of the vaults was fitted up for the process of fattening ; darkness and quiet being considered 

 favourable circumstances. In the third division, roots were effectuaUy preserved from frost At one end 



