LOOSE BOXES. 23 



To a wearied horse tliey afford more room than a stall. Tbey 

 are hospitals in which to place sick horses, with the additional 

 advantage of enabling sick animals to be separated from the 

 healthy, should there be an epidemic disease or an infectious 

 malady of any kind amongst the stud ; and where horses are 

 intended to be thrown completely out of work, and yet be 

 confined, loose boxes will afford greater freedom to the animals 

 within. 



Where room is a matter of importance, the stalls in the 

 stable should be so constructed as to throw two into one, and 

 thus a box for temporary purposes may be readily obtained ; 

 but where room is not a matter of importance, it is better to 

 have the boxes situate apart from the stable. The directions 

 given with regard to the construction of the stable, are to be 

 observed in the construction of a loose box. The place requires 

 lighting, paving, \'entilating, and draining. Like the stable, 

 loose boxes, when practicable, should be built to face the south. 

 The windows may be placed above the main entrance ; they are 

 then clearly out of the way of any mischievous animal which 

 may be placed within. Make the entrance door to a loose box 

 six feet six inches high, and four feet wide. Let it be hung 

 on the outside, or so as to open without. It should also be 

 divided transversely into two portions. Have the lower portion 

 four feet high. Let the length of the apartment be nineteen 

 feet ; its width, fifteen or sixteen feet ; and its height ten 

 feet. A part of the room may be used as follows : — at the 

 top, take six feet, which appropriate to the furniture necessary 

 to the box. In the first place, fix a strong wooden apparatus, 

 divided in a similar manner to that shewn in the adjoining 

 engraving, and the one at the end of this section, viz., one 

 division for the hay ; one as a manger ; and if desirable, one as 

 a water-trough. The height of this apparatus will require to 



