678 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. 



BOOK VIII. 



be well repaid by the resultant advantages of security and quiet 

 feeding. The width of the stalls should be five feet and a half at 

 the least, in order to enable the horses to lie down or turn round 

 without inconvenience. It will also be advisable to elevate the 

 divisions near the head, so that strange horses may neither see nor 

 molest each other. Loose boxes, or rooms, are an improvement on 

 stalled stables. 



Few objects are less attended to in building stables than the style and 

 arrangement of the mangers and racks. These latter, according to the 

 common practice, are needlessly extended across the upper end of the 

 stall : much provender, by being drawn and trodden under foot, is 

 frequently wasted, and, as the racks project forward, the seeds of the 

 hay sometimes fall into the eyes of the horse, and occasion injury. 

 Even in loose stables separate upright hay cribs are preferable ; and 

 the manger should always have divisions high enough to prevent the 



Fig. 208. Fig. 209. 



Stable Hay Wooden Racks. 



horses from interfering with each other while feeding. In many 

 of these stables the racks are much too .large, especially as servants 

 will fill them with hay, whatever may be their size. Many horses 

 either devour fodder ravenously, or waste a great portion of it. 

 It would be a convenience and a protection if the mangers were 

 movable. They could then be occasionally cleansed from the dried saliva 

 which accumulates about them, and the spread of infectious diseases 

 would often be prevented. Every manger should have a sparred or 

 perforated bottom for holding the tares and clover whilst permitting 

 all the hay-seeds to escape, and a close one for the corn and mashes, or 

 for any steamed food that may be occasionally employed. The stable 

 for the saddle-horses should be at a small distance, or at least separate, 

 from that appropriated to the cart-horses. The construction of these 

 stables, however, scarcely comes within the scope of this treatise. 

 In whatever way the corn-bin may be constructed, it should have a 

 secure lock. A small space or room should always be partitioned off, 

 and fitted with shelves and pegs for the reception of spare harness 

 and various stable utensils, and for small articles not in constant use, 



