682 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. 



BOOK VIIL 



senting a stable of five stalls and one loose box, as erected by the 

 St. Pancras Ironworks Compan}*. Some horse-keepers prefer the hay- 



Manger fittings. 



Fig. 217. 



rack in the position it occupies in these stalls, rather than higher or 

 lower. 



The pavement of most stables is laid too slopingly. This is for the 



Fig. 218. Stable of Ffve Stalls and One Loose Box. 



purpose of draining off the urine more quickly and completely ; but it 

 often places the horse in a painful position, and the object may be 

 equally well attained by grooves or channels lined with some non- 

 retentive substance. Fig. 219 illustrates a grooved 

 flooring brick well adapted for stables, &c. 



Even on the farms where corn husbandry is 

 chiefly practised, large barns have ceased to be con- 

 sidered essential ; and where dairying or cattle-grazing 

 chiefly prevails, they are of still less moment, since it 

 is now well known that grain, properly stacked in the 

 sheaf, will keep as well, if not better, in the yard. Wherever it is 

 necessary to erect new barns, care should be taken to make the floors 

 dry and firm, for which purpose oaken planks are preferable to any 

 other material, especially if the intention is to use it as a threshing- 

 floor, but as the flail is now rarely, if ever, employed, concrete or asphalte 

 more commonly takes the place of wood. There should also be a 

 sufficient number of apertures, through which hay and straw may be 

 housed, and the barn should be placed immediately adjoining the 



Fig. 219.-Stable 

 Floor Brick. 



