STABLE FLOOR AND WINDOWS. 



387 



will offend the air, and tend to produce heat in the feet of the 

 animal. 



I consider planks, which are the ordinary flooring of Amer- 

 ican stables, exceedingly objectionable on this score. 



Hard brick, set edgewise in cement, or good well squared 

 paving stones, or even cobble stones, set in the same manner, 

 or flagstones chiselled in deep grooves, so as to prevent the 

 horse from slipping, all make good flooring for stalls and boxes, 

 but I greatly prefer the first. 



The best covering for drain mouths, which should be in the 

 centre of loose boxes, with the floor gently descending to them 

 on all sides, and at the foot of stalls, is a large flagstone, chis- 

 elled with intersecting grooves at right angles, an inch wide by 

 half an inch deep, with perforations at every point of intersec- 

 tion. 



The stable should be, at least, twelve feet high in the clear; 

 beside having a shaft, or dome, ascending through the loft to a 

 cupola, which should be provided 

 with ventilators of Collins' new pa- 

 tent plan, which allows the egress 

 of the hot and tainted air as it as- 

 cends, but prevents the ingress of 

 descending currents from above. 



The bottom of the windows, 

 which should be opposite to each 

 other, so as to admit of a thorough 

 draft in hot weather, should not be 

 less than eight feet from the ground, 

 so that the air cannot blow directly 

 on the horses. The sashes may be 

 made to slide from down upward and vice versa, in the thick- 

 ness of the wall, by means of pulleys, and can be regulated by 

 cords. They should be guarded by wire nettings, mthout, to 

 prevent the entrance of flies ; and with shutters or Venetian 

 blinds, within, to exclude the light, when needful. 



The doors should in no case be less than five feet wide, and 

 should open outward and in two halves transversely, so as in 

 very hot weather to leave the upper part open. They should 

 also be furnished with summer door-frames of wire gauze. 



