FLOORS FOR STABLES. 211 



with the requirements just mentioned. This drawback may 

 be more or less obviated by keeping the floor of the boxes 

 and stalls covered with bedding. It is an advantage, as far as 

 the lighting up of the stable is concerned, for the floor to be 

 of a light colour. A good kind of waterproof flooring can be 

 made of cement-concrete. I am indebted chiefly to the kindness 

 of the Rugby Portland Cement Company and to that of the 

 Croft Granite and Cement Company for the following details 

 of its construction. 



Concrete is a form of artificial stone, and consists, as ex- 

 plained in Potter's Concrete, of an "aggregate" and a "matrix." 

 When the aggregate has to serve as a foundation for a floor of 

 paving bricks, granite sets, or similar material, it may, for con- 

 venience or economy, be made of broken-up fire bricks ; but 

 when it has to form a part of the floor of a stable, it should 

 consist of hard, tough stones, which should have a rough 

 surface to enable the subsequently applied matrix (cement) to 

 firmly adhere to it. If pebble (kidney) stones be used, they 

 should be broken, and their fractured surfaces placed upwards. 

 In all cases for the purposes under consideration, Portland 

 cement is the best matrix. Cement-concrete may be employed 

 in situ (to use the trade expression), or in slabs. Situ 

 flooring is the cheaper of the two, but is not so resistant 

 to wear as these slabs, especially when they have been 

 stored for a year or more after having been manufactured. 

 In these slabs the aggregate may consist of granite chips, 

 which should be from ^ to J^ in. in thickness and width. 

 The aggregate should be washed, so as to free it from all 

 adherent earth or other matter which might impair the strength 

 of the concrete. For a situ floor, we may lay down a founda- 

 tion 4 in. thick of hard stones ; the larger ones, which may 

 have a diameter of from 2 to 3 in., being placed at the bottom 

 of the bed and kept apart by smaller stones put between them. 

 We may then pour over this foundation, thin cement (in the 



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