346 [Assembly 



(luring which time they have never been depastured, and have work- 

 ed daily; they have never been incapacitated for work by lameness, 

 or disease of any kind, and have always been perfectly sound and 

 healthy. If driven through Broadway, New- York city, they would 

 attract general attention. I have another pair of sorrels that are 

 18 years old, which labor daily, and will do as much work as any 

 pair of six years old in the town in which I reside. Dr. Hosack, 

 when he died, left a horse 28 years old, which I have frequently 

 seen, and which was a very pretty animal, and would have passed 

 for a middle age horse to any casual observer. Mr. Youatt quotes 

 the record of a horse that received a ball in his neck at the battle 

 of Preston, in 1715, which was extracted at his death, in 1758; he 

 was, consequently, 43 years old. 



I have made the following rules for my ow^n governance: 



1st. The stable in which horses are kept should have a southern 

 exposure. The ground ought to slope gradually from it, to carry 

 off the moisture. It should be kept perfectly dry, as dampness is 

 exceedingly detrimental to horses, and will engender humourous 

 diseases. 



2d. The stable valuable for carriage or race horses, should never 

 contain more than five stalls, and a sixth one ought always to be 

 constructed of greater size for one of them if somewhat indisposed. 

 If particularly sick, he should be removed; as contagion might be 

 imparted to the others. If a stable contains a number of stalls, 

 when five or six horses are on duly, the temperature would be so 

 changed as to endanger the health of those remaining. 



3d. The stalls should be five feet six inches wide, and always ar- 

 ranged on one side, instead of being placed opposite each other, 

 with an alley between, as is usual, for the reason that horses ought 

 not to breathe each other's breath. The carbonic acid gas exhaled, 

 would be detrimental to each other, and if one should happen to be 

 diseased, the others might, by constantly inhaling his breath, become 

 infected. 



4th. Stone floors should on no account be used in stables, for the 

 reason that they are exceedingly cold, and apt to induce catarrhs, 

 besides being slippery in winter, causing falls, and often injuring 

 limbs. Three inch pine or square plank, tongued and grooved, 

 should be laid perfectly level, after which a slight gradual slope 

 may be planed, leading to the centre, where a grating of iron bars, 



