lofts. 



66 STABLE BUILDING AND STABLE FITTING. 



doubtful advantage, tending to produce diseases of the hock, 

 by creating a draught along the surface of the floor. 

 Ceilings and Few first-class stables are now constructed without being 

 wholly, or partially ceiled ; and it not only improves the interior 

 in appearance, but contributes largely in keeping the stable at 

 a regular temperature, making it warmer in the winter and 

 cooler in the summer ; in fact, in racing stables, where addi- 

 tional warmth has been required, a false floor has been some- 

 times made and strewn with stubble or straw. 



The space thus created in the roof cannot be considered a 

 good receptacle for the storage of food, if the flooring, being of 

 wood, is not closely jointed and of unshrinking material. It is 

 true facilities are created in such a loft for the free passage of 

 air over the fodder by means of a louvre in the gable at each 

 end, and it would thus be kept in a dry and wholesome condi- 

 tion ; but unless the floor is of concrete, or the ventilation of 

 the stable below complete, the noxious gases would be likely 

 to find their way through an ordinary floor into the upper 

 chamber, as they did in the old system of construction, where 

 there was an open connection with the loft from the stable 

 below. 



The design on Plates 40 and 41 can be partially ceiled, 

 leaving the lantern in the roof open to the stable for its entire 

 length, and although this would reduce the cubic contents 

 nominally from 1 150 to 960 per horse, it would leave the through 

 ventilation by means of the louvres in the gables intact, but in 

 this case it would be improved by the addition of another 

 12 inches to the height. 



General Fitzwygram's design, as shown on Plate 56, may 

 also be either ceiled at the underside of the tie-beam at r, 

 leaving, as he suggests, a longitudinal opening about 3 feet 

 wide, and nearly the whole length of the stable ; or it could be 

 left open to the roof; but in the former case the cubic contents 

 would be largely reduced, though the space between the ceiling 

 and the roof would be left for circulation ; or a ceiling could be 

 attached to the underside of the principal rafters, without 



