STABLING AND STABLES 



Coach-houses should be arranged to comfort- 

 ably accommodate the number and sort of vehicles 

 intended to be kept there, allowing room to move 

 about them easily. Not a few such buildings are 

 just too large or too small, — too big for three, 

 too small for four ; and in the same way many 

 washstands are built too short and narrow. 



Stone or brick stables need plastering or sheath- 

 ing to guard against damp, and both walls and 

 ceilings must be covered for this reason ; in our 

 climate nothing equals a wooden stable, and it is 

 always drier, cooler, and warmer than the others, 

 if double-boarded, sheathed, and clapboarded. 

 Brick or cement floors may answer in the coach- 

 house, where there is generally a fire in winter, 

 but they are always dangerous as likely to be 

 slippery. Horses often plunge at starting, and 

 they fall on such floors. 



The coach-house exposure should always be 

 southern or western, as insuring ample heat from 

 the sun, and insuring rapid drying of vehicles and 

 linings. 



All modern forms of drainage and ventilation 

 are good, if they are attended to properly by the 

 stablemen. This is however rarely the case, and 

 it has proved in practice that the more scientific 



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