386 AIR. 



and no openings should be allowed above the racks, through 

 which the hay may be thrown into them ; for they will permit 

 the foul air to ascend to the provender, and also in the act of 

 filling the rack, and while the horse is eagerly gazing upward 

 for his food, a grass seed may fall into the eye, and produce con- 

 siderable inflammation. At other times, when the careless groom 

 has left open the trap-door, a stream of cold air beats down on 

 the head of the horse. 



The stable with a loft over it should never be less than twelve 

 foet high, and proper ventilation should be secured, either by 

 tubes carried through the roof, or by gratings close to the ceil- 

 ing. These gratings or openings should be enlarged or con- 

 tracted by means of a covering or shutter, so that spring, sum- 

 mer, and autumn, the stable may possess nearly the same tem- 

 perature with the open air, and in winter a temperature of net 

 more than ten degrees above that of the external atmosphere. 



A hot stable has, in the mind of the groom, been long connected 

 with a glossy coat. The latter, it is thought, cannot be obtained 

 without the former. 



To this we should reply, that in winter a thin, glossy coat ia 

 not desirable. Nature gives to every animal a warmer clothing 

 when the cold weather approaches. The horse — the agricul- 

 tural horse especially — acquires a thicker and a lengthened coat, 

 in order to defend him from the surrounding cold. Man puts 

 on an additional and a warmer covering, and his comfort is in- 

 creased and his health preserved by it. He who knows any- 

 thing of the farmer's horse, or cares about his enjoyment, will 

 not object to a coat a little longer, and a little roughened when 

 the wintry wind blows bleak. The coat, however, needs not to be 

 su long as to be unsightly ; and warm clothing, even in a cool stable, 

 will, with plenty of honest grooming, keep the hair sufficiently 

 smooth an'l glossy to satisfy the most fastidious. The over-heated 

 air of a lose stable saves much of this grooming, and therefore 

 the idi ' attendant unscrupulously sacrifices the health and safety 

 of t'lie horse. When we have presently to treat of the hair 

 an I skin of the horse, this will be placed in a somewhat difTerent 

 [)oint of view. 



If the stable is close, the air will not only be hot, but foal. 

 The breathing of every animal contaminates it ; and when 

 in the course of the night, with every aperture stopped, it passes 

 again and again through the lungs, the "blood cannot undergo its 

 proper and healthy change ; digestion will not be so perfectly per- 

 formed, and all the functions of life are injured. Let the owner 

 of a valuable horse think of his passing twenty or tv> enty-two 

 out of the twenty-four hours in this debilitating atmosphere ' 

 Nati\rc does wonders in enabling every animal to accommodate 



