20 RANCHING IN THE CANADIAN WEST 



boards, if lumber is to be used, are nailed on to 

 the framework perpendicularly, and 3-inch battens 

 put on outside to cover the joints. The interior 

 fittings should be simpHcity itself. No flooring- 

 boards are necessary, as the earth soon gets beaten 

 hard by the horses' feet, and the animals are inured 

 to the inclemency of winter, and only require a little 

 bedding of hay during the colder months. Single 

 stalls, as we know them in this country, are 

 seldom met with in the West, unless one may be 

 occasionally rigged up temporally for the accom- 

 modation of a nervous, restive broncho, to prevent 

 his doing damage to the horse next him. 



Team-stalls — that is, accommodation for two 

 horses — are formed by the simple device of digging 

 post-holes in the ground, where necessary, beneath 

 the ridge-log of the roof, and placing pine-poles in 

 them, the other ends of which are spiked to the 

 ridge-log overhead, so that each team or each pair of 

 saddle-horses has a stall to itself. 



With a few feet of 2 by 4 scantling and 1 by 3 

 rough lumber a serviceable hay-manger can be con- 

 structed down the whole length of the side of the 

 building opposite to that in which the door is placed, 

 and strong boxes should be firmly fixed at intervals, 

 according to the accommodation, from which to 

 feed oats to the horses. 



