140 HOW TO STABLE 



or "grease," as one of the most baneful, as it is the mcist 

 disgraceful to the groom and stable-master, — has itsoiigin. 

 Lastly, it should be perfectly well lighted, as well as thor- 

 oughly aired, since it is not only cruel to animals, which 

 are of a gay, cheerful and sociable nature, to keep them 

 constantly in the dark, and not only depresses their spir- 

 its, and thus injures their animal health, but it is a frequent 

 cause of blindness. To keep an animal continually in al- 

 most total darkness, as is the case in many city stables and 

 in most country fiirmiag stables, occasionally bringing him 

 out to do his work, with no protection to his eyes, in the 

 full glare and blaze of an American summer or winter, 

 sunlight, must naturally and necessarily tend to produce 

 blindness. 



It is not too much to say that, on nine-tenths of the farm- 

 steads of America, excepting always those of a few model 

 farms, and what may be called show agricultural establish- 

 ments, the property of wealthy amateurs, the stables are a 

 disgrace to common sense and common humanity ; and 

 for the most part are unfit to be used as pig-styeSj much 

 less for the dwelling of so noble, so intelligent, so cleanly 

 an animal, and one so acutely sensitive to all impurities of 

 air, food or water, as the horse. 



In the first place, a stable should never be under ground, 

 wholly or in part ; in the second, it should be, invariably, 

 underdrained, with a suf&cient fall to the drains, and with 

 a grating, or perforated slate or flag-stone in the middle ol 

 each stall, to which the floor, of whatever substance it ia 

 composed, should descend on all sides, with a grade not to 

 exceed an inch to the yard. The expense of this work may 

 seem, to an unthrifty and thoughtless farmer, useless and su- 

 pererogatory ; but, supposing him to work three cr more 

 horses of the first cost value of $100 to $150 each, and sup- 

 posing that these horses last him twice as long, are not hali 



