HABITATIONS 281 



secure all that is available, so that apart from the question 

 of ventilation considered in an earlier chapter, the windows 

 as a lighting medium of all places intended for the housing 

 of animals, is a most important point to attend to. 



We have recommended the Sheringham window or any 

 working on this principle (see p. 68), but at all costs 

 windows or lighting must be secured. It is just as essential 

 for cow houses as for stables, even, if possible, more so, for 

 the city cow never moves out of her stall, while the cab 

 horse spends ten hours a day in the open. But all must 

 have it ; the loathsome condition of some cab stables defies 

 description, lighted up by a gas jet even in the daytime, 

 the atmosphere so irritating that it brings tears into the 

 eyes, hot, damp, muggy, filthy, with no inlet or outlet other 

 than the door, while if a window exists its broken pane is 

 sure to be covered up with a piece of sacking. 



Of this type of stable thousands exist in our large cities ; 

 no wonder the life of a cab or small proprietor's horse is a 

 short one. The extraordinary thing is that the animal's 

 system tolerates such a state of affairs for fourteen hours 

 out of the twenty-four. 



There are many industrial stables underground, the 

 system is a bad one, but cannot be helped in cities where 

 space is difficult to secure and most expensive. 



The lighting and ventilation of such stables is almost 

 waste of time to discuss, the lighting must always be arti- 

 ficial while the ventilation, with probably three more stories 

 of horses overhead, must depend upon local conditions, 

 which generally speaking afford no help, so closely hemmed 

 in is the place by other buildings. Mechanical ventilation 

 is the only thing possible in such cases. 



In the country all this is different, there is no reason 

 why the private stable, or the stable and cow byres of the 

 homestead, should not be both efficiently ventilated and 

 lighted. There is absolutely no excuse, the difficulty here 

 is to overcome the preconceived prejudice of the owner and 

 landlord, and though enlightened farmers and horse owners 

 exist, they are the exception rather than the rule. 



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