Notes on Cart Horses. 
323 
horses unshod upon the roads in this country, and also upon 
many farms in foreign lands. Should any injurious conse- 
quences arise from using horses without shoes, there would be a 
per contra side of the account in the avoidance of many injuries 
now resulting from neglect and carelessness on the part of 
shoeing-smiths. 
In a recent report of the Paris Omnibus Company it is stated 
that the best results have been obtained from putting as little 
iron under the feet as possible, and keeping the middle of the 
foot intact." As steel lias become so cheap, and has been sub- 
stituted for iron for so many purposes, a question arises whether 
lighter shoes of mild steel would not prove more economical 
than heavier shoes of iron. 
With respect to stables : except during the warm months of 
summer^ my farm-teams are lodged in the stables throughout 
the year. They are removed from the pastures towards the end 
of August or early in September ; after which time, except the 
nights are unusually hot for the season, exposure is sure to 
reduce their condition, — a very dangerous thing at the near 
approach of winter. If the stables are sufficiently large and 
well ventilated, I see no advantage in the common practice of 
turning teams into open yards for the night. Advocates of the 
system maintain that horses thus treated are less liable to cold 
and influenza, but, from my experience, I think this is a matter 
entirely of ventilation and size of the stables. For if a sufficient 
amount of fresh air be admitted, the temperature of the building 
will not be raised to a point liable to endanger the health of the 
animals, or to make them tender. Turning a horse into a yard, 
even when provided with good shelter-sheds, cannot but be 
attended with considerable loss of animal heat. 
Stables, however, cannot be healthy unless the flooring is 
impervious, and the soil, if clay, well drained. The exhala- 
tions from a porous flooring are most injurious ; and the damp 
sucked up and evaporated by the walls, if built of porous 
material, is calculated to produce influenza. 
Alany years ago, when at the stables of a celebrated dealer 
in hunters, at Hendon, Middlesex, the proprietor said to me : 
— " I wish you could tell me, Mr. Howard, how to keep my 
stables dry : I am much troubled with influenza, and have just 
lost another valuable hunter." The stables being upon " Lon- 
don Clay," I advised him to lay a drain around the outside 
of the stables at a depth of 6 inches below the foundations, 
and a corresponding drain right through the centre of the 
block of buildings. The advice was given with a view to 
prevent capillary attraction by the walls, and to cut off the 
subsoil water. This well-known dealer adopted the suggestion, 
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