304 
The Improved Construction of Stalks. 
and laying in rows, would be from 18s. to 20s., but when drilled 
about 13s. per acre ; the filling into carts is generally done by 
day-work at a cost of 3s. per acre, the unloading and stacking in 
heaps at about Is. per acre. When stored in sheds the cost of 
stacking would not be so much ; covering the heaps with 
straw and earth will cost about bd. per rod if the heaps be 
ploughed round the same as for mangold. 
XIX. — The Improved Construction of Stables. By P. H. Frere. 
The Commission appointed to consider the improvement of our 
Barracks and Hospitals has this year published a Report on the 
Ventilation of Cavalry Stables, which contains suggestions that 
may be profitable to the Agricultural community. 
As formerly disregard, if not wilful neglect, of the sanitary 
requirements of the horse was, perhaps, displayed in its strongest 
colours under military routine, so the influence of systematic 
management in our army may now lead the way in the path of 
improvement. 
The old rule for the construction of cavalry barracks seems to 
have been that the men should be housed over the horses ; the 
buildings were erected in solid blocks, the longer front being 
made up of the ends of the several adjacent stables ; the party- 
walls — the roofs, with their ridges and gutters — and also the line 
of stalls, all ran transversely to a width of about 45 feet ; so that 
some eight stalls were placed in a row, of which the two outer 
alone derived air and light directly from the window placed at 
either end of each compartment. The rooms above hindered 
ventilation through the roof, and air-shafts, if adopted at all, 
offered but an imperfect remedy. The horses generally stood in 
a double row, heel to heel, with a single path up the centre. 
Farm-stables half a century old often exhibit the same prin- 
ciples of construction, roof-ventilation being in them quite 
neglected, even if the building has only one story. 
The defects of this arrangement are clearly indicated by the 
following recommendations of the Commission : — 
1. That the old transverse arrangement of stable be discon- 
tinued. 
2. That in future all troop-stables be built with open roofs and 
ridge-ventilation from end to end. 
3. That the roofs be partially and sufficiently glazed, to afford 
plenty of light. 
4. That in so far as concerns facility of ventilation and super- 
vision the open-roofed stable, having a central passage 14 feet in 
