486 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ November 24, 1881. 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
STABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR HORSES. 
(Continued from, page 462 .) 
It now becomes important to inquire whether the system 
advised yields all the advantages which we require, and which 
was devised for the purpose of maintaining our horses of every 
description required for fast work in full health and condition, 
and capable of the work and exertions expected of them. Many 
of these animals are extremely valuable, and are the pride and 
pleasure of their owners in the hunting field, on the racecourse, 
and for carriages. To fulfil any of these objects the horses must 
be in perfect health, and we can quite understand that many 
of their owners are prepared to incur great expense for the pur¬ 
pose of insuring this, and to obtain stable accommodation, which 
will be not only perfect but pleasing to the eye. 
This brings us to certain important questions. Are the stall 
or box floors laid in the best manner and composed of the best 
material for the horse to stand and lie upon ? Is the foot, which 
is certainly one of the most important parts of the animal, well 
provided for under the system of clinker brick floors, of whatever 
pattern or design ? is this most calculated to maintain it in the best 
possible condition ? We think not, for as the fashion of shoeing 
is now carried out the foot is not only apt to contract and become 
too narrow, but also it becomes too dry and unelastic, and suffers 
from cracks in the hoof, which with the habit of stamping in 
some horses soon’dhrows off the shoe and breaks away the hoof. 
This is for the” most part attributable to the method of shoeing 
now practised,"which is well treated of in an essay on the sub¬ 
ject—“TheiHorse’s Foot, and How to Keep It Healthy,” by 
George Fleming, F.R.C.V.S., Second Life Guards. Mr. Fleming 
observes, “ The evils of ordinary shoeing are due to erroneous 
notions and a desire to make fine work. By the majority of 
farriers the foot of the horse is looked upon as little if anything 
more than an insensible block of horn, which they may carve 
and mutilate with impunity and as suits their fancy. Not con¬ 
tent with rasping or chiselling away the most important and 
essential part of the wall or crust of the foot, the farrier must 
needs, to ‘ finish ’ his work in an artisticlike manner, rasp the 
remaining portion up to the hair, thus removing the smooth dense 
surface, which stands very much in the same relation to the 
hoof that the bark does to a tree. A strange notion also prevails 
among grooms and farriers, that the frog should not touch the 
ground, and if it^does it will cause the horse to go lame ; hence 
they take every care that it shall not do so by paring it away as 
much as possible, or by thickening the heels of the shoe. At the 
same time there is no doubt that the majority of cases of 1 navi¬ 
cular disease ’ and ‘ thrush ’ are more or less directly due to 
paring and preventing the frog reaching the ground.” 
We do not propose to quote more of the excellent and practical 
remarks of Mr. Fleming as to his plan of shoeing, but will refer 
the reader to our article] on the shoeing of farm horses, as given 
in this Journal on the 5th of June, 1879, where the whole of Mr. 
Fleming’s system is stated in detail. We have only quoted a few 
observations from him aR showing how liable the horse’s foot 
must be under the ordinary system of shoeing, not only to con¬ 
traction of the hoof but to its liability to breakage when resting 
upon a hard and impervious floor ; and as the old saying is, “ No 
foot no horse,” it becomes a matter of the first consideration how 
to keep it healthy and equal to daily use. We do not for a 
moment suggest that we can obtain a better impervious floor for 
all purposes including drainage, but we most decidedly object to 
impervious floors, because they do not afford comfortable lying 
for horses, being too cold and hard ; and contend that the ab¬ 
sorbent floors of earth are better, the practice of which was started 
thirty years ago, and the attention of the public was called to it 
by an essay upon the subject, which received a premium at a 
local Agricultural Society’s meeting in a southern county at that 
time. As, however, this system has now been in use for so long a 
period, we can recommend it from our practice as being the 
best for all the requirements of stable management. We give 
our experience, which includes three different arrangements : 
each, however, is based upon the earth-floor system more or less. 
First, the plan of single stalls with earth floor; second, the plan 
of loose box with earth floor; and third, the plan of loose box 
with earth at the bottom, with straw as an accumulation above, 
upon somewhat the same method as usual in accommodating 
fatting bullocks. 
Before entering on the details of our plan of earth flooring, 
as so many persons unacquainted with the power of earth for 
absorbing the urine of animals are doubtful of the capacity of 
earth in such cases, we will first, before stating the result of our 
own experience in this matter, give the scientific opinions of Dr. 
Yoelcker, in an essay from which we quote, given in the Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1859, on the 
changes which liquid manure undergoes in contact with different 
soils of known composition. He states—“ In a paper, ‘ Farmyard 
Manure and the Drainings of Dungheaps,’ published in vol. xviii. 
of this Journal, I communicated the results of two experiments, 
which showed that drainings from dungheaps, in passing: through 
soils of known composition, undergo a series of remarkable and 
important changes. Since the publication of this paper I have 
been actively engaged in following up this interesting inquiry, 
and at the request of the Council of the Royal Agricultural So¬ 
ciety have now the pleasure of laying before the readers of the 
Journal the results of my recent researches on the subject.” A 
series of very important details follows, relating to the power of 
soils to absorb the urine of animals, which we commend to the 
attention of the reader. It is, however, too lengthened a statement 
to appear here. We shall only refer to certain observations made 
by Dr. Voelcker in his papers upon this subject, in order to show 
that science fully recognises the value of earth as the proper 
medium for the reception of all excrementitious matters both 
solid and liquid, and that nothing effects so complete and rapid 
deodorisatiou and disinfection of putrid animal matter of every 
kind as a well-aerated soil. As soils vary in degree as to this 
power, it is a fact that strong and tenacious clays, as well as 
calcareous clays and strong loams, are more adapted than sandy 
or other light soils for absorbing and fixing the ammonia and 
other manuring agents, such as potash and phosphoric acid, by 
not only preventing injury to health of the animals, but retaining 
in the most available state all the manuring elements. 
In proceeding with our subject, taking first stalls for horses 
with earth floors. The earth should be stored away until perfectly 
dry, and made fine so that it will pass through a half-inch sieve 
or screen, and thus enable all extraneous matters, such as sticks 
and stones, to be removed simultaneously. On the home farm we 
make use of an outhouse, shed, or barn now for the storing of 
earth to be manipulated by the workpeople at odd times and in 
wet weather, and thus fully utilise their labour at all times. In 
the adaptation of an ordinary stalled stable we take up the floor 
and excavate the earth to the depth of 18 inches. If in a dry soil 
it needs no concrete at the bottom if the sides are properly pinned 
with brick or concrete, the latter being best. In some instances 
we have merely excavated about 15 inches at the end of the stall 
nearest the manger in depth, because a tethered horse will drop 
its urine so much in one spot that the earth sooner becomes 
saturated in one part, and requires to be removed oftener than 
when a loose box is used. The filling-in of the earth, when per¬ 
fectly fine and dry, should be done carefully by constantly using 
an iron-headed rammer, in order that it maybe made perfectly 
solid for the animal to stand upon; the liquid manure will then 
sink into the earth without making any hollow on the surface, 
but the solid excrement should be removed as in the ordinary 
way and the floor swept as usual. One of the points in the daily 
attention of the groom is that much less straw is required for 
littering the stall than in the case of a brick or stone, concrete, or 
other impervious floor—a matter of no small importance where 
straw is scarce and dear. The floor will then secure good standing 
and lying for the horse ; for although the earth may be rammed 
down firm and solid, yet it is found much better for the horses’ 
feet, not being so liable to throw a shoe as when stamping on a 
