JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
530 
[ December 8, 1881. 
Thus the combined action of the water and earth solidifies the 
mass of accumulating manure, and effectually prevents fermen¬ 
tation and the escape of any ammoniacal vapour. In the case 
of the stable to which we have been referring no manure was 
removed for nine months, and it was only removed then be¬ 
cause the dung was required for use on the home farm. In 
order, however, to ascertain how long the accumulation may be 
extended without injury or inconvenience, one box was not 
cleared out until the end of fifteen months, and then only in 
consequence of some of the manure overlapping the threshold, 
causing a nuisance on the white brick pathway. We have no 
evidence to offer as to how long the accumulation may be con¬ 
tinued without injury to the horse. In fact, when carried out as 
we have endeavoured to describe, it is complete in all respects ; 
for the shoeing smith who had shod the horses on the estate for 
upwards of twenty years informed us, that since the manure had 
been allowed to accumulate under the animals their feet were in 
a much better state for shoeing than he had ever seen them at 
any former period. 
It appears very important to inquire, not exactly as to the par¬ 
ticular plan or system best adapted for use generally, but that 
probably each plan would find advocates under the varying cir¬ 
cumstances required for stable accommodation. The plan of 
impervious floors seems admirably adapted for horses in a large 
town, because the difficulty of obtaining prepared earth would 
tell against the use of it. The disposal of both liquid and solid 
excrement is then of the highest importance, in the same way 
that the sanitary arrangements in towns are requisite for the 
health of the population, without so much reference to the cost 
of it. One way, however, to look at the question as it applies to 
horses is to consider, not only their general health, but the con¬ 
dition of their feet, especially as refers to horses engaged in 
tramway work and cab horses. These have to travel almost 
continuously upon the hardest roads, and the necessity of keeping 
the feet of the horses in an elastic and healthy condition is im¬ 
perative to prevent serious losses ; in fact, the reports of the 
managers of the tramway and omnibus companies point out the 
enormous waste of horse power in consequence of the hard stone 
surfaces they have to travel upon. Horses also frequently suffer 
in their general health when kept in stables with hard impervious 
floors, and from these two circumstances alone the average dura¬ 
tion of use of these animals is shortened by at least two years. 
More especially is this the case under the system and circum¬ 
stances arising from the prevailing style and manner of shoeing 
the horses it becomes of the highest importance. As securing 
space for boxes in large establishments would be costly and diffi¬ 
cult, it then becomes a question of earth-floored stalls, which may 
be carried out in most towns by contracting for the supply of 
prepared earth and the removal of the same after its use and 
conversion into manure. The saving of straw litter is an impor¬ 
tant consideration, as at least it would amount to one-half. 
The use and advantages of loose boxes with earth floors applies 
in a forcible manner to all establishments where space and the 
cost can be afforded, especially as regards hunters, hacks, and 
carriage horses. But for these the question of shoeing must 
again be considered ; for although the feet will be more elastic 
and in better condition in consequence of the earth floor, yet 
it is quite impossible for accidents to be avoided either in hunting 
or in road-work. When the frog is cut away, as is done in 
fashionable shoeing, irreparable injury frequently occurs through 
wounds inflicted by the short spear-like stumps of underwood in 
the fences and woodlands. Horses on the roads are often thrown 
on their knees through a stone becoming jammed between the 
excavated frog and the shoe, whereas in the system of shoeing 
advocated by Mr. Fleming the defence of the sole of the foot 
formed by Nature is left perfect, preventing accidents such as 
described. This matter is of so much importance that we cannot 
refrain from quoting Mr. Fleming’s observations on the point. 
He says, “ This natural thickness of the sole and frog-horn is an 
absolutely essential condition for the maintenance of the foot in 
health and its protection from injury ; and in proportion as it is 
detached by the farrier’s knife, so the foot will suffer. Not only 
does the soled horn play a most important part in protecting the 
sensitive parts it covers from injury, but the semi-detached flakes 
it is always throwing off renders great service by acting as so 
many spring shields when the horse puts his sole on stones or 
hard unlevel ground, and also by retaining moisture. They are, 
in fact, a kind of ever-present and natural ‘stopping,’ which 
keeps the horn beneath moist and supple ; every flake on sole 
and frog therefore is valuable.” In again noticing the loose box 
with earth floor and its advantages, although the horses’ feet will 
be found in better and more elastic condition, yet they will at 
certain times require the usual stopping as when standing on 
impervious floors. 
Our third and last system of accumulating manure in the loose 
box offers all the advantages required in stable reform. The feet 
of the horses will always be sufficiently moist without the use of 
stopping, as evidenced by the experience of the shoeing smith 
before stated. If, therefore, the present style and method of 
shoeing is persisted in, considerable alterations in stable accom¬ 
modation and management must be carried out in order to pre¬ 
vent the serious losses to which valuable horses will always he 
subject without a practical reform is adopted, particularly as 
regards details of management. We have known farmers who, 
in the case of accumulation of manure in the loose boxes, have 
failed in securing a firm footing for the horses in consequence of 
using too much straw and too little earth and water. In our 
experience, however, the mass of manure when cleared out has 
always been found so firm and solid that it could not be removed 
by a prong in the ordinary way, but was cut into squares for the 
purpose by the use of a hay-knife. Although the detail of the 
plans we have proposed are actually more simple and less trouble 
to the grooms or stable-keepers than any former plan, yet their 
prejudices and predilections have in many instances proved a bar 
to any alteration, and in consequence gentlemen have been often 
induced to yield to their grooms in this respect. While it is the 
custom to introduce racing horses for use at the age of two or 
three years old their feet are only growing, or at least not fully 
developed, we can understand the evil effects produced by the 
narrow and contracted feet, and can estimate the large number 
which prematurely break down; or, from the feet being unable to 
perform their proper office, the legs and feet become subject to 
splints, side-bones, and ring-bone. Under the present system 
horses are often ruined before ihey reach the age of five years, 
at which time they ought practically to have only just become 
fully developed. Very few men interested in the welfare of horses 
will yield to any description from us or others g,s to the possibility 
or advantage of change in their horse management, because they 
have not seen it carried out and experienced the results, and 
amongst the most prejudiced we must include the shoeing smith 
or farrier. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Iforsa Labour .—This will consist of ploughing and sowing Wheat 
up to the hurdles where sheep have been feeding off Turnips and 
Rape, but the ploughing and sowing should be done simultaneously, 
because at this time of year we either have night frosts or rain ; in 
either case if the sowing is delayed after ploughing it never does so 
well again. In this case we find the one-horse drill which we use 
exceedingly convenient, because the land can be seeded close to the 
plough ; and at this time of year we drill 3 bushels of seed per acre, 
for the plant has many enemies to contend with at this season, the 
larks and pigeons in particular, but rooks also. The rains have been 
abundant lately, but will not prevent, when not engaged in ploughing 
and seeding for Wheat, the fallo.v-ploughing of land for next year’s 
root crops, which may be continued until finished. In case, howmver, 
the horses should be unable to work on the land, carting gravel, X-c., 
for road repairs should now be done. At the same time men should 
be employed on taking off the sides of the private farm roads and 
filling into carts to be drawn to heaps either for future use in the 
cattle pens, &c., or otherwise heaped for mixture with manure from 
the farmyard to be laid out on the pasture or i ark land, this mixture 
being especially valuable for all kinds of grass land, particularly 
after the mixture has been effect'' 1 ' and properly turned and decayed 
in the heap. The advantage of paring off the sides of the farm roads 
and making out the water tables is great, for much less gravel is 
required for repairs when the roads are formed so as to throw off 
the water quickly. Carting earth from the cld heaps and placing in 
the cattle pens and also at the bottom of the fold yards for sheep or 
young cattle should now be done, and the manure allowed to accumu¬ 
late thereon. We have always converted 150 cartloads of earth 
annually in this way, for when earth is placed under the dung it does 
