IIKVIEW—STABLE ECONOMY. 
221 
meat of a systematic treatise on such a subject, and by such a 
writer, will induce the majority of our readers to judge of it for 
themselves. 
We extract, at present, one short passage only, on a most im¬ 
portant and strangely misunderstood point of stable manage¬ 
ment :— 
'‘Much of the opposition to ventilation has arisen from an error, 
very common among those who recommend it. They invariably 
confound a hot stable with a foul one. The two words hot and 
foul are seldom separated. The stable is spoken of as if it could 
not be hot without being foul; and the evils which spring only 
from foulness are attributed to heat. Hence, those who happen 
to have a stable warm, or it may be hot, and at the same time 
clean, are very apt to oppose the practice of ventilation. Their 
horses do as well as those in colder stables, and, it may be, they 
do better. One will say, I find the practice of airing stables 
does no good, it is founded upon theory, it won’t stand the test 
of experience. My horses look as well again as those of my 
neighbours over the way, and my stable is like an oven compared 
to his. This may be quite true. To look well, a horse must be 
kept warm; but to be well, fit to do all the work a horse can be 
made to do, he must have pure air. We are not contending, or, 
we should not be contending, against a warm, but against a foul 
stable. In general, it so happens that the air in becoming warm 
also becomes impure. But this is not a necessary consequence. 
Air may be cold, and at the same time quite unfit for breathing; 
and it may be hot, and yet perfectly free from impurity. There 
may be stables in which the atmosphere is perniciously hot, but 
I do not think I have ever seen them. I have not been able to 
trace a disease arising from warm or hot stabling: but every 
year affords innumerable examples of what mischief can be done 
by a foul stable. Of course, these foul stables are always hot; 
but, in my belief, it is the impure, not the heated air from which 
disease arises. Many stables remarkably warm are remarkably 
healthy. It is important to make this distinction. The horse 
can be kept warm without being poisoned with foul air. It is 
so well known among stable-men that warmth is congenial to 
the horse, that it improves his appearance, and gives him greater 
vigour, that it is perfectly useless to offer any opposition to it. 
Practice will always prevail over theory. We ought not to 
oppose warmth, but the means by which warmth is given. The 
horse should be kept comfortably warm, but he must have pure 
air. A cold stable is not so dangerous as a foul one.” 
