836 PRACTICAL HINTS FOR SHIPPING ANIMALS. 
It is also advisable to have a spare stall here and there to 
he used in case of need, although if the side, front, and rear 
bars are properly made and placed, it is , almost impossible 
for an animal to get injured. Tubular iron of sufficient dia¬ 
meter would make good fittings, from its strength, lightness, 
the ease with which it can be cleaned and disinfected, and 
from its incombustible nature. The mangers also might be 
made of malleable iron, enamelled inside. 
To prevent slipping we used to employ wooden battens on 
the decks, but these were very objectionable and almost 
useless. In China I recommended that the decks of the 
sailing ships should be well covered with sea-sand, and on 
board steamers that the ashes from the engines should be 
used. These answer admirably in many ways, but particu¬ 
larly in preventing slipping, and absorbing the urine, &c. 
Lime should not be used, as it injures the horn of the ani¬ 
mals’ feet. 
The mangers or troughs, when they are attached to the 
front bar, can be rapidly supplied with water by a hose-pipe. 
This saves much time and trouble. 
All fittings should be as simple as possible, and yet strong. 
The side bars of the stalls should be made easy of removal 
when required, so that the animals can be moved up to the 
stalls, and packed in one after another, or moved out in tlie 
same fashion without interfering with the front or rear bars. 
I3y having the front bars also movable any animal can be 
transferred from one compartment to another, should occa¬ 
sion require, without disturbing its neighbours. 
The amount of cubic space to be allowed each animal (be 
it horse or ox) on the main or lower deck is not easily de¬ 
fined ; and even if it were the exigencies of ship transport 
and its expense cannot always be made subordinate to those 
sanitary rules observed in well-managed stables or cow-sheds. 
The duration of the voyage, the season, heat of the weather, 
means of ventilation, &c., should be taken into account. It 
would be well if the space for each animal was never reduced 
to less than 300 cubic feet. 
Besides the ordinary means of ventilation, it is very de- 
. sirable that some accessory method should be introduced to 
be brought into operation when these fail or are diminished; 
as in stormy weather when the hatches are battened down, or 
in sultry weather, or when the ship is not in motion. Fanners 
driven by the engines of the ship, if it be a steamer, would 
answer, I think, for this purpose. 
I always found the damp generated on the main and lower 
rlpclys very injurious to the animals, especially when the tern- 
