House and Garden 
First Floor Plan, Stable of S. Sachs, Esq., Elberon, N. J. 
captive and put him to many various uses, at least 
to house him well; for as a matter of fact badly con¬ 
structed, badly kept, and badly managed stables are 
the contributing cause of most of the illnesses from 
which horses suff er. 
As nine stables out of ten in America are bad in 
these three regards, I am confident in the belief that 
horses are very hardy animals instead of the delicate 
creatures so many think them. That so many of 
them should be able to do hard and continuous work, 
considering the conditions that surround them when 
at home, is really remarkable. Even on the breeding 
farms where it is the business of the proprietors to 
rear fine animals for sale, the stables more frequently 
than not are barns not even fit for the lodgment of 
mules. 
Thi s is the case in Kentucky, even in the blue- 
grass region. In many of the stables there I have 
seen tons of manure that were most valuable for 
fertilization, left in the sta¬ 
ble for no other reason that 
I could fathom than that it 
seemed no one’s business 
to take it away. “Why 
don’t you spread it on the 
pastures or use it on the 
ploughed fields?” I asked 
one gentleman. “Oh, the 
ground does not need it,” 
he replied. I did not like 
to go any further for fear of 
seeming intrusive. Then 
again I did not believe that 
a man who thought tilled 
ground, even in the lime¬ 
stone enriched land of the blue-grass sec¬ 
tion, would not be better for stable manure 
would bother particularly about keeping 
the stable clean. 
Stables should be light, not dark. 1 here 
is a notion as old as the hills that a stable 
should be a dark and somber place. T here 
are those who still hold stoutly to this view. 
Why a stable should be dark and the living- 
room of a human being light, I cannot con¬ 
ceive. Light and air are the great purify¬ 
ing agents. Germs of various kinds multi- 
O o _ 
ply mightily in the dark, while many are 
killed in the light. The only reason that 
is given for a dark stable is that constant 
light in a horse’s eyes is likely to injure 
his organ of sight. I grant that cheerfully. 
Still there is no reason why there should 
not be light without the light shining directly 
into the eyes of the horses. It is as easy 
as possible to place the windows above the 
heads of the horses, and even to shield 
them with shutters that open outward, 
shutters such as are so generally used on seaside 
cottages. 
Ventilation is most important. This should also 
be provided for, however, so that in securing it 
there will not also be draughts either on the body 
or the legs of a horse. To accomplish this is not 
difficult even in the stable of the dry-goods-box 
pattern. 
The one supreme affection of a horse, as has been 
said before, is for its home and it is as little as an 
owner can do to make that home comfortable. 
Cleanliness is an imperative necessity. Without it 
the other things go for nothing. There is no reason 
why a stable should not be as clean as any other part 
of a gentleman’s establishment. And yet this is so 
seldom the case that a man who has visited a stable 
often brings with him to the house odors that are 
unmistakable and entirely objectionable to the sensi¬ 
tive olfactories of the more delicate members of his 
General Plan, Estate at Cornwall-on-Hudson, N. Y. 
238 
