Imatges de pàgina
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employed by the horse in choosing his food by the sense of smell, he chooses his food at pleasure from a low rack, whereas he is first obliged to pull it out of the high one before he knows he is to like what he pulls. He is less fatigued eating out of a low than from a high rack, every mouthful having to be pulled out of the latter, from its sloping position, by the side of the mouth turned upwards. For this reason mown grass is much more easily eaten out of a low than a high rack. And, lastly, I have heard of peas falling out of the straw, when pulled out of a high rack, into an ear of a horse, and therein setting up a serious degree of inflammation.

1394. The front rail of the low rack should be made of strong hardwood, in case the horse should at any time playfully put his foot on it, or bite it when groomed. The front of the rack should be sparred, for the admission of fresh air among the food, and incline inwards at the lower end, to be out of the way of the horses' fore-feet. The bottom should also be sparred, and raised at least 6 inches above the floor, for the easy removal of the hay seeds that may have passed through the spars. The manger should be placed at the near end of the rack, for the greater convenience of supplying the corn. A spar of wood

should be fixed across the rack from the front rail to the back wall, midway between the travis and the manger, to prevent the horse tossing out the fodder with the side of his mouth, which he will sometimes be inclined to do when not hungry. The ring through which the stall collar-shank passes, is fastened by a staple to the hardwood front-rail. I have seen the manger, in some new steadings, made of stone, on the alleged plea that stone is more easily cleaned than wood after prepared food. I do not think wood more difficult of being cleaned than stone, when cleaned in a proper time after being used. As ploughmen are proverbially careless, the stone manger has perhaps been substituted on the supposition that it will bear much harder usage than wood; or perhaps the proprietors could obtain stone cheaper from their own quarries than good timber from abroad: but whatever may have been the reasons for preferring stone in such a situation, it has a

clumsy appearance and feels uncomfortable, and is injurious to the horses' teeth when they seize it suddenly in grooming, and even work-horses will bite any object when groomed; and I suppose that stone would also prove hurtful to their lips when collecting their food at the bottom of the manger.

1395. The best hind-posts of travises are of cast iron, rounded in front, grooved in the back as far as the travis-boards reach, and run with lead at the lower ends into stone blocks. These posts are most durable and able to withstand the kicks of the horses, some of whom always strike out when groomed. When wooden posts are used, they are fastened at the upper ends to battens stretching across the stable from the ends of the couple legs where there is no hay-loft, and from the joists of the flooring where there is, and sunk at the lower ends in stone blocks placed in the ground. The head-posts are divided into two parts, which clasp the travis-boards between them, and are kept together with screw-bolts and nuts, and their lower ends are also sunk into stone blocks. Their upper ends are fastened to the battens or joists when the hind-posts are of wood. The travis-boards are put endways into the groove of the hind-post, and pass between the two divisions of the head-post to the wall before the horses' heads; and are there raised with a sweep so high as to prevent the horses putting their heads over it.

1396. The floor of all stables should be made hard, to resist the action of the horses' feet. That of a work-horse stable is usually causewayed with small round stones, imbedded in sand, such as are to be found on the land or on the sea-beach. This is a cheap but not good mode of paving. Squared blocks of whinstone (trap rock, such as basalt, greenstone, &c.) an swer the purpose much better. Flags make a smoother pavement for the feet than either of these materials, and they undoubtedly make a floor that can be kept quite clean, as the small stones are apt to retain the dung and absorb the urine around them, which, on decomposition, cause filth and a constant annoyance to horses. To avoid this inconvenience in a great degree, it is advisable to form the

gutter behind the horses' heels of hewn freestone, containing a continuous channel, along which the urine runs easily, and all filth is completely swept away with the broom. This channel should have a fall of at least 1 inch to the 10 feet of length. But pavement makes too smooth a floor for a work-horse stable; and the feet of work-horses are apt to slip upon. it: causewaying is therefore better for such a stable. The causeway on both sides should incline towards the gutter, the rise in the stalls being 3 inches in all. In some stables, such as those of the cavalry and of carriers, the floor of the stalls rise much higher than 3 inches; and on the Continent, particularly in Holland, I have observed it to be considerably more than in any stables in this country. Some veterinary writers say that the position of the feet of the horse imposed by the rise, does not throw an injurious strain on the back tendons of the hind legs.* This may be, but it cannot be denied that, in this position, the toes are raised above the heels much higher than on level ground. I admit that a rise of 3 inches is necessary in stalls in which geldings stand, as they eject their water pretty far on the litter; but in the case of mares, so great a rise is unnecessary. It is indisputable that a horse always prefers to stand on level ground, when he is free to choose the ground for himself, and much more ought he to have level ground to stand on in a stable, which is his place of rest. It is no argument in this case to call for instances in which the horse has been lamed by standing in a stall having a great declivity; for the question is, not whether or not the horse can be rendered lame, in any degree or in any way, but how to afford the greatest ease, and even comfort, to the work-horse while in the stable.

1397. Fig. 105 gives a view of the particulars of a stall for work-horses, fitted up with wooden travis-posts, which is yet the common method: a a are the strong hind-posts; bb, the head-posts, both sunk into the stone blocks c c c c, and fastened to the battens dd, stretching across the stable from the wall e to the opposite wall; ff, the travis-boards, let into the posts a a by grooves, and passing between the two divi

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decay by keeping them above the action of the litter; h is the sparred bottom of the hay-rack, the upper rail of which holds the ring i for the stall collarshank; k the corn-manger or trough; the bar across the rack, to prevent the horse tossing out the fodder; m the pavement within the stall; n the freestone gutter for conveying away the urine to one end of the stable; o the pavement of the passage behind the horses' heels; p are two parallel spars fastened over and across the battens, when there is no hay-loft, to support trusses of straw or hay, to be given as fooder to the horses in the evenings of winter, to save the risk of fire in going at night to the straw-barn or hay-house with a light.

* Stewart's Stable Economy, p. 17.

1398. I think it right also to give a figure of a stall, furnished with cast-iron hind-posts, as in fig. 106.

Fig. 106.

A STALL WITH CAST-IRON HIND-FOSTS.

1399. The roof of a work-stable should always be open to the slates, and not only so, but have openings in its ridge, protected by ventilators, fig. 81; and such are absolutely necessary for a work-horse stable. It is distressing to the feelings to inhale the air in some farm stables at night, particularly in old steadings economically fitted up, which is not only warm from confinement, moist from breathing, and stifling from sudorific odours, but cutting to the breath, and pungent to the eyes, from the volatilisation of ammonia. The windows are seldom opened, and can scarcely be so by disuse. The roof in such a stable is like a suspended extinguisher over the half-stifled horses. This evil is still further aggravated by a hayloft, the floor of which is extended over and within a foot or less of the horses' heads. Besides its inconvenience to the horses, the hay in it, through nightly roasting and fumigation, soon becomes dry and brittle, and contracts a disagreeable odour. The only remedy for all these inconveniences is complete ventilation.

1400. Ventilation.-The object of ventilation, to any apartment which constitutes the abode of animals, is to procure a constant supply of air in sufficient purity to

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meet the demands of the animal economy. The practice that has long prevailed, as regards ventilation, seems to deny its utility, and to doubt the injury accompanying its neglect. "It is upwards of eightand-forty years," says Stewart, "since James Clarke of Edinburgh protested against close stables. He insisted they were hot and foul, to a degree incompatible with health, and he strongly recommended that they should be aired in such a manner as to have them always cool and sweet. Previous to the publication of Clarke's work, people never thought of admitting fresh air into a stable; they had no notion of its use. In fact, they regarded it as highly pernicious, and did all they could to exclude it. In those times the groom shut up his stable at night, and was careful to close every aperture by which a breath of fresh air might find admission. The keyhole and the threshold of the door were not forgotten. The horse was confined all night in a sort of hot-house; and, in the morning, the groom was delighted to find his stable warm as an oven. did not perceive, or did not notice, that the air was bad, charged with moisture, and with vapours more pernicious than moisture. It was oppressively warm, and that was enough for him. He knew nothing about its vitiation, or about its influence upon the horses' health. In a large crowded stable, where the horses were in constant and laborious work, there would be much disease,-glanders, grease, mange, blindness, coughs, and broken wind would prevail, varied occasionally by fatal inflammation. In another stable, containing fewer horses, and those doing little work, the principal diseases would be sore throats, bad eyes, swelled legs, and inflamed lungs, or frequent invasions of the influenza. But every thing on earth would be blamed for them before a close stable." Moreover, he observes, "The evils of an impure atmosphere vary according to several circumstances. The ammoniacal vapour is injurious to the eyes, to the nostrils, and the throat. Stables that are both close and filthy are notorious for producing blindness, coughs, and inflammation of the nostrils; these arise from acrid vapours alone. They are most common in those dirty hovels where the dung and urine are allowed to accumulate for weeks together. The air of a stable may be con

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taminated by union with ammoniacal vapour, and yet be tolerably pure in other respects. It may never be greatly deficient in oxygen; but when the stable is so close that the supply of oxygen is deficient, other evils are added to those arising from acrid vapours. Disease, in a visible form, may not be the immediate result. The horses may perform their work and take their food, but they do not look well, and they have not the vigour of robust health; some are lean, hidebound, having a dead dry coat, some have swelled legs, some mange, and some grease. All are spiritless, lazy at work, and soon fatigued. They may have the best of food, and plenty of it, and their work may not be very laborious, yet they always look as if half starved, or shamefully overwrought. When the influenza comes among them, it spreads fast, and is difficult to treat. Every now and then one or two of the horses become glandered and farcied."

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of 625 lbs., or it would heat 1 lb. of water 87,528 degrees. It would consume, at the same time, the enormous quantity of 330,429 cubic inches of oxygen, or 1914 cubic feet of this gas; and as this amounts to one-fifth of the atmospheric air, we find that a cow, consuming 6 lbs. of carbon for respiratory purposes, would require 9561 cubic feet of atmospheric air, a sufficient indication of the immense importance of a free ventilation in cow-houses, and of the danger of over-crowding,if the animals are expected to retain a healthy condition."*

1402. Here are data furnished of the quantity of air required to be admitted into a byre, for the necessary use, daily, of a single cow of ordinary size. How, then, is this large quantity of fresh air to be admitted into a byre, when all the doors and windows are shut? This question involves and presupposes another, namely, How is as large a quantity of vitiated air to be expelled from the byre?-for this must first take place ere a ventilation through the byre can be maintained. The popular notions, however, regarding ventilation are very indefinite; as Mr Stewart observes, "Most people do not imagine. that one set of apertures is required to carry away the foul, and another to admit the pure air. Even those who know that one set cannot answer both purposes in a perfect manner, are apt to disregard any provision for admitting fresh air. They say there is no fear but sufficient will find its way in somehow, and the bottom of the door is usually pointed to as a very good inlet. It is clear enough, that while air is going out, some also must be coming in, and that if none go in, little or none can go out. To make an outlet without any inlet betrays ignorance of the circumstances which produce motion in the air. To leave the inlet to chance, is just as much as to say that it is of no consequence in what direction the fresh air is admitted, or whether any be admitted. The outlets may also serve as inlets; but then they must be much larger than when they serve only one purpose, and the stable, without having purer air, must be cool or cold. When the external atmosphere is colder than that in the stable, it enters at the bottom of the door, or it passes through the lowest apertures, to supply and fill the * Thomson's Researches into the Food of Animals, p. 113-114.

1401. In order to show in a striking light the necessity there exists of using means to promote ventilation in all places occupied by animals, it may, perhaps, be done in the best manner by stating the estimated quantity of air which is vitiated every day by a cow of ordinary size. Dr Robert D. Thomson, after showing that the large quantity of carbon, 6,172 lbs., daily taken by a cow in its food, is employed for a purpose totally distinct from proper nutrition, proceeds to say,-"We are at present acquainted with only one other purpose for which the carbon of the food can be employed, viz., the generation of animal heat throughout the body, a function undoubtedly carried on, not only in the lungs, but also throughout the entire capillary system of the skin, at least in man and perspiring animals. If this view be correct, then it follows that upwards of 6 lbs. of carbon are expended by a cow daily in the production of animal heat. And as 1 lb. of carbon, when combined with the necessary amount of oxygen to form carbonic acid, gives out as much heat as would melt 104.2 lbs. of ice, it is evident that the quantity of ice capable of being melted by the heat generated by a cow, in one day, would amount to upwards

place of that which is escaping from the high apertures. If there be no low openings, the cooler air will enter from aboveit will form a current inwards at the one side, while the warmer air forms another current, setting outwards at the other side. But when the upper apertures are of small size, this will not take place till the air inside becomes very warm or hot.”* So little do many people see the necessity of ventilation, that they cannot distinguish between the warm air and the foul air of a stable; and, consequently, if the admission of fresh air is wanted to expel the foul, they immediately conclude it must be cold, and do harm. Now, it is the proper action of ventilation to let away all, and no more of the warm air of a stable, than what is foul, and then, of course, no more than the same quantity of fresh air can find its way into it.

vided with a covering of perforated plates of zinc; and should the current be still too strong, let it strike against a board fastened to the wall, and so placed as to cause the air to be reflected upwards before it descends. Experience will soon adjust the various parts of the means of ventilation to their proper relative proportions.

1404. The windows of steadings should be of the form for the purpose they are intended to be used. On this account the windows of stables, and of other apartments, should be of different forms. I have already given the forms of those for

b

Fig. 107.

a

b

A STABLE WINDOW.

byres, &c., in figs. 77 and 78. Fig. 107 represents a window for a stable. The opening is 4 feet in height by 3 feet in width. The frame-work is composed of a dead part a, of 1 foot in depth, 2 shutters bb to open on hinges, and fasten in

1403. A ready means of letting out the foul air from a stable, is by a number of ventilators, such as is described at fig. 81, situate on the ridge of the roof; and one means of admitting fresh air below, is by the windows when they are open; but when they are shut, other means must be supplied. As doors and windows are usually situated in farm-stables, the fresh side with a thumb-catch, and c a glazed air should not be allowed to enter by them sash 2 feet in height, with 3 rows of through the night; they should therefore panes. The object of this form of winbe made tight. Fresh air coming directly dow is, that generally a number of small from the doors or windows towards the articles are thrown upon the sole of a nostrils of a horse, must pass either over work-horse stable window, such as shorthis body, or first strike against his limbs ends, straps, &c., which are only used in either case doing more injury than good. occasionally, and intended to be at The fresh air should come in near the hand when wanted. The consequence horses' nostrils, where it is really required of this confused mixture of things, which to be breathed in. An opening through it is not easy for the farmer to prevent, the head wall of the stable, a few feet especially in a busy season, is, that when above the horse's head, seems the most the shutters are desired to be opened, it is 'convenient and proper place for the air to scarcely possible to do it without first find its way. For the supply of every clearing the sole of every thing; and, horse alike, an opening should be made rather than find another place for them, above the head of each horse; and being the window remains shut. A cupboard in so numerous, they should be small. I a wall suggests itself for containing such cannot particularise the size, as that must small articles; but in the only wall, depend on many circumstances, the namely, the front one of the stable, in number of horses, contents of the stable, which it would be convenient to make tightness of the doors and windows, and such a cupboard, its surface is occupied suchlike. The air, on entering, being by the harness hanging against it; and colder than that in the stable, will fall besides, no orders, however peremptory, downwards, and so retard the velocity of will prevent such articles being at busy its entrance; the openings should be pro- times thrown upon the window-soles; and * Stewart's Stable Economy, pp. 35, 43, and 51.

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