Handbook for Light Artillery

by A. B. Dyer

Never use a nail that gives the slightest indication of splitting, a result that may be expected if they be cold-forged.

Always use a hot-forged nail. The Putnam nail, hot-forged, is excellent.

STABLES AND STABLE DUTIES.

Foul air and dampness are the cause of many diseases of the horse; hence the importance and economy of spacious, clean, dry, and well-ventilated stables. Ceilings should be twelve or fifteen feet high, with large ventilators through the roof, and a window or side aperture in each stall, which should be placed well above the horse's eyes. If possible, the building should have no upper story or loft. In stables with a loft, ventilation from the top is always insufficient, and there must be side openings well above the horses, so that the draught will pass over their heads. These openings must never be closed except on the windward side, to keep out rain or snow.

There should be a passageway for feeding in front of the stalls, and so that the horses can look to the right and left. Their heads should never be placed against a partition if it can be avoided.

Double stalls should not be less than 4½ feet by 9 feet to each horse; and single stalls should be 5 feet wide. Stalls 6 feet wide and 10½ feet long are greatly to be preferred. Not less than 1200 cubic feet should be allowed to each horse in the stable.

A picket-line is established in the immediate vicinity of the battery stable, the horses being tied to a hemp or wire rope or chain passed through the picket-posts. There should be shallow trenches behind the horses to carry off rain, the ground on which they stand having just enough slope to let the water run into the trenches, or there may be a single drain in the centre along the line of the picket-posts. Constant attention must be paid to maintaining the ground about the picket-line in good order.

Hut Stables.—Rough sheds with clapboarded roofs are the best; with the litter and some wet earth good walls can soon be constructed around the shed; these walls should be vertical on the inside, but with a good slope toward the outside. Sheds made 30 feet wide can accommodate two rows of horses, their heads being turned toward one another. Plenty of openings must be left for doors by which to remove the horses quickly in case of fire, and drainage must be well attended to. The stalls, or standing-space, should be 5 feet wide and 9 feet long.

An excellent shed can be made under the lee of a bank by erecting forked poles, placing connecting pieces, and laying thereon boards or poles and thatching.