Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-01-28
farmers 9epartmeut.
Keep the Stable Floors Clean.

We know divers people who take some
pride in their horses and cattle, Int who are
inyeterate sloyens in their stables Their
racks or managers are made 30 that half the hay
they give their stock is wasted and drawn nnder
their feet. They don't clean their stables once
n week, or a fortnight. We have, indeed
seen stables where valuable animals were kept,
not cleaned out for an entire Winter, and the
heels of the poor beasts stood foot higher
than their fore feet in the latter part of the
season. We once hired barn-a nice. new
" built barn, too-of q man for the Winter ;
and went to put our stock into it, found that
the horse stable sill was more than two feet
above the ground, and the poor beasts had TO
leap that high to get into it, and fall down or
make leap every time they went out of it !;
and also that full eighteen inches Of solid
horse dung had to be thrown out, taking a
man half a day to do it before we could use it,
besides repairing the entrance by bridge that
they could walk in and out upon. We scold-
cd the owner soundly for his lazness-it was
nothing else--and had only answered that he
hadn't time to clean it, and didn't see what
hurt it did the horses y And yet, when We
came to settle with him in the Spring, he want
ed us to pay some dollars extra because We
used part of his barn floor to mix our cut
feed upon, on the plea that in wetting our feed
for mixing, 1t rotted his floor during The Hin
ter His half dozen loads of horse dung
seething, and fermentirg through long hot
Summer, didn't rot the stable floor Oh, no
Just so some folks are constituted.
A stable where stock is kept, should be
cleaned out once a day, at least. and twice is
none too much IN all our stable practice We
clean the stables twice a day, aud shake up the
bedding. let the weather he as it will. On the
floors of our calf and sheep stables We scatter
dry litter When that gets thoroughly soilet
and saturated, we clean it out and supply its
place fresh The ammonia arising from the
stale Of stock i'll the stables becomes, in 6
short time, very offensive to them, as it is tC
ourselves. 1t penetrates their lungs and give
them disease. Its pungency affects their eyes
making them sore and irritable, and lisa posi-
tive injury, to say nothing about the slOven
ness of having stables unc eaa. Cleanliners
indeed, is as necessary to beast as to man
No creature can thrive when fouled and ue
smeared with ordure.
When horses (not mares) and oxen stanC
regularly, holes should be bored through the
floor to let their stales run through OH to muck
below, or into O trench by which it may pas
off and be saved. Otherwise, it remains under
them to make Them uncomfortable when the!
lie down, unless they have bedding enough t
fully absorb it, which is not always conyen
lent Our own plan of stable flooring is II
raise that part on which the animals stan'
twoinches-the thickness Of the plank-aboy
the passage behind, and sloping from the foo
Of the manger back, to give fall of one t
two inches in the distance of six or seven fee
of floor on which they stand, to admit the stal
to pass off readily, as we'll as to let the drop
pings on to the lower level behind them.