The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-17
HAY RACKS OBSoT, ,ETE

1 HAY RACKS OBSOLETE.
 1 Hayracks are obsolete, the hay being
 fed from the floor these days. Man
 gers and troughs should be interchange able, to admit taking out, scrubbing and summing. There should be abundance of water, not standing to be fouled,
 but fed from buckets (used for no other purDose). and especially should horses be watered the last thing at night For working horses use the clock feeding system instead Of feeding a horse and then jumping him into the shafts before his mouth is empty. Hay should not be kept over the stable when there is facil- ity for keeping it elsewhere, as it ac- cumulates odor like tea or butter. Neither should mems sleeping quarters be above stable where it can be avoid ed; horse does not thrive when sleep ing under the sounding board of a cheap Harlem flat, *.
 1 Stall division should not go to the floor. but an inch. or so should give base ventilation, sending odor upwards, and keeping the feet and legs cool The partitions can otherwise be built solid, and should not be too high to permit the horses to see each other. A stalled horse gets very lonely staring hours at a blank wall, which is enough to drive a strong man to drink or suicide. No wonder the animal makes close friends with a cat, goat, or whatever living thing he can attract for companionship
 Tn other cases the English "baip sepa- ration is good-two blanks dovetailed hung down from rasters by ropes or chains et head or foot, ending a foot and a half from the ground, the upper edge being not less than four feet and a half. These separate horses effectual- ly. and what is more, are apt to cure stall kickers. No stEble has any business to smell unduly strong. If it does, it is rather badly constructed or badly kept, gener- ally the latter. An automobile house should smell worse than q horse stable. The Trouble is that thousands go for building and equipment. and only tens for wages, although 1t must be admitted that with the bulk os help to-day, stable and otherwise, it seems a case of the help getting all he can, and doing as little as he can; fe,old honored princi- pie of taking pride in ones work seems dead and passed. still a good man can made a poor stable healthful and more effective than a poor man can keep perfectly equipped stable, and one is ever reaching for the higher at tribute. Nevertheless, if the horse is thin. lame or generally amiss, look first into stable surroundings, then into tie help. then into the food, not forgetting the realm of perdaisites That, how ever, is another story. Food should be , varied. Not oats and hay, year in year out, but scores os changes which com mon sense and experience suggest. It is to be regretted that so many horse owners and stablemen get into a rut. They have been accustomed to do things this or that way for so long that change never occurs to them. and, what is worse still, when any idea is brought to their notice they take 1t as direct insult, possibly as reflect ing upon the lack of thought which they acknowledge. but none the less resent.
 Just at present there seems to be A tremendous leaning to English ideas. and while many of these are good, the result of long years of practical exper- fence around horses of all degrees, it must be remembered, when adapting these items, that there is a tremendous difference in climatic surroundings Tn England there is not the great differ enee between the extremes of heat and cold which we get here, and the transi- tions are not so rapid or so marked, The weather one awakes to in England is likely to exist all day in the majori- ty of eases, and rare indeed is any vio- lent change.
 Columns could he written upon this subject. but here it is only possible to give bare hints on few of the more important points. If the stable under consideration is private one, out of the city, personal supervision will do much, even if it only be the supervision of an amateur who looks wise, keeps his mouth shut, and uses his common sense before he speaks. If it is 8 city stable. the difficulties increase, especially if a public stable. The help is overworked and underpaid: in some cases tips will bring what is desired. in other cases tf2fs are simply water poured down a rat hole. It is disheartening to say that in 90 per cent. of the public stables the individual horse does not get more than 40 per cent. of the care, attention or consideration due to him, and the consequence is that, except in the cases of the more robust, he does not do we'll or look well; he is tender, nervous and cratic. for reasons which need not be gone into here. As to his grooming. look at the underslSirts of your riding coat. at the under edge of the lady's habit skirt. It is written in letters of Filth!-New York Evening Post.
 GREAT COST OF WARD LEADERS.
 Boss Durham's compact and pre- datorV 0rRa anizs tion ie c,,hord;,o+.1-.