These consist of loose boxes; of apartments for provender and litter; of a sleeping chamber for the stable-man; a harness-room; a yard, or shed, for grooming and exercise; and a water-pond. Of the construction, size, situation, and arrangement of these, I have little to say. My principal object is to consider them in relation to the health, vigor, safety, and convenience of the horse.

Loose Boxes are merely large stalls, or apartments for one horse, in which he is shut up without being confined by the head. The horse is loose, and hence the name given to these places. They form a very necessary appendage to all stables whether large or small, yet they are too often forgotten in the construction of these buildings. Their utility is unquestionable. In the sickness of inflamed lungs, the madness of brain-fever, and the agony of colic, they confer quietness, repose, and safety. They permit the lame horse to lie down, and to rise easily and often, without the risk of inflicting further injury. For a fatigued horse, there is no place like a loose box. There he can stretch his wearied limbs in ease and quietness. An overtasked hunter will recover his vigor and activity a full day sooner in a loose box than in a stall. Some horses will not lie down when tied by the head, and they soon injure their legs and become unfit for full work. A loose box is the proper place for such a horse.

Then a loose box, when properly contrived, separated from the stable, is a convenient place for a horse having an infectious disease; and it is the safest place for those that obstinately persist in breaking loose.

Loose boxes vary in size from ten to sixteen feet square. They are too small at ten feet, and rather cold at sixteen. It is a very convenient loose box at fourteen feet square. It is better larger than smaller. It should be well paved, the floor inclining a little from all sides toward a grating in the centre. [It is better to have the floor slightly inclining to the back of the stable, and a gutter running its whole length two inches deep and six inches wide, to carry off the urine to a cesspool under cover outside. All the effluvia may be retained in this by throwing charcoal or peat earth into the cess-pool, to the depth of two feet or so, and removing it with the urine when wanted for manure.] The walls should be boarded; the roof should be eight feet from the ground, neither more nor less. There should be a manger for grain or mash, and another for water; and a hay-rack. All these may be rather smaller than those in the stable. They have been objected to in a loose box, as likely to injure the horse. Except when mad with pain or brain-fever, he will take care of himself. The mangers, however, may be made to remove when they are likely to be in the horse's way.

There should be abundance of air and light, admitted by windows and apertures which can be closed, or their size regulated according to circumstances. The windows may have shutters, for light is sometimes objectionable. They may be placed in the roof, or high in the wall, out of the horse's reach. There should also be a small shelf, near the roof, for holding a light, a brush, bandages, or any other little article. A cupboard for clothes, food, medicines, or articles belonging to the sick horse, is convenient, and may help to keep disease from the other horses. The door should be in two pieces, cut across, the largest half at bottom; it should open inward, and be secured by bolts. The entrance may be five feet wide; it need not be wider, and it should not be narrower.

The number of loose boxes required in a large stud, varies greatly according to the kind of work and the kind of management. In well-ordered coaching studs, one to every thirtieth horse is sufficient. In some, double or treble this number could be in constant use; but on such establishments there are seldom more than two for a hundred stalls, and very often- not one. In hunting and in racing stables, one for every third or fourth horse is almost indispensable. They are employed for wintering the racer and summering the hunter.

Their situation in relation to the stables is a matter of some consequence, particularly in large studs. When ranged in a row, one side should abut against the stable or some other building. The boxes are very cold when exposed all round. But they ought, at least some of them ought, to be perfectly separate from the stables, having no communication by which the air may pass from the sick to the sound. The influenza appears almost every year at certain seasons; and there is good reason for believing that, in some of its forms, or in some seasons, it is infectious. The owner of a large stud ought to be prepared for it. If he had a number of loose boxes, or a number of small stables for two horses, he might avert much loss and inconvenience. These small stables or loose boxes need not be unoccupied at any time; and when disease does come, they would afford a quiet place for the sick, where they could not infect the sound. In some sta bles the loose boxes and the stalls are all under one roof. The loose box may be at one end of the stable. When there are four stalls, one of the travises may be made to remove, so that two of the stalls can be thrown into one. This plan answers very well, and it is almost the only plan by which a loose box can be obtained where ground is valuable.

It does well enough for a lame or tired horse, or for one whose work in summer or in winter, demands a month or more of repose. It is also a very good loose box for a sick horse whose sickness has no tendency to spread. But besides this, there ought to be another, quite unconnected with the stable. To that, glanders or influenza may be confined; and having an entrance of its own, it serves for dressing a horse that comes in after stable hours, without disturbing the others.

Some horses are fond of company. They are restless, and do not thrive in solitude. The isolated loose box is not for them, unless the safety of others demand absolute separation. When lame, fatigued, or laid up for rest, their box may be in the stable.

The Hay-Chamber, in towns, and indeed in most parts of the country, is placed above the stable. All the authors who have written on these matters, think that the hay should be kept somewhere else. They say that the horse's breath mingles with the hay and spoils it; that dust and seeds fall through the chinks and openings, and soil the horse or injure his eyes. This is quite true. But it is possible, and very easy to have the hay-loft over the stable, without any danger to the hay or annoyance to the horse. It is only necessary to make the roof of the stable air-tight. It may be lathed and plastered; but it harbors vermin, and that is a strong objection to ceiling. The boards, however, forming the floor of the loft, may be so closely jointed as to be impervious, and a coat of paint or pitch will prevent the moist air from acting on the wood. The openings for putting down hay, and the trap-door for entering the loft, may be abolished, or furnished with close-fitting covers. Upon these conditions the loft may remain where it usually is. In large towns, ground is so valuable that it is hardly possible to have the hay-chamber in any other place, and indeed no better place is required. The hay can be kept dry and clean.

The stable effluvia can not reach it, if there be no communication : when the loft can be entered from. the outside, there is no need either for rack-holes or a trap-door. A hay-crib, if the stable afford room for it, may be placed in one corner, and the daily allowance of hay can be put into it every morning. In the country a hay-loft is of little use when the hay can be cut from the stack every day in such quantises as to serve for twenty-four hours. In this way it is always cleaner and fresher than when kept in a loft.

In towns, the only fault I can find with hay-lofts, besides their communication with the stable, is their size. They are always too small. The length and breadth are limited, but the height seldom is. There should always be some spare room for shaking the dust out of the hay, for taking in an extra supply, for turning it over when in danger of heating, or for storing straw or grain. However roomy, the hay-loft is to contain nothing but food and litter, and not litter unless it be sound and dry. A corner may be boarded up to preserve the hay-seed for use or for sale. The. practice of cutting the hay is becoming pretty common, and it would be more so if people had room. The hay-loft should afford space for the machine and the process. But in large establishments, an apartment adjoining the hay-loft is required. In that the hay is cut, the grain bruised, mixed, weighed, and measured. The loft has little need for windows, but it should have a ventilator, and the door may be so placed as to give all the light required.

The cutting or bruising apartment requires both light and air.

The Straw is sometimes kept in the hay-loft, sometimes in a spare stall. It should not be open to dogs, swine, or poultry; these animals often leave vermin among it, which find their way to the horses.

The Granary is merely a cool and well-aired apartment. And if placed over a stable, the floor should be perfectly close, that the moist air may not pass through. But it is better to have it over a shed or coach-house. Vermin should be carefully excluded.

The Grain-Chest supplies the place of a granary, where only two or three horses are kept. No more grain is purchased at one time than will be consumed in a few weeks, and that is placed in a box, which usually stands in a corner or recess in the stable. In a small stable the grain-chest takes up too much room. It is constantly in the way; and small stables it is occasionally left open or insecurely closed, A horse breaks loose and gorges himself till he is foundered or colicked. It ought to be out of the stable altogether. If placed in the loft, a wooden tube can bring the grain to the stable. The chest may be fixed, and have its bottom sloping like a hopper to the tube by which the grain runs down to the stable. The lower extremity of the pipe may be enclosed in a cupboard, or it may lie against the wall. The grain is obtained by drawing out an iron slide.

The chest may be divided into four compartments; one for oats, one for [shorts or bran, one for Indian corn, one for barley, and one for meal of different kinds.]