Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/688

 mh COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. brushes, pickers, &c., or wooden bins for keeping them in ; and there should be a harness- room, for harness not in common use, with a fireplace or stove for heating it in damp wea- ther, as well as proper openings for ventilation. The harness is generally hung on hooks or pegs, which are sometimes formed of wood, and nailed to the rafters, but most generally of hooks driven into the wall. Fig. 1269 is a double harness-peg, or bracket, of cast iron, for nailing against the wall, from which it projects ten inches, and which costs Is. 6d. Fig. 1270 is a saddle-bracket of iron, which projects twelve inches, and which costs 2s.; and fig. 1271 is a saddle-bracket and bridle-hook, which projects twelve inches, and costs 2s. 6d. In some places, small cast-iron hollow cylinders, the tubular part being about an inch in diameter, are built into the walls of stables and harness-rooms, so as not to project beyond the inside face of the wall ; and, in these, wooden pegs are inserted and taken out at pleasure. This we believe to be much the cheapest and best mode for common farm stables. There is a cast-iron halter-ball, which costs, by retail, 6d. or 8d.: in some districts they might be made of stone; and where terro-metallic potter's earth abounds, they would answer well, as would mangers and other fixed cattle- troughs, of that hard and durable material. Where expense is not an object, all balls of this sort ought to move up and down in a trunk, so as not to incur the risk of becoming entangled with the horses' feet. Among the stable utensils, such as pails, &c., we shall only notice Cottam's cast-iron gruel-trough, fig. 1272, fifteen inches long, ten inches wide, and nine inches deep, for giving bran mashes, which may be con- veniently set in the manger. Two and three pronged forks, brooms, and shovels, complete the stable imple- ments. 1390. The Coiv-house, as we have already shown, admits of a variety of finishing and fittings-up, with respect to the troughs and mangers, and the mode of tying. Fig. 1273 127.S shows a mode of riveting cast-iron plates together, so as to form troughs for dry food, a, and others for water or moist food, b. Figs. 1274, 1275, and 1276 are modes of fastening milch cows, in use about London. By the first mode the cow is fastened to the stall partition ; by the second, to the post which supports the manger; and by the third, to the bottom rail of the manger. Fig. 1277 is the Normandy brechin, which is com- monly put on cows in France, to prevent them from tossing up their heads, and thus risking abortion, aiid which also prevents them from cropping the branches of fruit trees