CHAPTER SIXTH.

PRESERVATION OF HARNESS IN STORE.

The store-houses should be well ventilated, not too dry, but free from dampness. The different articles should be arranged according to kind and class, separated or in bundles according to their nature, so placed as to touch each other and the walls as little as possible, having a free circulation of air about them :-- saddles on trestles or bars -- collars hung on pins - hames with their straps, and traces with chains and hooks, hung up; the traces hanging vertically -- side-pipes and belly-bands piled on the floor or on shelves - surcingles and breast-straps stretched on racks - halters, bridles, reins, &c., hung up in bundles of five or ten - hames-straps, collar-straps, &o., hung up in bundles of ten or twenty - bits, curb-chains, trace-hooks, in boxes. All these articles should be examined and cleaned at least four times a year.
The leather articles are brushed and greased with neat's-foot oil, as often as their condition requires: if they have a reddish hue, mix a little lampblack with the oil. First brush the leather carefully, then pass over it a sponge wet with lukewarm water; grease it slightly on the hair-side, applying the oil with a soft brush before the leather is quite dry. In general, new leather is not greased until it has been in store three years, unless it should be found to require it. Iron parts which are not japanned or tinned, or from which the coating is rubbed off, are greased with tallow.