An instructive classification of bedding materials can be made by dividing them according to the special aptitude they respectively show for either drainage or absorption. It is evident that the greater the power a substance has of retaining (absorbing) fluid, the less capacity will it have for vertical drainage and vice versa. In fact, excellence in one implies deficiency in the other. We may therefore, from a practical though somewhat arbitrary point of view, place peat moss, tan, and sawdust under the heading of absorbent bedding; and straw and other forms of litter, which are not more absorbent than it, under that of drainage bedding, if I may be allowed the expression. Wood shavings and chips appear to occupy an intermediate position between the two.

Ferns, Fir Needles, And Moss

I have had no practical experience with any of these bedding materials, which I have heard answer their purpose fairly well.

Wood Shavings

Wood shavings make an excellent bedding, the only drawback to their use being the difficulty of always obtaining them. They appear to be more absorbent than straw, and their curly nature greatly aids in making the bedding soft and elastic, and in promoting downward drainage. Fir shavings have a pleasant and healthy smell like the sawdust of that wood. Unlike sawdust, shavings are free from the objection of balling in the feet. Care should be taken with shavings, as with sawdust, that they do not contain solid pieces of wood or other hard objects which might injure a horse bedded down on them.