AIR AND VENTILATION. 61 



Stable Floors. 



The stable floor should be made of wet clay 

 beaten down, and left to thoroughly dry. This 

 can be carried out by the " syces," and if 

 thoroughly done, they will last a good many 

 months. I always make it a practice to dig up 

 the floors of stables in a new house, before they are 

 occupied, a foot and a half deep, and thoroughly 

 renew it, and usually it is astounding the amount 

 of foul earth that has to be removed. I also have 

 the whole of the floor picked up and renewed once 

 a year for choice, at the end of September or 

 beginning of October, after the rains have stopped. 

 Any moisture should be at once removed, before 

 it has time to soak into the floor ; or, if it has, the 

 moist earth should be swept away with a broom 

 (jaru), made out of a number of pliable twigs tied 

 together, and fresh dry earth sprinkled over the 

 top of it. A supply of dry powdered earth should 

 be kept outside each stable door in a box ready for 

 use when required. The ordinary earth that is in 

 the compound will not do to make floors out of, 

 although " syces " will use it if allowed, as it is less 

 trouble to get than clay (kicher ke muttee), but 

 it will not bind, and when trodden on breaks up 

 and wears into dust. 



