6 HOUSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



are supposed to bale out every day. This is, obviously, 

 a most objectionable arrangement. A common trick of 

 those servants is to teach their horses to stale into an 

 earthen pot, which they hold for them, and thus get rid 

 of the fluid without it soiling the bedding. This is also 

 a most reprehensible practice, for horses, that are accus- 

 tomed to it, will often, if the syces be not ready to hold 

 the vessel, abstain from staling for an injurious time. The 

 system of drainage, adopted in England, is not applica- 

 ble to India. The litter should be taken up twice a day, 

 every soiled particle of it should be removed, and the 

 floor should be thoroughly cleaned and dried. The less 

 tainted portions of the bedding may be dried in the sun 

 for further use. 



The door-ways of the stalls are usually barred across 

 by two poles generally bamboos that are let into 

 the walls at each side, the upper one being fixed about 

 four feet from the ground. These bars are sometimes made 

 to slide through boarded passages in the walls, an arrange- 

 ment that will save the latter from becoming broken. The 

 best and neatest plan is, I think, to plant two strong upright 

 posts in which are bored holes for the reception of the 

 horizontal poles 10 or 11 inches from each side of the 

 walls at the door-way. The walls will then be free 

 from injury, and there will be no occasion to remove the 

 bars, unless, when the horse is taken out or in, for there 

 will be quite sufficient room for a man to pass sideways 

 between the walls and the upright posts. The bars are 

 secured by being lashed together with a piece of rope. 



Moveable half-doors as well as bars may be pro- 

 vided, to be used when the nights are cold. 



