RACE-COURSES. 239 



do about 40 square yards of ordinary hard, sun-baked 

 soil ; or 60 square yards of easy soil. The clods should 

 be pulverised as the picking up proceeds, for if left 

 for a few days exposed to the sun, they will become 

 almost as hard as so inany stones. The best pick-axes 

 for this work are those supplied by Government to regi- 

 ments among their entrenching tools. Litter or tan 

 should now be put down without delay. It is no 

 use applying them before the ground be thoroughly 

 loosened, for, until it becomes so, manure would have 

 as little chance of working into and amalgamating 

 with it, as it would on a metalled road. On a track 

 four yards broad, such as I have described, it would 

 t;ike 2,000 maunds of tan, or 1,500 maunds of litter, 

 to lay down a mile properly. The cartage of this will 

 come to about Us. 3 a hundred maunds, when brought 

 from a distance of three miles. The spreading of the 

 litter or tan will come to about eight annas a hundred 

 maunds. Litter can sometimes be got, for the mere cart- 

 ing of it away, from artillery, cavalry, or elephant lines ; 

 but when it is sold, its price will not usually exceed 

 eio-ht annas a cart-load of about 20 maunds. Old and 



O 



thoroughly decomposed litter is the best. New litter 

 always contains a large quantity of particles of un- 

 digested grain that have passed through in the dung 

 of the horses, while the presence of these particles 

 will generally attract numerous field rats that burrow 

 all over the course, and thus give a great deal of trouble 

 before they can be exterminated, which is best done by 

 filling the holes with water, and killing the rats as they 

 come to the surface. 



