212 TRAINING IN INDIA. 



On the hardest kurikur soil, a coolie, using a pick- 

 axe (gyntee), can pick up and pulverise about 30 square 

 yards, 4 to 6 inches deep, a day ; or, with a hoe, he 

 can 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 many stones. The best pick-axes 

 for this work are those supplied by Government to 

 regiments among their entrenching tools. Litter or 

 tan should now be put down without delay. It is no 

 use applying them before the ground is 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 take 

 2,000 (1 maund=821bs.)maundsof tan, or 1,500 maunds 

 of litter, to lay down a mile properly. The cartage 

 of this will come to about Rs. 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 from artillery, cavalry, or elephant lines, for the 

 mere carting of it away ; but when it is sold, its 

 price will not usually exceed eight annas a cart-load of 

 about 20 maunds. Old and thoroughly decomposed 

 litter is the best. New litter always contains a large 

 quantity of particles of undigested corn which have 

 passed through in the dung of the horses. The presence 

 of this grain will generally attract numerous field rats, 

 that will burrow all over the course, and thus give a 

 great deal of trouble before they can be exterminated, 



