2IO TRAINING IN INDIA 



On the hardest Tiunhur soil, a coolie, using a pick-axe 

 {gyntee), can pick up and pulverize 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 pulverized 

 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 en- 

 trenching 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 2000 (1 maund = 82 lbs.) maunds of tan, or 

 1500 maunds of litter, to lay down a mile properly. The 

 cartage of this will come to about Ks. 3 a hundred maunds, 

 when brought from a distance of three miles. The spread- 

 ing 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 twenty 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, which is best done by filling the 



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