Among Horses in India. 7 



so as to be perfectly waterproof, would no doubt be preferable 

 to any others ; but unfortunately such floors are too expensive 

 for India. 



The best of those made by the Public Works Department 

 are constructed with a mixture of clay, kankar, and sand. 

 These materials are finely divided, and made into a kind of 

 stiff mortar before being laid down. They form a solid, 

 hard mass, at first almost impervious to urine ; but are 

 usually not more than four or five inches thick, and without 

 a proper foundation. The consequence is that they soon 

 wear into holes, and are broken through by the trampling 

 of the horses, so that urine escapes into the porous soil 

 underneath. 



If such floors were laid upon a bed of clay rammed into a 

 solid mass, the upper layer of clay being mixed with the 

 kankar and sand before being rammed, and if the layers (a 

 foot thick altogether) were beaten into as compact a mass as 

 possible, and then made smooth on the surface by smearing 

 over it a thin mixture of the kankar, clay, and water, they 

 would be very durable. 



They should be left for fully six weeks before placing 

 horses upon them, in order that they may become thoroughly 

 dry and hard. The reason why it is advisable to mix sand 

 with the kankar and clay is that in process of time it forms 

 with them a substance far harder than kankar and clay 

 alone. 



I did not recommend it to be used in the flooring of un- 

 sheltered horse lines for two reasons: 



1. During the rains a great deal of the surface is made 

 into mud by the trampling of the horses, and the sand in 

 such mud would be very irritating to the skin of the horses' 

 heels and coronets. 



2. During breaks in the rains the flies are such a torment 

 that horses are perpetually stamping, and as those of native 

 cavalry are unshod behind, their hoofs, being softened by the 

 wet, would be worn away upon a surface rendered gritty by 

 sand. 



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