The Country Gcntleniaiis Magazine 



241 



WATER AND THE WANT OF IT. 



THERE is little reason to doubt that the 

 most absorbing question of the day is 

 water. In every corner of the land it is 

 eagerly sought for, and the sight of a running 

 stream is felt to be something worth looking 

 at. Man and beast are suffering alike, and 

 in many parts so scarce has this necessary of 

 life become that a request for a cup of cold 

 water by a thirsty traveller is much more 

 likely to be met by an ungracious refusal than 

 kindly compliance. Streams, which in by- 

 gone years have never failed to afford good 

 sport to the disciples of Izaak Walton, are now 

 only distinguishable by heaps of dry gravel or 

 caked mud. What has become of the fish it 

 is hard to say 3 roasted prematurely perhaps, 

 without being eaten. Springs are dried up, 

 pasture fields are mere arid tracts of withered, 

 sapless herbage, over which cattle and sheep 

 wander helplessly. In several instances 

 mortality amongst live stock has been dis- 

 tinctly traced to the animals eating the dry 

 stems without getting water in sufficient 

 quantity to counteract the effects of food of 

 that description. In some instances we have 

 seen cattle fed in the fields on the dry straw 

 of last year's crop, and when such a step is 

 necessary it would be advisable to cut the 

 straw by means of chaffing machines, and 

 moisten it thoroughly with water poured over 

 it in the troughs. By so doing it would be 

 rendered more palatable, and the addition 

 of some cake, mixed with the chaffed straw, 

 would help the poor starved animals con- 

 siderably. Sometime ago Mr Mechi recom- 

 mended cutting green beans, when that crop 

 is grown, and giving them to cattle, instead 

 of retaining the crop until it became ripe for 

 harvest. We have been reminded of Mr 

 Mechi's hint more than once lately, when we 

 have seen tolerably good crops of beans 

 growing on farms where there was evidently 

 great scarcity of food for the live stock, and 

 we have no doubt that, if used as food for 

 cattle in the green state, the crop, under 



VOL. I. 



present circumstances, will be found to pay 

 as well as it would do if allowed to ripen. 



But with respect to water, if live stock 

 which remain on the farm suffer so much from 

 the want of it, what must be the state of those 

 which are conveyed in railway trucks under 

 a burning sun. When travelling by railway, we 

 see passengers hastily leaving the carriages in 

 search of water to allay their thirst ; and if 

 such is the case with human beings, surely 

 the condition of the poor helpless animals 

 which are imprisoned in the trucks must be in- 

 finitely worse. We do know that humane 

 railway officials frequently endeavour to help 

 the poor brutes so far as lies in their power ; 

 but they cannot meet every case, and it is with 

 great difficulty they are able to do anything 

 even under the most pressing circumstances. 

 We would, therefore, take the opportunity 

 when all are experiencing, more or less, the 

 effects of extreme heat and drought, to plead 

 once more for the dumb animals who cannot 

 help themselves. Dumb they are no doubt, 

 in so far as speech is concerned, but even the 

 most obtuse cannot fail to read the unequivo- 

 cal signs of suffering which they evince but 

 too plainly. If a remedy could not be easily 

 found there would be less room for censure, 

 but when it is as easy to supply water to 

 cattle conveyed by railway as it is to fill the 

 boiler of the engine, surely no one can 

 defend the culpable indifference which 

 has been evinced regarding this matter. 

 The treatment of live stock on railways is posi- 

 tively disgraceful to humanity, and there 

 is no one to blame except those who have 

 the power, but not the will, to alter matters. 

 It is to the superior officials of the railway 

 companies we look for redress, whether 

 directors or head superintendents ; and it is 

 they, and they alone, who are to blame. 

 We have the remedy, simple and easily ap- 

 plied, in the troughs attached to cattle trucks 

 according to the plan devised by Mr Reid ; 

 and it is only downright per%'ersity which has 



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