No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 600 



can be obtaiued is inconceivable to any who have not investigated 

 the subject. Iludor inen ariston. "AVater is the best" of all 

 God's gifts said the old Greek father of medicine. But he lived in 

 a day when every source of water supply had its tutelary divinity 

 and to pollute it was sacrilege. He could not have conceived of a 

 race of men so degraded that they would purposely pollute streams 

 and heedlessly drink the waste of their own or their neighbor's 

 bodies. Nothing is more ditticult than to convince the farmer that 

 his own well may possibly be polluted. Let me give you a leaf out 

 of my own experience, showing how pollution may exist where least 

 expected. A friend living in the country had often boasted to me 

 of the excellence of his well and called attention to the clearness and 

 sparkle of the water and the absolute impossibility of pollution of 

 any kind entering it. The last time I met him, however, he had 

 a different tale to tell. It seems that the pump which forced the 

 water to the top of his house had become choked. Knowing that 

 there could be no obstacle in the well, he went to work to repair the 

 valves of the pump, and soon got it into working order. That 

 day he had friends to dine with him and as usual boasted about 

 his water; but while at the table it was reported that the pump 

 was again out of order, so he and his friends went down after 

 dinner to fix it. While he attended to the valves, one of his friends 

 asked to be permitted to look into the well. '*0h! certainly; I'll lift 

 the cover for you, but you won't find anything there." So the cover 

 was lifted and the inquiring friend threw^ himself on his face and 

 peered down into the depths. Presently, as his eyes became accus- 

 tomed to the gloom he called out, ''Why, Jack, there's a scum all 

 over the top of the water." "Oh! that's nothing but a little dust 

 blown under the edge of the cover by the high winds." Then came 

 another and more vigorous exclamation, "Hang me, if I don't see a 

 dead rabbit in the well." "Quite impossible," was the rejoinder, 

 "there's no place where a rabbit could get in." "Well, look for 

 yourself, you can see his nose sticking out of the water." So my 

 friend looked, was convinced and with the aid of a rope was let 

 down to remove the intruder. He passed up the dripping carcass 

 and his friends were about to haul him up, when he shouted, "Hold 

 on, I believe there's another." Sure enough up came another, and 

 again, as they were about to pull on the rope, "Don't be in such a 

 blamed hurry! I've got another." When his friends bade him good- 

 bye they thanked him kindly and ^aid they "wouldn't take any 

 water in theirs, please." Think of it! Bragging of the purity of a 

 well, while at that moment there were three dead rabbits in it. And 

 yet if you'll examine your own wells when you go home, I venture to 

 prophesy that many of you will find worse things than rabbits in 



39—6—1903 



