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THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE PURIFICATION OF WATER FOR CATTLE. 



Should the water given to live stock be filtered, to free it 

 from those impurities which it generally holds in suspen- 

 sion ? And where injurious substances are held in solution, 

 can we precipitate these, or otherwise render them innocu- 

 ous, so as always to present to stock, whether grazing in 

 the field or being fed at the homestead, a full supply of pure, 

 wholesome water ? It is long since that ever-venerable 

 philosopher Bacon drew attention to the importance of the 

 proposition in his work on natural history,* alias ," Sylva 

 Sylvarura." The subject has often been discussed by farmers 

 and it is now being reduced to practice amongst dairymen 

 in the British capital, with a degree of success hardly credi- 

 ble, but singularly corroborative of Bacon's views. 



The proposition involves a fundamental principle in the 

 feeding of live-stock, the soundness of which cannot be de- 

 nied. It is one of those practical questions, too, that dees 

 not admit of proof, for pure water for our cattle is as essen- 

 tially necessary for their health as it is for our own. 



The subject, it will thus be seen, when examined from a 

 practical point of view, is — the dirty water now given to 

 cattle — its injurious influence upon their health — the con- 

 sequent loss sustained thereby — the chemical and mechani- 

 cal means proposed for the purification of the water — and 

 that universal omega of all agricultural propositions, " Will 

 it pay .?" Such are the principal practical topics that claim 

 investigation. 



Our " horse-ponds " and " cattle-ponds" present, gene- 

 rally speaking, a very disgusting appearance ; and when ex- 

 amined microscopically and chemically, the dirty water they 

 contain is many degrees worse than it appears to the un- 

 assisted eye. A more revolting sight can scarcely be ima- 

 gined than a herd of cattle in a " watering pond " on a 

 summer's day. Drink they must, to quench their thirst ; 

 while to keep up, as it were, a state of equilibrium in the 

 pond, as well as internally, they never fail to empty them- 

 selves at the same time. We talk of adulterations, and 

 pass long windy statutes in Parliament, imposing heavy 

 fines and imprisonment on those who mix our own food and 

 drink with deleterious substances injurious to health; but 

 the watering of our cattle involves a wholesale system of 

 adulteration more easily conceived than described. 



* Extracts from Bacon's " Sylva Sylvarum," on the purifica- 

 tion of water : Century I., Ex. 7. — " The clarifying of water 

 is au experiment tending to health, besides the pleasure of the 

 eye, when water is crystalline." Century IV., Ex. 391. — 

 " It is a thing of very good use to discover the goodness of 

 waters," for which seven rules are given, too long to quote ex- 

 tenso, but in substance they are thus : 1, By weight — the 

 lighter the better. 2, Evaporation by boiling, " that which 

 consumeth away the fastest you may account the best." 3, 

 " That which holdeth unputrified the longest you may likewise 

 account the best." 4, " That which maketh drinks, as beer, 

 the strongest— the best." 5, The best for washing. 6, 

 Springs on the top of high hills the best. 7, Springs from 

 fine gravelly soils. Century VIIL, Ex, 778. — " There is a kind 

 of stone about Bethleem which they grind to powder, and put 

 into water, whereof cattle drink, which maketh them give 

 more milk. Surely there would be some better trials made of 

 mixtures of water in ponds for cattle to make them more 

 milch, or to fatten them, or to keep them from murraine. It 

 may be chalk and nitre are of the best." Throughout the 

 work examples of upward and downward filtration of water are 

 quoted, and frequent aJlusiob it made to the ivmotic effects of 

 |>Htrid mfctter. 



A very great diversity in the quality of the water in thece 

 watering-places may be pleaded, from that exemplified in 

 the running stream to that in the stagnant stinking pond 

 containing the accumulated filth of ages. Even the water 

 in the watering troughs, into which the cattle cannot go 

 with their feet, soon becomes full of decomposing animal 

 and vegetable matter from the grass and saliva that drop 

 from the cattle's mouths while drinking ; so that unless 

 they are daily cleaned, the}' do not supply pure water. In 

 other cases railing is put up, to prevent the cattle getting 

 into the pond or river ; but it is seldom that matters are 

 much mended by this provision, as the excrements of the 

 animals left while drinking are washed into the pond the 

 first rainy day, and sometimes sooner. Throughout the whole 

 system of watering stock an unpardonable indifference to 

 cleanliness prevails, from which very few, we fear, can plead 

 an exception. 



It is not, therefore, surprising that it should have occurred 

 to the highly scientific mind of Bacon that such a state 

 of things is of necessity injurious to the health of cattle. 

 The man must experience a sad obliquity of vision who can 

 see the subject in any other light. That the mind is often 

 blinded by the force of habit will readily be granted, and 

 therefore many may see such a state of things as if they 

 saw it not. So long as they do, for example, as their 

 fathers did, and their grandfathers before them, they may 

 move unconsciously, as it were, in the same beaten track. 

 The ox knows the watering-place as he knows his stall, and 

 his owner knows no more. But, however strong may be the 

 force of habit, and however unwilling some minds may be 

 to leave the beaten track of the past, it v7ould be unreasona- 

 ble, or at least uncharitable, to suppose that any owner of 

 stock, when called upon to think for himself, would con- 

 clude that dirty water must be good for cattle because they 

 drink it, and even from force of habit, or a vitiated taste, 

 may prefer it to clean. No doubt the time was that owners 

 of stock might have been allowed to conclude that, because 

 they saw the frogs, newts, et id gemis omne, crawling in the 

 bottom of their Avatering-ponds, the water consequently 

 must be clean ; but in these days of microscopical and 

 chemical progress, innocent deductions of this kind can no 

 longer be tolerated. 



The amount of injury do-_3 to health by dirty water is of 

 course a question of degree, the two extremes of which are 

 wide asunder. The principal cause given for the degene- 

 racy of men, and consequent depopulation of the native 

 tribes of New Zealand, is the consumption of large quanti- 

 ties of putrid vegetable matter. The taste of the Maori, 

 for example, has become so vitiated, that they prefer vege- 

 table matter in a state of decomposition to fresh, and the 

 consequence of this is scrofula and other diseases of a kin- 

 dred character, that shorten life, reducing the mental and 

 physical stamina of the people below its original standard. 

 The putrid vegetable matter in the water now consumed by 

 so many cattle is equally productive of disease. If the con- 

 stitution of the ox or the horse is strongar than that of mani 

 there may be a longer struggle between health and disease, 

 so to speak. In the former case Nature may throw oflf the 

 putrid poisonous matter for a longer period of time before 

 sV>e Buccuwb^; but no eonslltwtjonj l^owever Ptron . cv^n 



