NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 397 
cesspools, is frequently the cause of diarrhoea, dysentery, and many other 
diseases of stock, while water that is impregnated with different poisons 
and contaminated with specific media of contagion produces death in 
very many instances. 
Considering first the quantity of water required by the horse, it may 
be stated that when our animals have access to water continually they 
never drink to excess. Where the horse subjected to ship voyages or any 
other circumstances where he must depend upon his attendant for the 
supply of water, it may be roughly stated that each horse requires a 
daily average of about 8 gallons of water. This will vary somewhat 
upon the character of his food; if upon green food, less water will be 
needed than when fed upon dry hay and grain. 
The time of giving water should be carefully studied. At rest, the 
horse should receive water at least three times a day; when at work, 
more frequently. The rule should be to give in small quantites and often. 
There is a popular fallacy that if a horse is warm he should not be al- 
lowed to drink, many claiming that the first swallow of water "founders" 
the animal or produces colic. This is erroneous. No matter how warm 
a horse may be, it is always entirely safe to allow him from six to ten 
swallows of water. If this is given on going into the stable, he should be 
given at once a pound or two of hay and allowed to rest about an hour 
before feeding. If water be now offered him it will in many cases be 
refused, or at least he will drink but sparingly. The danger, then, is not 
in the "first swallow" of water, but is due to the excessive quantity that 
the animal will take when warm if he is not restrained. 
Water should never be given to horses when it is ice cold. It may 
not be necessary to add hot water, but we should be careful in placing 
water troughs about our barns to have them in such position that the sun 
may shine upon the water during the winter mornings. Water, even 
though it be thus cold, seldom produces serious trouble if the horse has 
not been deprived for a too great length of time. 
In reference to the purity of water. Smith, in his "Veterinary Hygiene," 
classes spring w^ater, deep-well water, and upland surface water as whole- 
some; stored rain w^ater and surface water from cultivated land, as 
suspicious; river water to which sewage gains access and shallow-well 
water, as dangerous. The water that is used for drinking purposes for 
stock so largely throughout some states can not but be impure. I refer 
to those sections where there is an impervious clay subsoil. It is the 
custom to scoop, or hollow out, a large basin in the pastures. During 
rains these basins become filled with water. The clay subsoil, being 
almost impervious, acts as a jug, and there is no escape for the water 
except by evaporation. Such water is stagnant, but w^ould be kept com- 
paratively fresh by subsequent rains were it not for the fact that much 
organic matter is carried into it by surface drainage during each suc- 
ceeding storm. This organic matter soon undergoes decomposition, and, 
as the result, we find diseases of different kinds much more prevalent 
where this water is drunk than where the water supply is wholesome. 
Again, it must not be lost sight of that stagnant surface water is much 
ijTore certainly contaminated than is running water by one diseased animal 
01 the herd, thus endangering the remainder. 
