136 A FARMER'S YEAR 



also, to choose l)ct\veen a good and bad water-supply, in five 

 cases out of six they will select whichever is cheapest. This, I 

 maintain, they have no right to do ; a person visiting a town or 

 village ought to be able to drink a glass of water with the abso- 

 lute certainty that it is pure, and that he is not running the risk 

 of bringing about his own interment within three weeks. He 

 would be a bold man, however, who dared to travel from village to 

 village in East Anglia and swallow whatever water was put before 

 him. Indeed, as recent events show us, even \\\ some of our towns 

 he might find cause to rue his rashness. 



What 1 suggest, although it may not be practicable everywhere, 

 is that, in the case of villages at any rate, the problem could be 

 solved at no great cost. An artesian or some other suitable kind 

 of boring might be made to tap the water at a depth where it was 

 not possible that it should be contaminated, whence it could be 

 lifted by means of an ordinary windmill into tanks large enough 

 to hold a supply of drinking-water sufficient for the needs of the 

 [)opulation during any period of aerial calm that was likely to be 

 experienced. The only essentials are that the tanks must be of 

 ample size, and that the windmill should be powerful enough to 

 pump even in a light draught of air ; then, if its site were pro- 

 perly chosen, I do not believe that it would often stand still for 

 more than twenty-four hours at a spell. 



The bullock which I am keeping at Bedingham with a view of 

 showing it is not coming up to expectations. His fore-quarters 

 are splendid, but he falls off behind. He has a box made expressly 

 for him in the barn, but I believe that he is lonely and pines 

 there ; at any rate, he does not take his food so well as he did. 



It is a half-holiday, as is usual on Good Fridays and Christmas 

 Days, though the agricultural labourer keeps few others ; therefore 

 I found no one working on the farm. The land looks very well — 

 indeed, I never saw it in better condition — and, except for the 

 rolling, the beet fields are ready to drill. The mare, however, 

 one of the pair of horses which are left here, is so old and heavy 

 in foal that she cannot do much, so I have arranged with Moore 



