162 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



water and hold it back in time of over supply, heavy rainfalls and 

 melting snows, for the use of the soil and vegetation as the wants 

 of each may require. 



Should this system be adopted by farmers and dairy -men such 

 diseases as the so-called " contagious pleuro-pneumonia" and other 

 fatal diseases among stock will be wholly unknown, only adding 

 ventilation and stopping the feeding of garbage and decayed and 

 fermented foods and fungi. 



On many of the smaller farms grass or hay is raised and stored 

 away without careful treatment. Fresh manure is frequently 

 hauled from city stables, and spread over land to ferment and rot. 

 Upon examination, the class of lands thus treated, are found cov- 

 ered with fungi in the shape of devils-bread, puff-ball, toadstools 

 and others of different names. Bone dust and other fertilizers are 

 also used. Then come the wet spells, and the dry spells, and the 

 hot spells, which together keep up a continual fermentation in the 

 soil about the roots of crops and grasses. We find in many sec- 

 tions of the country, places where they raise stock, particularly 

 hogs. These animals are turned into the orchards in the fall or 

 late summer, and permitted to eat of the fallen fruit. They are 

 therefore allowed to eat freely of rotten and fungi-covered food, 

 and, again, are fed upon slops, swill and all manners of filth. As 

 a consequence, we hear from many parts of the country of hog 

 cholera. In all these cases our lawmakers, authorities, and socie- 

 ties for the prevention of cruelty to animals, have never been 

 known to open their mouths against this worst of all cruelties to 

 the dumb animals. Their food is fed them only to their destruc- 

 tion. That which should nourish poisons. Bad food, bad water, 

 and bad air alike, contribute to their destruction. "While poisoned 

 food is not only chargeable to fungi, there is also the decaying ve- 

 getables in our cellars and surroundings, constantly contamina- 



