CATTLE GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 781 



bring than to keep them, as it is a great deal wiser to sell an 

 unthrifty animal at a small loss than to incur a greater by 

 keeping it. 



The Water Supply is a matter of great importance on a 

 stock-farm, as cattle can not thrive if obliged to drink warm 

 water from a filthy pool. If there is a permanent spring on 

 the farm, by all means include it in your pasture, and if there 

 is none, try and provide a supply of good water for the stock 

 from some other source. A good well, provided with a wind- 

 engine to pump the water, will pay for quite an outlay, or if a 

 well is out of the question as is the case in some localities, on 

 account of the depth to which they must be dug, or the fact that 

 permanent veins can not be found a cistern may be dug and. 

 filled with surface-water during the wet season, and held as a 

 reserve. 



In many localities where there is a clay or limestone soil, 

 these cisterns will hold without cement. I have two of them, 

 holding one hundred and fifty barrels each, which may be simply 

 called arched-wells. They are ten feet in diameter, and arched 

 with brick, the arch resting on the natural ledge of limestone. 

 They fill with water from the natural drainage of the soil, 

 whenever heavy rains saturate it, and in the longest drought 

 they retain water for two-thirds of their depth. In a porous 

 soil, where the cisterns must be bricked, or stoned and cemented, 

 a cistern would be expensive, but there occasionally comes a 

 season in which the gain is so great that it will justify u heavy 

 expense. Cattle that must be driven a mile or two through 

 choking dust to fill themselves with warm river water once in 

 twenty-four hours will be likely to lose flesh rapidly, and if 

 this must be continued for several weeks, as is the case every 

 few years, the loss on a moderate herd of cattle will go far to- 

 wards paying for a cistern that would last through any drought 

 likely to occur. 



A supply of moderately good water can be had by construct- 

 ing a pond if the soil is such as will hold water, and if not, it 

 can sometimes be made so by drawing clay and puddling the 

 bottom. A pond for stock-water should be made where there is 



