482 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



and this also is adverse to performance. The necessity, 

 therefore, for furnishing them with an ample supply of 

 water is ever present, notwithstanding that water is in 

 no sense a food. 



The primary source of water is of course the clouds. 

 The natural channels by. which it is conveyed to animals 

 are two-fold; viz., directly, as in the act of drinking, and 

 indirectly in the plants consumed as food. The sources 

 of supply from the clouds may be classed as natural and 

 artificial. The natural sources include springs, running 

 streams and basins made by nature. The artificial sources 

 include ordinary and artesian wells, cisterns and basins 

 made in the earth. The supply furnished in plants is con- 

 siderable. The amount thus furnished is influenced by the 

 class to which the plant belongs and the condition in which 

 it is fed. Succulent grass, green corn and field roots con- 

 tain about 90 per cent of water, speaking roughly, and the 

 concentrated grains about 10 per cent. The amount of 

 water called for from other sources will of course be re- 

 duced in proportion as water is present in the food. Be- 

 cause of the amount of water in the food, some classes of 

 animals may not need water from other sources. This is 

 true in some instances of cattle and sheep that are fed a 

 large amount of roots, and of sheep grazing on succulent 

 rape pasture. 



Water is helpful to animals in proportion as the supply 

 is abundant, sweet, pure and of the right temperature. The 

 necessity for a plentiful supply is self evident. Water is 

 sweet when it does not contain any chemical substances 

 distasteful to live stock. In some areas of the range, water 

 is so strongly impregnated with alkali and other sub- 

 stances, that animals will not drink it. Water is pure when 

 it does not contain any foreign substances that render it 

 in any degree unwholesome. 



The sources of the purest water are springs, running 

 streams and, in some instances, surface and artesian wells. 

 When first collected in cisterns and in natural or artificial 



