No. 7. 



Drink and Shade for Stock. 



229 



mass, which readily dissolves in the stomach, 

 and yields the nourshment which it contains. 

 Perhaps some chemical change may have 

 been slowly effected in the old oat, disposing 

 it to be more readily assimilated. Oats 

 should be plump, bright in colour, and free 

 from unpleasant smell or taste. The musty 

 smell of wetted or damaged corn is produced 

 by a fungus which grows upon the seed, and 

 which has an injurious effect on the urinary 

 organs, and often on the intestines, produc- 

 ing profuse staling, inflammation of the kid- 

 neys, colic, and inflammation of the bowels. 

 — Youait on the Horse. 



Drink and Shade for Stock. 



One essential requisite in all pasture-fields 

 is an abundant supply of water for stock to 

 drink. Both cattle and horses drink largely, 

 and sheep grazing early on the dewy grass, 

 do not require so much water to keep them 

 in a healthy condition ; still, when there is 

 no dew, they do drink water. The proper 

 construction of a watering-pool is sadly mis- 

 understood in this country. The entrance 

 to it generally consists of poached mud of at 

 least half a foot in depth, and to avoid this, 

 the animals go into the water before they 

 drink, when, of course, it is at once rendered 

 muddy. Not unfreqnently there is scarcity 

 of water, and if there is just suflicient sup- 

 ply to prevent the pool being evaporated to 

 dryness, the water is rendered almost stag- 

 nant. So obvious are the objections to this 

 mode of administering so necessary and 

 wholesome a beverage to the brute creation 

 as water, that all that seems necessary to an 

 amendment of the system is to point out its 

 inconveniences. True, in some cases, tanks 

 of wood or stone are provided in fields, which 

 are supplied from some adjoining spring, or 

 even pump-well, and as far as the quality of 

 the water is concerned, this is a much better 

 mode of supplying it than in pools; but this 

 mode, good as it is as far as it goes, does not 

 provide all the requisites of a good water- 

 ing-pool. In hot days, a walk through a 

 pool is very wholesome to the feet of cattle, 

 and in dry weather, a stand for some time 

 among water is an excellent preventive of 

 that troublesome complaint, the foot-sore. 

 The external application of water in this 

 manner allays inflammation, and prevents ir- 

 ritation, and permits animals to take their food 

 in peace even in scorching drought. Besides 

 the tank of a pump-well is not unfreqnently 

 neglected to be filled — because in cold and 

 rainy weather it is scarcely visited by the 

 cattle, in hot weather it is supposed to be 

 viewed with the same indifference; and, 

 even where tanks are duly attended to for 



cattle, there are none set down at a lower 

 level for sheep. A watering-pool should be 

 securely fenced, as cattle are very apt to 

 push one another about while in it, and for 

 that reason it should also be roomy. It should 

 be of considerable length and narrow, to al- 

 low access to a number of animals at the 

 same time, if they choose to avail themselves 

 of it; and I have often observed cattle de- 

 light to go to the water in company. Pools 

 are usually made too small and too confined. 

 The access to them should be made firm with 

 broken stones in lieu of earth, and gravel 

 placed on its bottom keeps the water clean 

 and sweet, while the water should flow gen- 

 tly through the pool. 



The want of s/ia(fe in pasture-fields is also 

 a sad reflection on our farmers. Observe, in 

 summer, where the shade of a tree casts it- 

 self over the grass, how gratefully cattle re- 

 sort to it, and where a spreading tree grows 

 in a pasture-field, its stem is sure to be sur- 

 rounded by cattle. The stirring breeze un- 

 der such a tree is highly grateful to these 

 creatures; and such a place affords them an 

 excellent refuge from the attacks of flies. 

 In cold weather, also, observe how much 

 shelter is afl^brded to cattle by a single tree, 

 and how they will crowd to the most wooded 

 corner of a field in a rainy day, even in sum- 

 mer. Ought not such indications of ani- 

 mals teach us to afford them the treatment 

 most congenial to their feelings ! lam no 

 advocate for hedge-row trees, even though 

 they should cast a grateful shade into a pas- 

 ture-field, and still less do I admire an um- 

 brageous plane in the middle of a field that 

 is occupied in course with a crop of grain or 

 turnips; but similar effects as good as theirs 

 may be obtained from different agencies. A 

 shed erected at a suitable part in the line of 

 the fence of a field, would not only afford 

 shade in the brightest day in summer, but 

 comfortable shelter in a rainy day, or in a 

 cold night in autumn. Such an erection 

 would cost little where stone and wood are 

 plenty on an estate, and they could be erect- 

 ed in places to answer the purpose of a field 

 on either side of the fence when it was in 

 grass. But no matter what it may cost, 

 when the health and comfort of stock are to 

 be maintained unimpaired by its means. 

 The cost of a shed may, perhaps, in this 

 way be repaid in the first year of its exist- 

 ence, and it would stand, with slight occa- 

 sional repairs, during the currency of a long 

 lease. When such an erection is properly 

 constructed at first, it is surprising how 

 many years it will contiirne to be useful with 

 a little care. Let it be roomy, and its struc- 

 ture light, as it may be roofed at a moderate 

 cost with zinc, or composition of some sort. 



