72 FORESTS, WOODS, AND TREES 
and the streams feeding them. This protection is in- 
adequate, as anything that happens to be on the gathering 
ground may be carried down into the reservoir in time 
of floods or heavy rains. When houses or farms exist on 
the gathering ground, serious impurities, such as the excreta 
from a typhoid case or the contents of a cesspool on a farm- 
steading, may be swept into the reservoir. It has been 
found difficult in practice to compel farmers living near 
a stream in a watershed to re-arrange their middens, 
cow-houses, etc. The diversion of sewage from farms by 
drains is scarcely an adequate protection. Wyrell (1) 
points out that the gathering ground is frequently not 
under the sanitary jurisdiction of the town owning the 
waterworks, but is under the perfunctory care of the rural 
sanitary authority. The Swansea Urban Sanitary Authority 
has arrangements by which its inspectors report weekly on 
the condition of the farms on the catchment area, cases 
of infectious disease being notified by telephone. 
It is now held by eminent engineers that in order 
to prevent pollution of the water supply from these 
gathering grounds, the entire area over which rain is 
collected must be owned by the authority responsible for 
the waterworks, and must be managed solely in the interest 
of the water consumers. 
The opinion of Mr. Joseph Parry (2), long the engineer 
in charge of the Liverpool Waterworks, is as follows: 
“ Notwithstanding the sparseness of the population in most 
of these areas, great difficulty is experienced in keeping the 
standard of purity of the water at the level demanded 
by modern hygiene. It is most undesirable that the 
water for domestic consumption should be polluted by 
human sewage; and rigorous methods should be adopted 
to protect the streams and rivers in the gathering grounds 
from contamination by pathogenic organisms. Efforts made 
to prevent fouling by putting in operation the provisions 
of the Public Health Acts, the Rivers Pollution Act, and 
the bye-laws of conservators have proved ineffective. In 
consequence of the inadequacy and failure of these statutory 
