694 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK vin- 



things which so soon, and very frequently so thoroughly, produce 

 temporary, and sometimes, permanent, derangement of health in the 

 horse as the hard, although beautifully transparent, water of some 

 wells. 



Well water is necessary for domestic use. If it has been filtered 

 through beds of gravel it is the more wholesome. A brook running 

 through the farm is a great acquisition, for it is usually free from those 

 saline admixtures that diminish the wholesomeness of the well water ; 

 but it is not every farm that possesses such a stream, nor is the access 

 to it always easy or safe. In some districts the farmer must depend 

 principally on ponds for the supply of his different stock ; and if the c y 

 are not apt to vary too much in the quantity of water which they 

 contain at different periods of the year, and if the access to them is over 

 a, gravelly or stony descent, whilst they are not surrounded by any 

 marshy ground, no danger need be apprehended in connection with 

 them. 



The farmer will usually find one or two ponds in his grounds ; but if 

 he has to make fresh ones, he will, if he can, select the bottom of a 

 gentle declivity, or a corner where two or more fields meet together, by 

 which means not only will a regular supply of water be procured after 

 rain has fallen, but it will be possible to water the cattle with less waste 

 of time and of ground. 



The descent to the ponds should be covered with gravel or stones ; 

 or, if the descent is necessarily over clay, there should be no vegetation 

 within two or three yards of the water. Such ponds will rarely give 

 sheep the rot ; but where the pond is surrounded by marshy ground, 

 or the vegetation grows to the very brink of the water, or almost or 

 quite on a level with the pasture, there is considerable risk. 



Clayey soils are mostly selected for the ponds, and, generally 

 speaking, they Avill answer tolerably well ; indeed, the stagnant water 

 of a pond, in order to be wholesome, should stand on a clay or chalk 

 bottom. These reservoirs, however, are apt to crack and become leaky 

 after a hot summer, and then the farmer may be compelled to make an 

 artificial pond. 



In doing this, the pit should first be dug to a convenient depth. 

 For one of forty feet in diameter, five feet is a sufficient depth ; or it 

 may be enlarged to seven if the pond is sixty feet in diameter. If the 

 situation will allow it, a reservoir may be constructed for the reception 

 of the waste water. That portion of the water which is intended for 

 the use of cattle will thus be preserved in a state of greater purity, 

 while the sediment that will from time to time be collected in such 

 reservoirs may be easily drawn thence, arid converted into an excellent 

 manure. The sides of the ponds should be carefully sloped to an 

 angle of about forty or forty-five degrees. One main point in the 

 economical construction of ponds, is to render them perfectly retentive of 

 water. 



This will be best accomplished by lining the pond four inches thick 

 with lime concrete, then with six inches of well beaten clay, firmly 

 pounded into a compact bed, and lastly with a coating of stone neatly 



