1861 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
17 
Jonathan on Pure Water for Stock. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist . 
I was much pleased with Tim Bunker’s arti¬ 
cle on bad water in the last number of your pa¬ 
per. It was rather calculated to turn the stom¬ 
ach of a decent man to find what some people 
are drinking, but it will do good if it turns their 
thoughts in that direction, and leads to a doc¬ 
toring of the soil surrounding their wells. It 
•will save a good deal of doctoring of themselves, 
for nature punishes the stomach pretty severely 
for want of cleanliness. 
I hope, however, my brother farmers will 
think a little further of this matter, and carry it 
out in their care of stock. I’ve seen cattle 
obliged to get their drink for a whole season 
from ponds and swamp holes that a man couldn’t 
come near without turning up his nose—in fact 
I sometimes fancied that the bulls did make up 
wry faces at it; but • they must drink that or 
nothing, and so they sucked down the nauseous 
decoction of rotting vegetables, surface drainage, 
droppings from the herd, and living animalcules 
which abound in such places. What kind of 
milk will such stuff produce ? I don’t believe 
any animal’s stomach is a good enough labora¬ 
tory to compound wholesome meat with only 
foul water to soak the food in; for it was not 
made for such a purpose. If any one doubts it, 
let him offer a thirsty ox his choice between 
clear water and swamp drainings, and the sen¬ 
sible brute will give him a practical lesson in 
physiology. 
I notice in the English papers that the large 
milk dairymen are using filters to cleanse all 
the water given to their cows, and they say the 
better health of the animals, and the improved 
quality of the milk, more than pays the expense. 
I know that there is less trouble from foul wa¬ 
ter at this season, than in Summer, but how 
many yards there are, where the whole stock is 
watered from a single small trough, into which 
water is poured or pumped from a well. Every 
horse or ox washes his nose and mouth in it, 
the hens roost upon the edge and leave then- 
filth, and this goes on day after day, and no man 
would think it clean enough for his own use. 
Then it is not clean enough for his animals, and 
he should at once provide better for them, both 
for their comfort and his own profit. If a run¬ 
ning stream from a spring can not be had, let 
the trough be well cleansed every day. Brutes 
prefer cleanliness ; permit them to indulge so 
good a taste. Jonathan. 
Keep up the Farmers’ Club. 
You have such a club, of course, in your neigh¬ 
borhood. You can’t afford to sleep away the 
Winter in mental indolence, regardless of the 
progress others are making, and which you might 
make in your calling. You have too much 
benevolence, also, to be willing to hoard up 
whatever useful things you have learned from 
reading and observation: you desire others to 
share these advantages with you. And then, 
you are socially inclined, perhaps, and wish to 
freshen up your acquaintance with gentle¬ 
men in all the region around. It is a very little 
matter, to be sure, to meet occasionally with 
friends, shake hands, smile, and say a few com¬ 
mon-place words: yes, a little thing in itself, but 
it is a very good thing, and it makes both par¬ 
ties happier and better. By reason of such a 
little thing, the next day’s work will be done 
easier, next day’s burdens will be borne more 
cheerfully, next day’s skies will be brighter. 
God evidently designs that our happiness shall 
be fed from numerous small streams, not from 
a few large ones. Let us keep all the gates 
open, and open new ones beside. 
Well, w-e are glad you have a Club establish¬ 
ed. If you have a Constitution and a few By- 
Laws to keep things in order, the next most 
important thing is regular and punctual attend¬ 
ance at the meetings. The interest of the Club 
will flag at once, if the members grow remiss 
here. It will not answer to leave the interest 
to depend on the fidelity of a few members : 
each man should stand in his lot, and never be 
absent, except from absolute necessity. 
A subject should be chosen at one meeting 
for discussion at the next, and one or two per¬ 
sons appointed to open the discussion. All the 
members should read and think upon the sub¬ 
ject previous to the debate, so as to have some¬ 
thing to say, and so as to enjoy the meeting all 
the more. If the one appointed to open the dis¬ 
cussion feels unable to speak extemporaneously, 
let him write out his thoughts, in his own way, 
and read them. But it is better, we think, to 
throw off all restraint and embarrassment, to 
make no attempt at fine speaking, but to express 
one’s thoughts in a dignified conversational way. 
And let this be the character of the wdiole meet¬ 
ing : freedom of speech, governed by the law-s 
of propriety and courtesy. 
The most interesting part of the Club we at¬ 
tend, is the time (half an hour,) given at the open¬ 
ing of the meeting for questions and answers on 
all sorts of subjects. The President, sitting in his 
chair, is catechised about poultry, pigs, potatoes, 
wheat, and what not. When lie gets tired of 
responding, or wishes to call out others well 
qualified, he requests A., B., and C., to answer 
the questions. Thus, every body lias a chance 
to state his case, and almost every voice is heard 
in question or reply. 
Jack Frost in the Cellar! 
Look out for the burglar! lie will do no 
harm to silver or gold, but he will heave your 
house from its foundations, crack your walls, 
throw wdndows and doors out of gear, and do 
sad work with the apples, winter pears, pota¬ 
toes, and other good things laid up for the sea¬ 
son’s use. So, guard against him betimes. 
If your cellar walls are old and poor, it may 
be well to bank them up wdth tan-bark or saw¬ 
dust, eighteen inches or tw r o feet thick. Don’t 
use manure from the stables, as is sometimes 
done—a most untidy thing ! Good soil is suit¬ 
able, if saw-dust or bark can not be had. If 
there are cracks between the top of your cellar 
wall and the sills, get a mason to come and point 
them up on the inside with mortar : or, what is 
better, lay a course of bricks, well bedded in mor¬ 
tar, over against the cracks. This will keep out 
Jack and the rats and mice. 
If frost gets in at the windows, put in double 
sash. Instead of using two sets of windows, 
you may have double panes of glass, an eighth 
of an inch apart, set in each window-frame. 
By either method you get a body of confined air 
between the cellar and the frosty air without; 
and this is as good a protection as a wall of 
brick or stone. If you can’t go to this expense, 
then lay a bundle or two of straw against your 
cellar windows, on the outside, confining them 
there by boards or stakes. This will darken 
your cellar, but darkness is better than frost. 
Dogs are Costly.— According to the Ohio 
Cultivator 41,979 sheep were killed, and 27,750 
were injured by dogs in Ohio, during the year 
1859. The damage amounted to $101,895. How 
many dogs will it take to benefit the State to 
the amount of $101,895? 
What’s the Use of Snow? 
So inquires the Broadway exquisite, as, one 
of these blustering mornings, he picks his away 
along the street in patent leathers. What in the 
world is it good for ? And such inquiries are 
made, now and then, by almost everybody. 
There are many pleasant things connected with 
the revolution of the seasons; and yet, w r hen 
rude Winter’s turn comes, we can hardly meet 
it without feelings of regret. The invalid and 
the aged, how the cold pinches them! The 
tourist finds little pleasure amid fine scenery, if 
meanwhile lie is frost-bitten. The landscape- 
painter must fold up his sketches with be¬ 
numbed fingers, and hurry to his warm studio 
in town; the botanist—where are the floAvers 
he loved so well ?—the geologist, entomologist, 
and indeed the student in almost every depart¬ 
ment of natural science finds his sphere of ob¬ 
servation reduced to narrow bounds; the gar¬ 
dener must stop his pleasant labors, and the 
farmer can no longer sow and reap, and gather 
into barns, but must witness for many months 
an exhausting drain upon his stores without any 
replenishing streams. 
How for the bright side of the picture, if we 
can find it. The old proverb that “snow is the 
poor man’s manure,” has, perhaps, a grain of 
truth in it. Some chemists tell us that analysis 
reveals a larger percentage of ammonia in snow 
than in rain. One says that “ water acquires 
nitrous salts in freezing.” However that may 
be, this at least is true, that snow is a powerful 
absorbent, purifying the air and returning those 
impurities to the soil. 
Melt in a clean vessel a mass of snow which 
has lain a short time on the ground, and the 
taste will detect foreign substances in the water. 
This will be most manifest in the neighborhood 
of large towns. The harshness and dryness pro¬ 
duced in the mouth by drinking snow-water, 
and the unpleasant effects on the skin by wash¬ 
ing in it, are ascribed to the impurities it con¬ 
tains. The disease called goitre , causing mon¬ 
strous swelling of the neck, which prevails in 
Alpine regions, is also attributed by some to the 
use of snow water. The absorbent power ot 
snow has been illustrated thus: “ Take a lump 
of snow (crust answers well,) of three or four 
inches in length, and hold it in the flame of a 
lamp: not a drop of water will fall from the 
snow, but the water as fast as formed will be 
drawn up into the snow by capillary attraction. 
It is by virtue of this power that it purifies the 
atmosphere by absorbing and retaining its nox¬ 
ious and noisome gases and odors.” 
Furthermore; it prevents exhalations from 
the earth, and having absorbed them, returns 
their fertilizing properties to the soil. Hence, 
marshes and stagnant pools become inodorous in 
Winter, and the unwholesome effluvia of veg¬ 
etable matter everywhere decaying while un¬ 
frozen, is retained, and with the melting of the 
snow in Spring, is taken up by the soil. How, 
if no more than this can be made out for “ the 
poor man’s manure,” it is yet better than some 
of the patent fertilizers of our day. 
Snow helps the springs and mill-streams in 
Winter. Were the ground naked from Fall to 
Spring, and frozen meanwhile several feet deep, 
the springs would give out, and water-wheels of 
all sorts would have to stand still. As it is. 
