Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1876 — Pure and Impure Water. [ARTICLE]

Pure and Impure Water.

If there is any one subject connected with agriculture which requires more attention than another it is that of pure water for stock. We believe that many of the virulent diseases known under such names as >; black-leg and murrain of various kinds, frequently if not always have their origin in impure water which the animals are compelled to drink. In many localities in this country a “mudhole” filled with stagnant ram water is the only source of supply for farm animals during the long hot summer, and it is no wonder that diseases of various kinds follow suoh treatment. The Farmer»' Gazette, in treating of this subject, tells some wholesome truths which it would be well for our farmers to heed Although we have had of late some rain, which has certainly done much good, there is still a great scarcity of water in many pastures. We do not think that sufficient care is usually taken to provide against such a contingency, or to husband supplies of water, when these are apt to fail in seasons of drought. We know that some maintain that sheep do not require water when on grass; but thl# is a great mistake, especially when the weather is so excessively hot and parching as we have recently experienced. During a hot, dry summer which occurred some yeare ago, we found that in an extensive sheep grazing district ewes and lambs were in much better condition whea they had full access to pure, running streams than was the case when the sheep pastures were not so well provided; the grass in both cases being in an equally burnt-up condition. But even when the weather has been cooler, the want of pure water in abundance tells on the health of sheep, just as it does on the health of cattle; and as over-wet pastures have their own peculiar diseases, in like manner over-dry pastures engender disease which not unfrequently is attributed to other causes. A friend of ours, who took an interest in such matters, measured, one hot summer the water consumed daily by a lot of cattle, and as it had to be pumped for them, the quantity used was easily ascertained. The result of his observations was that thirty-six head of cattle consumed daily about 900 gallons of water. Now, bearing this fact in mind, what must be the state of cattle carried by railway and steamboat, when they are confined for twenty-four hours, and In some instances for periods varying in length up to sixty hours, without getting a drop of water all the time, not to speak of the terrible shaking which cattle experience during a journey by rail, and the fatigue caused by their being unable to lie down ? Is it possible that animals treated in this way can arrive at Che and of their journey in a healthy state, or that their flesh can be in a wholesome state for use as human form ? ■ • ISi,;.;. -

Every medical man knows that impure water is a fertile source of disease in human beings, and innumerable outbreaks of disease of a typhoid nature have been distinctly traced to this cause. In India the use of impure water is certain to be followed by choleraic disease. In the fatal march from Mhow the connection between the outbreak of cholera In the troops and the quality of water they drank was easily perceived. Nothing but the raging thirsty which well nigh maddened the men, would have tempted them to drink the water procured on the line of march. But they were forced to choose between an intolerable craving for water and running the risk of catching choleraic disease, ana th£y chose the latter. Within twenty-four hours nearly all who had indulged freely In drinking the impure water were prostrated with cholera, and died in the proportion of eight to ten. There does not exist two sets of sanitary principles, one affecting human beings and the other the beasts of the field. ImSi water, Imperfect ventilation, dirt, p and scarcity of food exercise injurious influences on the health of. our domestic animals, just as those agents do in the case of human beings; ana every practical man should therefore seek to remove those sources of evil as speedily as possible. A correspondent, who resides in a western county, states that it is most distressing to see cattle driven daily for miles along the dry, dusty loads in order to reach water; and if numbers of those cattle should afterward succumb to disease, it will not be difficult to discover the cause. Splenic apoplexy is frequently caused by impure water, and also by an insufficient supply of water, even when it is pure. This is a blood disease, runs its course with great rapidity, and is exceedingly fatal. Hyposulphite of soda, given in the water which the animals drink, in doses of from two to four ounces, according to the size of the animal, will be useful as a preventive; but, of course, it can only be used when the cattle drink from troughs. —Rural New Yorker.