The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-09-21
Pure and Impure Water.

II there Is any one subject connected
with agriculture which requires more at
tention than another it is that of pure
water for stock. We believe that many of
the virulcnt diseases known under such
names as black-leg and murrain of va
rious 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 mud
hole' filled with stagnant rain water is
the only source of supply for farm ami
mails during the long hot summer, and it
is no wonder that diseases of various
kinds follow such treatment. The Fa,m-
ere Gazette, in treating of this subject,
tells some wholesome truths which it
would be we'll for our farmers to heed
Although we have had of late some rain,
which has certainly done much good,
there is still great scarcity of water in
many pastures. We do not think that suf-
ticient care is usually taken to provide
against such contingency, or to husband
supplies of water, when these arc apt to
fail in seasons of drought. We know that
some maintain that sheep do not require
water when on grass; but this is great
| mistake, especially when the weather is
so excessively hot and parching as we
have recently experienced.
During hot, dry summer which &C.
CURED some years ago, we found that in
an extensive sheep grazing district ewes
and lambs were in much better condition
when they had full access to pure, run
ming streams than was the case when the
sheep pastures were not so we'll provided;
the grass in both cases being in an equal
ly 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 engcnder dis
ease which not unfrequcntly is attributed
to other causes.
A friend of ours, who took an interest
mer the water consumed daily by lot of
cattle, and as it had to be pumped for
them, the quantity used was easily ascer-
tanned. The result of his observations
was that thirty-six head of cattle con-
sumed daily about 900 gallons of water.
Now, bearing this fact in mind, what
must be the state of cattle carried by rail-
way and steamboat, when they are con-
fined for twenty four hours, and in some
instances for periods varying in length up
to sixty hours, without getting 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 the end of their journey
in a healthy state, or that their flesh can
be in a wholesome state for use as human
form?
Every medical man knows that impure
water is fertile source of disease in
human beings, and innumerable outbreaks
of disease of 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 thirst, which we'll 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, and they chose the latter. With.
in twenty -four hours nearly all who had
INDUCED freely in drinking the impure
water were Frustrated with cholera, and
died in the proportion of eightto ten.
There does not exist two sets of sanitary
principles, one affecting human beings
| and the other the beasts of the field. I'm
pure water, imperfect ventilation, dirt,
damp and scarcity Of food exercise in
furious influences on the health of our
domestic animals, just as those agents do
in the case of human beings; and every
| practical man should therefore seek to
remove those sources of evil as speedily
as possible. A correspondent, who re-
sides in western county, states that it
is most distressing to see cattle driven
daily for miles along the dry, dusty