The St. Johns herald., 1900-04-21
TIMELY HINTS FOR FARMERS. NO. IA.
By THE EXPERIMENT STATION CHEMIST
THE ADOBE HOLE"


 In early times, when there were but
 few settlers, and each man was welcome
 to continuous flow of water in his ditch
 es, there was no need to store water for
 stock in the artificial ponds commonly
 known as "adobe holes" or stock water tanks. But when increasing irrigation
 made it necessary to shut off the run of
 water from each ditch in turn, the farm
 CTS of Salt River valley met the emer-
 gency by digging tanks large enough to
 hold sufficient water for their animals
 while their ditches were dry.
 The device was cheap, and met the e.
 mergencv; but there is serious question
 as to whether it should be permanently
 adopted. The adobe holes in Arizona
 are nearly all found in the Salt River val
 ley There are very few in the Buckeye
 country and on the upper Gila they are
 practically unknown. A recent count by
 an employee of the Experiment Station discovered 338 stock water tanks south of Salt River, and 291 to the north-a to- tai Of 629. The count was made from section lines and doubtless many were not seen. It is safe to say there are 75O adobe holes in the whole valley. They are much more thickly placed south of the river. especially near Mesa, where the farms are small and many animals are kept. Under the Tempe canal there are very few, provision being there made Tor a. continuous run of stock water They are especially numerous along the principal laterals, and at the edge of cultivation where water is scarce. North of the river, where the ranches are lar ger and much grain and fruit are grown, they are fewer. South of Salt River, stock water tanks average 4.3 to the section on 79 sections to the north they average 2 2 on 1O6 sections.
 Such is the why and the where of the adobe hole but it's merits as modern institutions are seriously in question
 In the first place ihe quality of the wa ter for drinking purposes, especially at fOod-time. is bad. Chemical analysis, and, Oftentimes. the evidenre of ones own nose and eyes. show 1t to be full of animal and vegetable impurities swept into the water courses from the surface of the desert. Last November when Ina ri f.l Inf nf it's best, sample taken at Point of Rocks, near Tempe. was found by the chemists of the Station to contain excess i've amounts of organic matter and ammonia, and no less than 400 times as much nitrous nitrogen as is considered permissible in water. These substances are not poisonous in themselves, for both men and animals use and sonnet mes e. ven prefer river water; but these Impur- ities afford food for bacterial forms of life, some of which may cause disease. in warm weather, where such i water is allowed to stagnate in stock | water tanks, these germs multiply enOr- mously. Ofcou~se a certain disease l germ may or may not be present, but i such conditions invite and favor it's de- i There is no question that : Inc germs of hog-cholera and blackleg, | both of which have caused serious losses in Salt River Valley, are propagated in water of these tanks. The doctors state, also, that the same cause is responsible for much disease and mor- tglity among the farming population.
 Again, the adobe hole is notoriously in conflict with dairying interests. When a cow wades belly deep into filthy tank, in the heat, and fouled with her milk will inevitably sui fer Not only will the foul odors of the water she drinks be imparted in some measure to the milk, but millions of bac- :eria adheriDg to her hair and udder will, when she is dried off and milked, find their way as dust into tie milk pail. Quick souring of milk in warm weather and undesirable changes in bntter and cheese, caused by bacteria result.
 One sample of water from an adobe