A cistern ten feet across will hold for each foot in depth 18.65 barrels of water. Ten feet of water in such a cistern would be 186 1-2 barrels, or for 20 feet 373 barrels, more than enough for one barrel per day for family use. A house with 1200 feet of roof space, the amount on a 30x40 foot house, would catch in the course of the year about 600 barrels of water, and but little additional roof, say from wood shed, ice house, etc., would be necessary to increase the amount to enough to furnish two barrels per day for family use, an amount, in my estimation, adequate. Of course the cistern need not be large enough to hold this full amount, the rains being, as they are, distributed through the year. An adjunct to the underground cistern which I would strongly recommend is a water tank in the upper part of the house. Such a tank can be readily put into many houses now built, and when a new one is being put up this point should be well considered. Having a capacity of 20 or 30 barrels, placed under the roof and connected by pipes with at least all of the rooms on the second floor, it would prove a great convenience, and would also be a safeguard against fire. Such a tank might be so located and made as to receive the first of the rain, and when the roof has become thoroughly cleansed the water could then be turned into the ground cistern. The tank water can be used for bathing and washing purposes, and being connected with the cistern by a force pump could be replenished when exhausted.

Cisterns for stock water can be made of a different form from those at the house, which it is desirable should be quite deep so as to keep the water cool. The barn cistern need not be over 10 feet deep, may be rectangular in form, say 10 or 15 feet wide and as long as is thought desirable. Such a cistern can be dug with a team, plow and scraper with but little hand labor, except in the walling. In respect to cistern walls in our western clay any wall that will prevent caving in is all that is needed. A cavity in this clay will, ordinarily, hold water as surely as a jug. If, however, the cistern is sunk in porous soil, then a cemented wall must be built.

The length of this paper will not allow me to go into the details of cistern construction, and it must suffice to say that they should be made so that no water from the ground surface can enter, and no vermin get in. It should be so that it can be easily entered and cleaned out, and yet be so that children and animals cannot fall in. In walling up, the walls should be arched at the top and clay be filled in by and over it, and tamped down. A good pump is also a necessity in a well or cistern. The open well curb from which the aforementioned "Old Oaken Bucket" is so often drawn, is an abomination. It is a constant menace to the lives of the children and a source of anxiety to

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parents, and serves as a catch-all for dust, leaves, sticks, milk pail and contents, rats, mice, kitten, etc.

Close it up and put in a good force pump, which will be easier to draw water with than with bucket and windlass. In the days gone by when the women folks drew all of the water for household use, it did not make so much difference, perhaps, but in these days of more advanced civilization when the men folks try to make the burden lighter for their wives, sisters and mothers, it will be necessary to have an easy working pump for the men to use, or what will suit them still better, a wind mill, which will pump the water into the house tank.

BREEDING OF GOOD PAYING, HEALTHY STOCK.

BY DR. PAUL PAQUIN, M. D., V. S.,

State Veterinary Inspector of Missouri, delivered at Farmers' meetings held at Appleton City and Soleville.

The man who raises stock naturally desires and hopes to get good paying animals. When he breeds a mare he wishes to get a fine colt; when he breeds cows he wishes results that will make him some money. And so on in the various species of stock. Yet how very few seriously study the problem of breeding from a sound basis. How many trust to what is conveniently called luck. In fact, most of people seem to believe that the result of breeding can hardly be controlled to any beneficial extent. It is an error. The raising of stock can be more or less influenced by man for better or for worse from the moment the male and female are coupled.

It is a matter of business, based upon a scientific foundation. is this scientific foundation, therefore, that man should understand to raise stock intelligently. Let us then study the subject.

HEREDITY.

By heredity, as you all know, is meant the transmission of certain things by parents to their immediate or distant offsprings. This is so in civil life, and it is so in animal life. Thus a father and mother transmit certain of their characters to their offsprings. In this application to breeding the laws of heredity may be divided into three sections: 1st. The individual heredity power.

2nd. The ancestral heredity power.

3rd. Consanguineous (or family) heredity power.

By the individual heredity faculty is meant the power of any individual to produce offsprings with characters like its own. For example, we frequently see stallions producing colts like themselves in the great majority of cases, no matter what mare they had been crossed with. The knowledge that certain breeding animals of both sexes,. especially males, have proven that they possess this heredity reproductive power is of the greatest value to whoever wishes to direct the generation of animals for profit. In fact, it is the most important one in ordinary cases where a good individual has to be crossed with a scrub. In such an occasion we should always select a first class ani. mal; that generally produces its like to a great extent. Circumstances are such, that as a rule, this should be looked for in the male, for there are more scrub female animals than males kept for breeding purposes..

The ancestral heredity power (atavism) is known to have had in-fluence on the young when it presents characters that existed in the grandparents (more or less remote), and which were not present in father or mother. For instance, a calf or a colt appears occasionally that presents characters that neither father nor mother possessed, but that some ancestors had. The evidences that such retrogradations occur are not uncommon, but can hardly be applied successfully, and with much benefit, if any, in breeding stock.

Finally, the family or consanguineous heredity power is that which is shown by the constant reproduction in a given breed of animals, of special points and characters that have existed in it since its origin, or that have been acquired early in its history. It is mainly by the intelligent application of this power that the striking uniform characters of Hereford, Shorthorn or Jersey cattle respectively; and Clydesdale, Norman, Cleveland Bay horse respectively, have constantly reproduced the characters proper to their special breeds since their origin. This law, it is obvious, is easily controlled by intelligent in and in breeding,. which is so praised by many and so severely condemned by others,. whilst it is beyond a doubt, one of the most useful to consult and follow wisely, for the production and reproduction of good characters that have existed since long in certain strains of animals and in creating new artificial breeds. Indeed, I may say at this point that to produce pure stock of a definite breed, breeding with close relatives or inbreeding frequently must be resorted to. And why does it fail and produce occasionally puny, sickly, and perhaps, consumptive subjects? Leaving aside a few exceptions, it is because in coupling the subjects. the director of such operations did not make a wise selection. And what is a wise selection for in and in breeding, you may ask?

It is one in which no weak point exists in either the male or female, and especially the selection of subjects that do not possess similar weaknesses, defects or disease. For if by the individual heredity power of which we have first spoken, an animal may produce its like, how more surely when bred together, will two individuals possessing the same characters, good or bad, may produce their like. You frequently hear that this and that family are consumptive families. Exactly, and the poor constitution was brought about (except in acquired cases) by breeding poorly constituted individuals, thereby . bringing into play both the individual and family heredity power. On the other hand, it is plain to see that under the influence of the same powers, breeding of close relatives having no bad qualities, will produce good stock as a rule.

It is not possible in a short paper to give all the means and ways to apply these principles of breeding, however, and I shall confine myself from this point to a narrow but very interesting part, that which heredity laws play, concerning the health and soundness of live stock. I will endeavor to explain the means to prevent the generation of weakly, unsound and diseased animals and of animals prone to various maladies.

The heredity laws, I need not explain further, stand true regarding the reproduction of bad as well as of good points. But there are certain defects which are so commonly reproduced by heredity that they have been called heredity defects, whilst others are seldom reproduced in the young, and still others of an accidental nature are probably never transmitted by heredity. Thus we see that in the ignorance of what is and what is not hereditary, it were better never to breed weakly, ill-conformed, lame or diseased subjects. Indeed, this were the safest policy always. But in some respects it is too sweeping, and to adopt it would work hardships to the limited breeders and the farmers who have limited means. For instance, a bony callous at the region of the hock joint, due to a fracture, is not an hereditary defect, whilst a spavin, which is a bony tumor, apparently of the same nature, and which is located on the same articulation, is considered hereditary. Thus, as a general rule, most of affections accidentally acquired are not hereditary in their nature, with the exception of a few which become so after the malady has made a deep impression on the constitution.

Taking everything into consideration, the following diseases should always be considered hereditary: Consumption (or Tuberculosis), periodical ophthalmia (or moon-eye so called), spavins, ringbones, chronic navicular disease (coffin point lameness).