To the planter and stockman, a flowing spring is worth a great deal of
money. Properly cared for, it will afford cold, sweet water for the
house, the dairy, and the watering tanks. Improperly protected, it is
not merely a mud hole, a nuisance to the milker of dairy cows, but is
too frequently the cause of disease.
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To improve a spring, first open up the channel and drain out all the
water possible. Clean out the spring so as to increase its flow. Lay
the necessary feed pipes to the house and barn. Wall up the well of the
spring with concrete blocks, laid without mortar to a point just above
the in-flow streams of the spring. Complete the walls with blocks laid
in 1: 2 cement-sand mortar, or, using wooden forms, with a 6-inch
solid wall of 1: 2: 4 concrete. Carry these walls high enough to keep
surface water out of the spring well. If the spring is to be used as
a drinking tank for stock, make the walls equal to the usual depth of
such tanks. (See WATERING TROUGHS AND TANKS, page 74.) Lay a
4-inch floor of 1: 2½: 5 concrete (on a drainage foundation) 10 feet
around the field spring on all sides.
At the edges of the floor, turn down a concrete “apron” or foundation,
2 feet into the ground, the same as for FEEDING FLOORS, page 43. This
prevents the frost from getting under the floor and cracking it.
Make provision for the over-flow at a point where it can be carried to
the stream by a gutter in the floor, or by a drain tile under it.
With such improvement, since there is no mud, the stock cannot mire and
the udders of the dairy cows are always clean.
To keep rats and rabbits out of springs from which the water is drawn
for house use, provide a concrete cover like that described for
UNDERGROUND CISTERNS, page 69. For small springs this cover is often
made removable as shown in the photograph on page 73.
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