The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-09-27
The Sanitary Peril on the Farm.

Farmers often dilate upon the pure
air and healthy surroundings of the
country where they have the good fort
une to live. Nature has done much for
the country, but few farmers have
studied the effect of an improper ar
rangement of necessary conveniences
about buildings.
The well is, perhaps, the most inn
pOrtant matter relating to health on the
farm. Pure water is as necessary as
pure air, and few have studied all the
sources of impurity in water 1t is
quite common to find the well. the barn
yard and the privy not far separated
from each other. 1t is a prevalent idea
that if the well be on higher ground,
there is no danger of concentrating the
water. 1t does not seem to be under
stood that the position of the we'll is to
be considered from its bottom, and not
from its top. A drain draws towards
its bottom and the deeper a well is, the
greater the distance it will drain. 1t is
quite true that the natural formation of
the earth about a well has something to
do with the determination of water to-
ward it. When it is placedin a natural
sag in the earth, where the strata all
descend to it, forming a natural basin,
this is the most unfortunate situation
III Il WE'LL 1uCItdSluD lIG 1IdDiIllK Oh
drawing Contaminating matter into it.
Then, the nature of the soil has very
much to do with it. A porous or
gravelly soil will conduct water from
long distance, and the liquid of a barn
yard twenty or even thirty or more rods
distant may find its way into the well.
In such a situation, therefore, the we'll
should be the more carefully guarded
from the sources of contamination.
Very many wells have no real spring in
the bottom, but are supplied by q filter
inc of water from all directions into
them. Such wells seem to give salts
faction when water is plentiful, but
when drouth intervenes, and the great
source of supply, the rainfall, ceases,
then the water that percolates into the
well is so highly charged with efIete
matter that it is noticed at once, and
condemned as unfit for use. When the.
rains come again, and dilute the often.
sive matters, the water is then called
good again. But it must be seen that
the quality of the water is only COM
paratively good at any time
A clayey soil Is the greatest safeguard
against filtration from much of a dis
lance, and what filters through it gets
pretty we'll purified. Clay is great
absorbent of etfete nitrogenOus matters
the most dangerous matters that get
into water. 1t has the power of holding
ammonia, which is given off by decay
ing matter
A layer of clay, from one to four feet
thick, sometimes overlies sand or gravel,
and then the water that filters through
it is, generally, well purified before it
reaches the gravel. But this can not
always be depended upon. Hon George
4.
at Syracuse, n. Y, who, determined to.
make sure of the best water, bored
through twenty feet of clay and struck
layer of gravel. He now thought
himself assured of absolutely pure
water. But what was his surprise on
finding the water so offensive that the
stencil from its boiling could not be
borne. On inquiry, it was found that
this layer of clay was very thin some
eighty rods distant and the gravel came
near the surface, so that the privies of
that part of the city leached into that
layer of gravel-hence his vile wafer
On an elevated stretch of land. where
the wind reaches it from every side, a.
low type of fever (typhoid) sometimes
appears, and so puzzles good people as
to its cause, that they would fain attrib-
ute it to a special providence. But it is
4 SDCNLdA DAAd1SAAiA4CBLs 1CSu4lIllZ 1lO14
drinking bad water. Typhoid fever
never comes except as the result of bad
water: oT~s4mpure air. 1t frequently
romeg from poisoning the well, as we
,h$fe said, BY filtration from the privy
'=or barn-yard, or from the Stops of the
kitchen. The privy should always have
a concrete or absolutely water-tight
vault. to arrange that the contents can
easily be taken to the field, where its
fertilizing matter will largely Over-pay
all the labor required.
Dry, sifted coal ashes, or road dust,
should always be kept at hand, and
small quantity be thrown into the vault
every day. This viii deodorize the CON
tents, and preserve its fertilizing value
Stops should always. be conducted by
a tight drain into u vat, half filed with
earth When filled. let il be hauled,
earth and all, TO the field or manure
pile. and all will be saved, and the air
kept pure National Lice Stock Journal