The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-11-14
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
Water supply of Farms.

Water supply of Farms.
An agricultural Engineer writes to
the Country Gentleman: During the past
year, have taken pains to note the stu
alton of more than hundred farm wells
and cisterns, and more than half Of them
IRE in dangerous proximity to cesspools,
some of which have been in use for scores
of years; most of them, however. have
been emptied every spring for the ma
nure in them; bnt this, even, has little
effect in preventing the inevitable pol
\ luton Of the water supply. A large pro
\portion of the farms have wells quite
CLOSE to the manure yards and stables
IN one of these homesteads, of family of
seven, but one survived to thirty years of
age, and the survivor came very near dy
ing of an abcess of the liver, no doubt
superinduced by the unwholesome water
supply. 1t is to be hoped that these facts
will give rise to investigation in such
cases comparison with the following
points and the condition of the water
supply may be useful
/. There is no well safe that is not
perfectly well protected from surface
water and the entrance of worms, frogs,
toads and small insects and vermin. The
well should be curbed up above the sur
face with bricks or stone, laid in cement,
or well plastered outside with lime NOR
tar, so that the ground slopes in all di-
rectlons, and prevents any pools of sur
face water from remaining within twenty
feet of the well.
2. 1t is common but mistaken belief
that a well should be open to the air for
ventilation. The reason given is that
carbonic acid or foul air will gather in
the well No doubt at times this gas
gathers in wells, but in every case it is
in wells that are open to the air, and are
fouled with decomposing organic matter.
The purest water comes from drive wells
and artesian wells, to which the outer
air cannot gain access. Carbonic acid
gas, too, is only dangerous when breathed.
ltspresence in water greatly improves it,
and a person who drinks one glass of
soda water, or sedlitz powder, takes
more carbonic acid gas than could be
taken in ten barrels of any well water.
3. A well should therefore be tightly
closed in at the top, and closely cufbed
to the bottom, and every possible en-
trance should be closed against worms
and all other living creatures
4. A well cannot be safe from under
ground drainage, unless it is dug down
below bed of clay which slopes or in
clines from the well toward any barn
yard, cesspool or other source of polu-
ton, irrespective of distance; for when
drainage flow occurs through the soil, it
is only a question Of time when it will
reach the well, although it may be one
hundred, two hundred or more feet
from the source of the impurities, if the
slope of the subsoil, gravel, hardpan or
claw, is from the source of the drainage
to the well. In porous, sandy soil or
gravel, the deeper the well, the sooner it
will become fouled by any drainage
.. A cesspool or barnyard should al
ways be located on lower ground than
the house and the well, or any spring
from which the water is drawn If this
is not possible, the cesspool should be
made with an impervious bottom of
cement saturated with gas tar or melted
asphalt, and drain made of glazed
pipes, cemented at the joints, to carry
the liquid from it to a distant place
where it may be used in making compost.
6. A well should be carried down to a
permanent boiling spring which enters
thC pOttOLi, anu lilcu llHcu WITH cement
tiles, the joints of which should be care
fully closed; or the lining should be
made of brick, laid in cement, or if of
wood, of hemlock plank, laid with close
joints. No other wood but hemlock
should be used for we'll curb. The
common system of boring wells by ma
chincry is the best and safest, and when
good supply of water is procured, the
bore should be filled with cement pipe.
Where water is near the surface, q drive
well is the best and safest.
In conclusion l would remark that the
best time to dig a we'll is in the driest
part of the season; and when an existing
well is dry in dry time, it would pay
to take that opportunity to deepen the
we'll down to permanent, water even if
pressing work is put aside until this has
been done. And lastly, considering the
serious consequences of any lapse in Sc
curing purity in the water supply, it
would be better to spend $500 or $500
over it, and do without parlor organ or
piano, or costly furnishing for parlor
or fancy road wagon, if both cannot be
afforded; but a great deal of the cost
may be saved by going the right way to
work about it.