The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-03-09
The Brattleboro Meeting.-.NO. 6.
MIR. BowKER's PAPER" HEALTH ON
THE FARM"

Is IRE, Mass, a1ltrWaruS known as The
+ lsworth place, located, so to speak,
up among the clouds, where we know
the air is fresh, and we believe pure.
But air, we are told, has less influence
than water; for if the water is not
hcalthful one may have all the fresh
winds that blow from the purest ai
tudes, yet sickness is sooner or later
bound TO prevail. One would naturally
suppose that man like General Lee,
OF Revolutionary fame, whose family
originally took up this farm and owned
/, for more than hundred years, would
have been careful as ~ The location of
the wells and The sanitation OF the farm
buildings. But | found here almost
the same thing duplicated that existed
Oh my fathers place, although / am
bound to say that the well from which
the wafer was taken was not exactly
under the sill of the house, but was
about twenty-five feet from it and Just
below the hog-pen, in which hogs had
been kept for fifty years, more or less.
suppose hogs are good in their place,
aud are an essential thing on the farm
to eat up the refue. In old times,
when they made cheese at home, it was
very convenient to have the pen near
the house, so that the whey and milk
could be- easily disposed of. Hence the
hog-pen used to be hitched on to the
ell of the house, as fear is too often
the case now. But at my own farm
h I'd great objection to drinking water
from a well that was only twenty five
feet away from the hog-pen, and the
iop of which was fully two feet lower
than the bog-pen itself, so that if it did
not get the drainage water it was likely
in extremely wet times to get more or
less of the surface water or wash from
the hog pen.
But this was not all. The discharge
from one of the sinks in the ell part of
The house was into blind cesspool, and
when tell you that this cesspool was
within fifteen feet of, and above, the
we'll from which drinking water was
drawn, you will not be surprised that
sickness of a more or less malignant
character was beginning to break out
on this farm just before | bought it.
God only knows where we should have
all been if this state of things had
been continued after it came into my
possession. / need not tell you that
This was Immediately changed that
every vestige of the hog. pen, together
with the surface dirt, was cleared away
to a considerable depth, as well as the
cesspool itself. AS to the stones in the
C, spool, they were a disgusting sight
to behold. They were completely COW
cred with black filth, while the earth
tor some distance around was saturated
with sewage, all of which was tend.
ing toward that uever-faling well of
pure water" which always exists on
every farm when offered for sale.
The main drain from the house was
another curiosity. 1t was a square
d ain, like those you see in swamp,
stoned up, with fat stones on top, rum
ming under part of the house, turning a
sharp angle and finally discharging by
the side of the road within twenty feet
of the front of the house and the piazza
upon which guests were entertained in
the summer time. Now this was not
so bad, because it was the intention
always to keep the outlet filed up with
dry earth as an absorbent. But in sum-
m1r time work would drive on the
farm; hay must be got in and crops must
be hoed and the drain would be neg
lected. The southwest winds, how
ever, would blow, aud with them would
come the fumes of decaying drainage
which would fill the house with any
thing but a delightful odor. And Just
before breakfast, is there anything
more sckening than the odor from a
good oldfashioned country sink drain?
OF course this was remedied and it is
now carried out of the house in four
inch drain pipe cemented together,
some 1900 or 1000 feet away to a cess
pool with an overflow on to the moving
where it entails no expense or trouble
to look after it, where it enriches the
grass, and can in no way contaminate
the water of any we'll or be blown back
into the house. While feel safer now
that l know there is no hog-pen or
cess-pool within a few feet of the well
or any water left to stagnate under the
windows of my sleepiug-room, should
feel better if l could obtain the water
from spring far removed from my
house, away from all possible contain
nation, and l am taking steps to see il
this cannot be done. Although l be.
ieve now have pure water and good
drainage, l make it practice to use
corrosive sublimate every few months
in both my city and country home. Ii
is deadly poison, but it is the only
sure disinfectant.
Soon after the purchase of this new
place sickness began to prevail in the
family. The writer, being the young
est member, was taken with scarlet
fever, and, recovering from that
within year had mild form of ty
phoid fever; and again, twelve months
later, had the same fever in very
dangerous form. For the first tifteer
years every member Of the family
seven in all, were sufferers from ty
phoid fever at one time or another, anc
one sister died of this disease. There
was not year but that some member
of the family was sick, either from dys
EMERY, typhoid or scarlet fever, Of
other diseases which are supposed tC
emanate from germs, Surely, if w
had not come of a tough race, our an
cestors on both sides living to rip'
old age, firmly believe there woulC
have been none left to tell the tale.
Aocordinu IN all an, horitv the he