Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-11-21
LITTLE LEAKS.

Dairying is an occupation in which
the same things are done over and
over again for 365 days in the year.
Consequently it is little leaks that oc-
cur daily, and seem insignificant each
time they happen, that must be
watched, for in the aggregate they
count up and make the debit side of
the ledger overbalance the credit side.
The loss Of few tenths of a per
cent. of fat in the skim milk or in the
buttermilk don't seem to amount to
much, perhaps, but when it happens
every day it amounts to a good deal
by the end Of the year. We went into
depot a day or two ago where they
kept buttermilk on draught, and call
ed for a glass, for in our opinion there
are few summer beverages superior
to a good glass Of buttermilk. We
got it and it was good, but the amount
of butter that was floating on top
Of the glass was a disgrace to econom-
ical dairy work. Such practice kept
up for year would make quite hole
in the income from a good herd of
COWS. There are other leaks similar
in kind, in feeding, in milking, in
skimming, etc., little in themselves,
but large in the aggregate, because
happening every day, that go far to-
wards helping to making dairying I'M
profitable. There are great many
dairy farmers who are doing we'll,
but there are very few who are doing
as we'll as they might, and it is at this
point of small but continually recur-
ring leaks that a very large number of
them fail
The Water Supply
If a person has had a tube-well
driven in place that is contaminated,
his only remedy is to remove the we'll
to safe location. But there are
places where the ground itself seems
to contain elements inimical to health,
and the Secretary of the North Caro-
lima State Board of Health cites the
case of a region where all the fami-
lies but one suffered perennially from
chills and fever. They all drank we'll
water but the exempt one, whose head
had such a fixed aversion to we'll
water, that he had a good cistern and
drank only from it, Probably if peo-
pie could overcome a prejudice against
rain-water, and would expend a little
thought and care on the cistern, the
problem would be solved. In the
eastern United States the annual rain
fall is about thirty-seven inches, and
a roof "a by 80 will yield more than
twenty thousand gallons. This would
allow more than ten gallons a day for
each member of an ordinary family. A
cistern five feet deep and ten feet wide
would be sufficient for a month-and
few months pass in which the supply
would not be replenished. The con-
struction of the cistern should be the
subject of earnest study and care, as
it must keep out the saltwater. A
brick cistern we'll cemented will last
many years. Of course water col
lected from a roof is liable to be con-
taminated by dust and other matters,
and the leader-pipe into it should be
so arranged that when rain comes on
the first washings can be turned away
But even then to secure a water with
pleasant taste it should be filtered;
and in order to do this a brick parti-
ton should be placed in the middle,
reaching nearly to the top, and having
several openings at the bottom. On
the side where the leader-pipe brings
in the water should be a filter, made
of gravel at the bottom, fine gravel
above, and sand at the top. The pump
is fixed into the side opposite to the
filter. A cistern ten feet in diameter
and five feet deep will hold two thous-
and gallons. If a man SO desires he
can have water under pressure by ar
ranging a tank at the top of his house
to be filled from the roof with pipes