The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-01-02
four UTILITIES
NEEDED ON FARM
Good Water Is One of Prime
Essentials for Safe and
Comfortable Living.
LIGHTING ALSO NECESSARY
Surface and Underground Drainage
Should Be Considered in Locating
Wells to Avoid Contamination
Wood Lot Desirable.

A good water supply, a complete
Sewage-disposal plant, and effective
heating and lighting systems cOnsti-
tute the four prime utilities of the
farm home, the foundations of safe,
comfortable living. To secure these
ends in greatest measure, thought and
planning are necessary. If the proce-
dure is haphazard, if the parts are not
correlated, there is neither economy
in the construction nor satisfaction in
the operation of the plant.
When locating the well, the direc-
ton of surface and underground drain
age should be considered, to the end
that the water supply may not be con-
taminated by the sink drain, cesspool,
or other sources of filth. The unused
water from a spring or flowing well
may be made valuable if brought to
watering trough, cooling tank, fish
pond, or swimming pool, or harvested
as ice. A saving may be effected by
laying two lines of pipe in one trench
The engine which drives the pump
may operate other useful appliances,
such as a dynamo, saw, washing ma
chine, cream separator, or churn.
A notable example of home-planned
utilities is found upon a farm in north
ern Utah. By personal planning and
hard work, the owner Of this farm
gradually has equipped his house with
q pressure water system, laundry
containing a power washing machine,
wringer, mang1e, and drying machine,
a heating plant, electric lights, electric
range, electric heaters for emergency
use in chambers, and vacuum clean
ing system.
Sanitary Farm Water Supply.
Observation indicates that on the
average three out of four farm wells
are located within IS feet Of the back
door of the house and in the direction
of the barn. That convenience and
first cost-not safety-have been the
deciding factors in thousands of such
locations is a fact made evident by the
proximity of barnyards, pig pens, pas
lures, fertilized fields, sink drains
privies, cesspools and house yards rem
dered insanitary by chickens, Stops
garbage, and other filth. Too fire
Quently the leach from these or Other
sources of filth, after joining the
ground water, moves with greater OF
less directness to wells and springs
seriously impairing the water supply
by organic impurity or grossly poison
ing it with human sewage.
Among other ways by which surface
waters and open or poorly covered
wells and springs are contaminated o.
receive noxiOus substances are: Sur
face wash from roads, ranges, or th'
other sources Of filth above mentioned
bodily entry OF stock and poultry o.
their droppings; filth from the shoe
of careless farm hands and children
drippings from the dipper or buckle
handled by carriers of disease; dus
and leaves from the air: and entry o
worms, bugs, spiders, toads, frogs
mice, snakes, cats, or other anima
life, which through death and decOn
position may impart to the water dis
agreeable odor and taste and perhap
more serious characteristics.
Deterioration of water may be du
to still other causes that make it III
wholesome but not, so far as known
destructive OF health. Among such ar
unusual dissolving of mineral salt
from the earth, washings from ella
that produce a milky appearance, dis
cOloration from mineral or vegetabl
matter, admixture Of mineral or vegt
table oils, absorption Of of1ensiv