Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-01-09


for having drunk its dseaseladen output. In
vestigations made by the United States depart
ment of agriculture indicate that only small.
minority of farm-Water supplies can be classed
as unqualifedly safe and desirable. On the aver
age three out of four farm wells are located with
in IS feet of back door of the house and in
the direction of the barnyard
That convenience and first cost, not safety
have been the deciding factors in such cases is
made evident by the nearness of barnyards pig
pens, pastures, fortified fields sink drains priv
les, cesspools, and areas rendered insanitary by
chickens. Stops, and other filth. Too frequently
the seepage from these and other sources, after
Joining the ground water, moves to wells and
springs, impairing the water supply by impurity,
and may be grossly poisonous.
- Sewage Disposal.
Popular indifference to the effective disposal
Of sewage has existed so long and so universally
that only within comparatively recent years has
it been realized that this waste product of hui
man life is poisonous and must be kept from the
food and drink of man. From the specific germs
or poison that may be carried in sewage at any
time there may result typhoid fever, tuberculo-
sis, hookworm disease, cholera, dysentery, diar-
Ehea or other ailments, and it is not improbable
that certain obscure maadies may be traced event
ually to the poisonous effects of drainage from hui
man waste The poison is invisible to the naked
eye and it may be carried by many agencies, by
into the human body Typhoid fever is peculiarly
a rural disease, and many instances clearly indi-
cate serious neglect of responsibility with regard
= to sanitation by people who live in the country.
Not to dispose of sewage promptly invites nui-
sance but not to dispose of sewage cleanlys and
completely invites disease. 1t is not enough that
human filth is taken so, Is, 100, $50 feet
away from a well spring. or that 1T is
/ taken merely to lower ground. Given loose or
open subsoil seany ledge, or long-continued pollu-
6on of one plat of ground, the zone of contamina-
ton is likely to extend and readily may reach
quite distant wells, especially at such times rs
well waters are lowered by drought or heavy
pumping. Whatever the system of sewage dis
posal it should be entirely and widely sepa-
rated from the water supply, and if possible,
the surface of the sewage in any leaky privy,
vault or cesspool should be lower than the low
EST water in any nearby well. The United
States department of agriculture has prepared
bulletin No. 49, from its 1916 Yearbook enti-
tied Sewage Disposal the Farm" which gives
details regarding various types of outhouses, sug
gestions regarding plumbing. cesspools, septic
tanks and related subjects. This pamphlet will
\be mailed free on request
Pure Water the Need
One of the first and obvious needs of Ameri-
can farms is pure water supply. From the
standpoint of the housewife, second only in 4m-
portance to purity, is the installation of water
Continued pumping will not improve water in
well if the sources which feed it are permanent
" at fault. Wells cannot be located in all cases
to be wholly free from pollution, but the great
est safeguards are clean ground and wide sep
arations as possible from the probable channels
of impure drainage
Water for domestic should be clean, lus-
trous, oGorless, coloress, wholesome SOFT neither
strongly acid nor alkaline and its temperature
for general farm purposes should be about so de-
grees These characteristics however, are never
proof of purity, for a glass of water may pos
sess them all and yet contain millions of disease
producing germs.
Ground water is the ideal supply for the
farm Any farmer who is about TO have deep
we'll and who is uncertain of the depth and guam
tity or quality of the water likely TO be encoun-
tered should describe fully the location and con-
dtion of his project to national or state geolog-
cal authorities and ask for advice The use o.
the willow, hazel, or peach stick for locating I'M