[2]It is probable that the filth which gets into cow's milk and which appears to be mainly excrement of cows is largely responsible for the severe summer diseases of infants fed on cow's milk.
[2]It is probable that the filth which gets into cow's milk and which appears to be mainly excrement of cows is largely responsible for the severe summer diseases of infants fed on cow's milk.
Besides the protection of the ground-water near the well from pollution emanating from cesspools, etc., the surface of the ground about the well should be kept free from manure, slops, and other waste water; hence the well should not be dug under or close by the house,[3]nor should it be located in the barnyard, where the ground is usually saturated with manure. It should be surrounded by turf, and not by richly manured, cultivated, or irrigated soil. The ground immediately around it should slope gently away from it and be paved if possible. The waste water from the well should not be allowed to soak into the ground, but should be collected in water-tight receptacles or else conducted at least 25 feet away in open or closed channels which are water-tight.
[3]The water may be carried into the kitchen by running the pipe from the well, horizontally, under ground.
[3]The water may be carried into the kitchen by running the pipe from the well, horizontally, under ground.
The well itself must be so constructed that impurities can not get into it from above or from the sides. If water can soak into it after passing through a few feet of soil only, it can not be regarded as secure from pollution. To prevent this, the well may be provided with a water-tight wall built of hard-burned brick and cement down to the water level. The outside surface of this wall should be covered with a thin layer of cement, and clay pounded and puddled in around it. Or, tile may be used to line the well and the joints made water-tight with cement down to the water level. Driven wells, i. e., wells constructed of iron tubing driven into the ground, are, perhaps, the safest where the quantity of water needed is not large and where other conditions are favorable.
These different devices are all designed to keep water near the surface of the soil from percolating into the well. To keep impurities from entering the well directly from the top considerable care is necessary. Such impurities are likely to prove the most dangerous because there is no earth niter to hold them back and destroy them before they can reach the water. Adequate protection above may be provided in several ways. The sides of the tiled wells should project above the surface and be securely covered with a water-tight lid. The ordinary well should also have its sides project above the surface and a water-tight cover of heavy planks provided, which should not be disturbed excepting for repairing or cleansing the well. Under no circumstances should objects be let down into the well to cool. A still better method of protecting the water from above is to have the lining wall of the well end 3 feet below the surface of the ground and to be topped there with a vaulted roof, closed in the center with a removable iron or stone plate.The top should be covered with 12 inches of clay or loam; above this there should be a layer of sand, and lastly a pavement sloping away in all directions.
Too much care can not be bestowed upon the household well. It should be guarded jealously and all means applied to put the water above any suspicion of being impure. This is especially true in dairies where well water is used in cleaning the milk cans, and where steam and boiling water have not yet found their way for this end. Polluted wells in such houses not only endanger the health of the inmates but that of a more or less numerous body of city customers.
In those regions where rain water is the only safe drinking water, the same care is necessary to protect the stored supply from contamination, and no suggestions beyond those already given are necessary here.
In the foregoing pages it has been the aim of the writer to give a few facts and supply a certain number of ideas which, in the mind of any person who has thoroughly understood them and who thinks for himself, may be safely left to ripen into schemes adapted to his own wants and surroundings. How many resources a man armed with correct views may find in the simplest appliances the reader may judge for himself by consulting Chapters IX, X, and XI of Dr. Vivian Poore's very interesting volume on rural hygiene. Whether the means for utilizing household wastes there described and adopted by him would be adequate outside of a limited territory of our own country, I am not prepared to state. For the same reason no definite suggestions can be made in these pages, owing to the wide diversity in the climatic and other conditions obtaining over the vast territory of our country. The writer has, furthermore, omitted all statements of detail which properly belong to the sanitary engineer. The works referred to will, however, supply those more directly interested with the facts and figures desired.
The principles to be kept in the foreground are the disposal of sewage in the superficial layers of the soil in not too great quantity, the disinfection of the stools of the sick with lime before such disposition is made, the digging of wells in places kept permanently in grass and at some distance from barnyards, and, above all, their thorough protection from contamination from the surface and from the soil immediately below the surface.
In every community there are public-spirited citizens who could do much good by taking hold of the simplest and safest methods of disposing of sewage and refuse, putting them into practice, and showing the rest of the community just what good can be accomplished and what harm avoided by a little continuous attention to sanitary matters. In this way many may be led to undertake improvements who, with no definite knowledge of the expense involved and with misgivings as to the final success of the undertaking, would otherwise hesitate to make a beginning.
FARMERS' BULLETINS.
These bulletins fire sent free of charge to any address upon application to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
[Only the bulletins named below are available for distribution.]
No. 15. Some Destructive Potato Diseases: What They Are and How to Prevent Them. Pp. 8.No. 16. Leguminous Plants for Green Manuring and for Feeding. Pp. 24.No. 18. Forage Plants for the South. Pp. 30.No. 19. Important Insecticides: Directions for Their Preparation and Use. Pp. 20.No. 20. Washed Soils: How to Prevent and Reclaim Them. Pp. 22.No. 21. Barnyard Manure. Pp. 32.No. 22. Feeding Farm Animals. Pp. 32.No. 23. Foods: Nutritive Value and Cost. Pp. 32.No. 24. Hog Cholera and Swine Plague. Pp. 16.No. 26. Sweet Potatoes: Culture and Uses. Pp. 30.No. 27. Flax for Seed and Fiber. Pp. 10.No. 28. Weeds; and How to Kill Them. Pp. 30.No. 29. Souring of Milk and Other Changes in Milk Products. Pp. 23.No. 30. Grape Diseases on the Pacific Coast. Pp. 16.No. 31. Alfalfa, or Lucern. Pp. 23.No. 32. Silos and Silage. Pp. 31.No. 33. Peach Growing for Market. Pp. 24.No. 34. Meats: Composition and Cooking. Pp. 29.No. 35. Potato Culture. Pp. 23.No. 36. Cotton Seed and Its Products. Pp. 16.No. 37. Kafir Corn: Characteristics, Culture, and Uses. Pp. 12.No. 38. Spraying for Fruit Diseases. Pp. 12.No. 39. Onion Culture. Pp. 31.No. 40. Farm Drainage. Pp. 24.No. 41. Fowls: Care and Feeding. Pp. 24.No. 42. Facts about Milk. Pp. 29.No. 43. Sewage Disposal on the Farm. Pp. 22.No. 44. Commercial Fertilizers. Pp. 24.No. 45. Some Insects Injurious to Stored Grain. Pp. 32.No. 46. Irrigation in Humid Climates. Pp. 27.No. 47. Insects Affecting the Cotton Plant. Pp. 32.No. 48. The Manuring of Cotton. Pp. 16.No. 49. Sheep Feeding. Pp. 24.No. 50. Sorghum as a Forage Crop. Pp. 24.No. 51. Standard Varieties of Chickens. Pp. 48.No. 52. The Sugar Beet. Pp. 48.No. 53. How to Grow Mushrooms. Pp. 20.No. 51. Some Common Birds in Their Relation to Agriculture. Pp. 40.No. 55. The Dairy Herd: Its Formation and Management. Pp. 21.No. 56. Experiment Station Work—I. Pp. 30.No. 57. Butter Making on the Farm. Pp. 15.No. 58. The Soy Bean as a Forage Crop. Pg. 24.No. 59. Bee Keeping. Pp. 32.No. 60. Methods of Curing Tobacco. Pp. 16.No. 61. Asparagus Culture. Pp. 40.No. 62. Marketing Farm Produce. Pp. 28.No. 63. Care of Milk on the Farm. Pp. 40.No. 64. Ducks and Geese. Pp. 48.No. 65. Experiment Station Work—II. Pp. 32.No. 66. Meadows and Pastures. Pp. 24.No. 67. Forestry for Farmers. Pp. 48.No. 68. The Black Rot of the Cabbage. Pp. 22.
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Transcriber NoteIllustrations were moved to prevent splitting paragraphs.
Transcriber Note
Illustrations were moved to prevent splitting paragraphs.