32 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



shall we be ready with a bulletin on this subject probably much before 

 another year elapses. However, in response to a special request from 

 your Secretary we will describe for you the present status of our work 

 in this line. 



First let me say, however, a few words about the need for modern 

 sewerage conveniences on the farm. When one stops to think, It really 

 seems little more than a relic of barbarism that our present up-to-date 

 farmer should be content with the same primitive arrangements as to 

 sewerage which were a necessity in the pioneer days of the 

 state. Just as a matter of progress the ordinary out-house 

 and privy vault should be relegated to the same place as 

 the ox-cart and the brush harrow. When we add to this the? 

 untold and even unsuspected suffering and injury to health which may 

 result from the exposure of delicate women and children to inclement 

 weather and winter temperatures, the present ordinary sanitary arrange- 

 ments on the farm must surely be considered barbarous. Besides this, 

 the ordinary privy vault is polluting and befouling Mother Earth her- 

 self in the vicinity of our homes. All sanitary reasons are in favor of 

 substituting something more in line with the demands of health and con- 

 venience. 



Of course the first step necessary in supplying modern sewerage facili- 

 ties is to obtain a satisfactory water supply, but here the farmer should 

 have little difficulty. Fortunately it has been necessary that he should 

 provide a water supply for his stock whether the kitchen arrangements 

 are convenient for his wife or not, and hence every farm has a supply of 

 water from a well or other satisfactory source. In a large proportion of 

 •cases, also, some form of power pump has been supplied and the winds 

 of the prairies have been compelled to lift the water to the stock tank. 

 The farmer has but to extend the use of his wind mill a little to enable 

 the water to be piped all over his house, supplying the bath-room and 

 relieving his wife of the toil and inconvenience of going to the outdoors 

 well to obtain water for the kitchen. The water may of course be pumped 

 to an elevated tank from which it is distributed by gravity, but it is diffi- 

 cult to protect such a tank from freezing, and its leaking is apt to be 

 disastrous to the house in case it is placed in the attic. It will be better 

 therefore to use a compressed air tank. This tank is made of steel like 

 a steam boiler, and may either be placed in the cellar or buried in the 

 earth entirely outside the house. Into it the wind mill pumps both air and 

 water under pressure, and the pressure of the air in the tank is suffi- 

 cient to force the water any desired height. The cost of such a water 

 supply is within the reach of well-to-do farmers. 



The possibility of obtaining a satisfactory water supply makes it 

 possible for the farmer to have in his house the same sanitary conveni- 

 ences which have attracted so many people to city residences. He may 



