THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 155 



course, would drain the surface much further than a shal 

 low one. Dea. Smith s well is thirty-five feet deep, and 

 there is nothing offensive upon the surface nearer than 

 three rods. I have no doubt that there is a connection 

 between the sink drain and the well, and that this is the 

 source, in most cases, of bad water in wells. 



But it will be asked, probably, by some wiseacre like 

 Jake Frink, why then don t the water taste as bad in 

 winter as in summer? Jake don t see that it makes a 

 mighty difference whether he have five pounds of good 

 beef in his soup, or barely a knuckle of mutton. In win 

 ter, the soup is diluted. Rains fall abundantly, and not 

 unfrequently the wells are raised ten feet or more, so that 

 they do not draw water from so great a distance. The 

 water, too, is generally much colder, as it comes to the ta 

 ble, and the bad taste, if there be any, is riot so percepti 

 ble, as in warm weather. 



Seth Twiggs has hit upon the remedy. If a garden is 

 not tile drained, the sink receptacle should be a cemented 

 cistern. You can only keep foul matters out of your well 

 by taking care of them. Worked into the compost heap, 

 and then applied to the lands, they will give you nice 

 vegetables and health. In the wells, they will give you 

 bad smells and disease. 



Yours to command, 



TIMOTHY BUNKER, ESQ. 



Hookertown, Nov., 1860. 



. 47. TIM BUNKER ON CATTLE DISEASE. 



&quot; Guess she s got the cattle disease, by the looks on 

 her,&quot; said Uncle Jotham Sparrowgrass, as he looked into 

 Jake F rink s yard last April, at one of the sorriest cows 



