UNFAILING WATER SUPPLY 9 



were found. We built another cistern outside underground, dividing 

 it unequally by a brick wall. Entering the smaller compartment, par- 

 tially packed with charcoal, the water gradually percolated through 

 the wall into the larger, giving us the best sort of filtered soft water, 

 uncontaminated by soil impurities, roofs and cypress gutters being 

 left unstained by creosote and kept scrupulously clean. Leader 

 connections for convenient cleansing were placed close to an attic 

 window, protected by wire leaf guards, the spout pipe for two 

 feet flaring out four inches where it connected with the gutter. In 

 order to thoroughly flush the roof before using the c stern, a two-foot 

 spout section near the ground sniveled at will. In a downpour ten 

 minutes of diverted roof washings gave us pure cistern water. A 

 crimped spout prevented ice splitting but was not as easily cared for. 

 The cellar was first underdrained from without and within, floor 

 dug over, soil removed, and clean gravel substituted, then grouted 

 and cemented and ceiling tarred and whitewashed to diminish 

 fire risk, increased of course by the presence of tar. Side walls 

 and floors were also tarred, the surface being roughened to 

 hold a finishing coat of cement, outside walls and footing courses 

 cemented and tarred, and tile laid at the base. Let everything 

 go until that cellar is thoroughly revamped. You will naturally 

 co-operate with vegetation to purify the grounds about the back door 

 where the kitchen drain has been pouring out dish water and 

 refuse for a hundred years and more, but five chances to one you will 

 ignore the condition of the cellar, and agree with the sophistry of 

 the forehanded farmer who sells you the property when he says 

 that "the dirt floor is grand to keep vegetables, cider and milk 

 in prime condition." If the money you have is a mere pit- 

 tance, spend it on the cellar. In a word, drain and cement it inside 

 and out, thus eliminating all foul, germ-laden air and matter ; put 

 in more and larger windows, double sashing for winter if need be, 

 instead of boarding and banking up with sill-decaying leaves and 

 barn-yard refuse, in warm days rapid breeders of vermin. Make the 

 cellar as spick and span as the kitchen and you have won your first 

 round in the battle against disease and ill health and outgeneraled, 

 if only for the nonce, the white horse and his spectral rider. The 

 cemetery fills rapidly enough without using as an additional feeder a 

 miasma-breeding cellar. 



Unfailing Water Supply. 



One of the major requisites in country living is an ample water 

 supply, especially where much stock is carried. Hand pumps, gaso- 

 line engines, compressed air tanks and windmills all have limitations, 

 an electric pump, the ideal power, was out of the question, but the 

 only alternative, the hydraulic ram, proved a complete success from 

 the start. Water was pushed by the drive pipe through the delivery 

 pipe a distance of one thousand feet and raised about one hundred 



