34 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



and to this day they have received no further 

 attention. 



The trenches for the pipes were opened by a 

 party of five Italians whom a railroad friend 

 found for me. These men boarded themselves, 

 slept in the barn, and did the work for seventy- 

 five cents a rod, the job costing me 1169. 



Opening the sewer trenches cost a little more, 

 for they were as deep as those for the water, and 

 a little wider. Eight hundred feet of main sewer, 

 a three-hundred-foot branch to the house, and 

 short branches from barns, pens, and farm-houses, 

 made in all about fourteen hundred feet, which 

 cost 883 to open. The sewer ended in the stable 

 yard back of the horse barn, in a ten-foot catch- 

 basin near the manure pit. A few feet from this 

 catch-basin was a second, and beyond this a third, 

 all of the same size, with drain-pipes connecting 

 them about two feet below the ground. These 

 basins were closely covered at all times, and in 

 winter they were protected from frost by a 

 thick layer of coarse manure. They were placed 

 near the site of the manure pit for convenience 

 in cleaning, which had to be done every three 

 months for the first one, once in six months for 

 the second and rarely for the third ; indeed, the 

 water flowing from the third was always clear. 

 This waste water was run through a drain-pipe 

 diagonally across the northwest corner of the big 

 orchard to an open ditch in the north lane. 

 Opening this drain of forty rods cost $30. Later 



