31-t 



THE FARMERY. 



[Chap. III. 



Such wells have been eoiistrnctcd in Calit'oriiia, and wc earnestly com- 

 mend them to the attention of all the farmers in tlie hilly portions of tlio 

 Atlantic States. In rocky hills a horizontal shaft can be drifted in much 

 easier than it can be bored perpcndicniarly ; and the work either in rock 

 or earth digging can be much better done in winter in a horizontal than in 

 a jiorpendicnhir well. We hope to see then; extensively adopted. 



337. Wells on IliilSi — -We have seen a great many wells on the tops of hills 

 affording a large supply of water, while the bottom was above the plain or 

 valley in which the farmstead was situated. IIow easy to obtain this water 

 by a si]ihon, or a pipe incerted on a level, which can be done without dig- 

 ging a ditch the whole depth and distance. Ascertain where the level of 

 the bottom of the well will strike on the face of the hill, and dig in there, 

 and set np a frame to supjrort an earth-boring auger, and drive a bore 

 straight through to the Avcll, which can be easily done one or two hundred 

 feet, if artesian wells can be bored one or two thousand feet perpendicular. 

 "Where the distance is too great, or the hill is rocky, jjut in a siphon pipe, 

 with a little hand-pump to start it, and you can always have running water 

 in your yard or garden at the ibot of the hill. 



33S. Causes of Empure Water iu Wells. — It sometimes occurs that the water 

 of a well, noted for its purity and delicious drinking quality, becomes 

 ofiensive to the taste and smell without any apparent cause. Sometimes it 

 is occasioned by surface water from an impure source finding its way to the 

 well, after many years of cxemplion ; and sometimes it comes from i-oots of 

 trees growing into the water and decaying ; and sometimes worms work 

 their way in and decay ; and occasionally rats, mice, or other pests burrow 

 in the wall and injure the water. And not unfrecpiently a new vein of 

 water finds its way into an old m-c11 and materially changes the character 

 of the water. Generally a well is improved by cleaning, but wo have 

 known the contrary. In a well of our own, in the trap-rock district norlh 

 of New York city, the quality of the water was materially injured by sub- 

 stituting a pump in place of a bucket. The reason was obvious. The 

 water was seven or eight feet deep, and the bucket drew it from the surfiice 

 and the pump from the bottom, and in the water drawn from the bottom 

 we found a strong sulphur taste and smell. Cleaning it out did no good ; 

 the water at the bottom was decidedly diflferent from the top. The only 

 remedy, if we continued to use the pump, which was iron, and costly, and 

 extremely convenient (it is one of Gay & West's force-pumps — very valu- 

 able for farm use), was to attach a gutta-percha pipe to the bottom of the 

 iron pipe, and to a float, so that it would always draw the water from the 

 surface, at whatever hight it might be in the well by the fluctuations of 

 the seasons. 



Where wells are injured by surface water, resort should be had at once 

 to the most thorough draining. Lay tile or stone drains five or six feet 

 deep, so as to cut oft" all leaking into the well. If injured by trees — which, 

 by-the-by, should never be set near a well — dig a deep trench so as to cut 



