CHAPTER FOUR 

 WATER SUPPLY-WELLS, CISTERNS, ETC. 



I oo many country homes undertake to get on 

 without adequate water supply. Very few have 

 perfect cisterns and entirely safe wells. This dep- 

 rivation is seldom necessary, and takes away from 

 country life one of its chiefest privileges. To be 

 out of washing water half the time, or for a single 

 month, is a serious burden to a housewife; and for 

 wells to go dry in hot weather involves not only suf- 

 fering, but danger to health and life. The water 

 from a shallow well of fifteen to twenty-five feet in 

 depth is never quite safe; and after a drought such 

 a well is filled with surface water, that easily flows 

 in through the shrunken and cracked soil — after 

 which the water becomes a positive menace. Most 

 of our brooks are no longer quite free from some 

 sort of pollution, and should not be used for drink- 

 ing, unless directly at the fountain head. Even 

 there spring water, before it is adopted for a family 



