THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



safe water until you have inclosed the shaft with a 

 water-tight wall, reaching down to solid rock. Then 

 lift it above the soil for at least one foot, and you 

 have probably made your well as safe as it can be 

 made by this sort of precaution. After all is done, 

 have your water frequently analyzed. Too much 

 depends upon our drinking water, both in the coun- 

 try and in the city, to allow of economy standing in 

 the way of the utmost precaution. 



As a rule, the only positively sure and safe water 

 for drinking is that obtained from deep rock. By 

 drilling this will be, in the long run, the least ex- 

 pensive supply — not only as avoiding doctors' bills, 

 but as being absolutely adequate at all seasons. I 

 have three dug wells, but as they changed flavor as 

 well as chemical constituents at different seasons, 

 and were also liable to give out during protracted 

 drought, I added a drilled or artesian well. This 

 well, although on high ground, struck excellent 

 water at the depth of seventy -two feet — thirty feet 

 being in solid rock. The water now stands at about 

 one foot above the ground surface in the pipe, and if 

 not confined, would constitute a flowing well. This 

 is a rare chance; but it is not diflScult to obtain a well 

 where the water shall stand at only a few feet below 



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