THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



fresh cistern water. If this water be caught on the 

 roof, the gutters and the pipes as well as the roofs 

 should be kept clean. A very good plan is to 

 bury your cistern under ground — anywhere about 

 your house, even under the driveway. I have a 

 wooden cistern which has been in use twelve years. 

 Opening it two years ago, I found almost no decay, 

 and very little deposit; the water was absolutely 

 clean. An open cistern of stone, in my cellar, gives 

 me far more trouble. In fact, I do not recommend 

 a cistern inside the house under any conditions. 

 But wherever your cistern is placed, the pipes 

 should lead directly into the kitchen. Either di- 

 rectly from the cistern or from a reservoir, water 

 should also be carried to the bathroom and to the 

 sleeping rooms. 



Irrigation is too generally considered as a provi- 

 sion belonging only to extensive farming, and home- 

 making on arid lands. It will hereafter be a method 

 of supplying water for the gardens and meadows 

 and field crops of intensive farming. We are grow- 

 ing less and less patient with the enormous loss in our 

 strawberry beds and our truck gardens, caused by 

 dry spells, just in the nick of time. The loss runs up 

 in the aggregate to hundreds of millions every year. 



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