266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



are tightly closed, unless special provision is made for re- 

 newing the air by means of an out-door opening, such as 

 may be furnished by an open fireplace or grate ; and even a 

 grate is not a sufficient means of ventilation, so long as 

 there is no fire in it. A man who lives in this manner year 

 after year, breathing the foul air of a tightly closed sleeping 

 room, cannot continue in good health. The actual cost of 

 maintaining a house with good ventilation is somewhat 

 greater than that of a house with no ventilation at all, since 

 a greater amount of fuel is required for a well-ventilated 

 house than is necessary for a house with no ventilation. 



The Water Supply. — If pure air is essential to good health, 

 so is pure water. From my own observation of very many 

 farms which I have visited and inspected, I should say that 

 the water supply of farms is, on the whole, better than that 

 of thickly settled villages, in which the domestic water 

 supply is drawn entirely from private Avells. There are, 

 however, abundant instances of badly polluted water sup- 

 plies among the farms of Massachusetts, and when such 

 farms are also dairies, producing milk for the supply of 

 large populations, the polluted water supply becomes a 

 serious danger and a menace to the public health. 



I shall allude to this phase of the subject more at length 

 in another connection. 



The peculiar regard which each householder or house 

 owner has for his own well is sometimes marvellous, when 

 a single glance at its surroundings would convince even a 

 casual observer that the owner's estimate is far from correct. 

 The water looks clear and transparent ; it has a sparkling 

 taste ; very likely the owner prefers it to any other water 

 in the world. But clear and good tasting water is not 

 necessarily pure water, and may be exceedingly polluted, 

 as an ordinary chemical analysis often shows. It is neces- 

 sary, therefore, in locating a well, to place it in such a 

 position that no foul drainage from any source can possibly 

 enter it, either by filtration through the ground or by sur- 

 face flow over the ground. The cow yard, the back yard 

 of the house, the barn cellar, the house cellar, the neigh- 

 borhood of the hog sty and the cesspool, none of these 

 places is suited for the site of the well. As a general rule, 



