312 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the cities and towns which are provided with public water sup- 

 pHes who must depend on their private sources. 



The total population living in towns in which there is no 

 general supply was, in 1912, about 170,000. There are probably 

 50,000 people having private water supplies who live in towns 

 in which a portion of the inhabitants are supplied from public 

 works. Allowing five persons to a family, there are probably 

 more than 40,000 families in the State who maintain private 

 water supplies, and, assuming that there is an average of one 

 such source of supply to each family, there are 40,000 or more 

 private water supplies in use on the farms and in the villages 

 in Massachusetts. 



Massachusetts has long been settled, and there has been com- 

 paratively little division of farms in many years. Undoubtedly 

 a large percentage of the farm wells now in use were constructed 

 many years ago, and have been in use continuously for a very 

 long time, in some cases, no doubt, for much more than half a 

 century. In earlier times little or nothing was thought of the 

 danger of the pollution of the water supply from the wastes of 

 human life except from possible pollution discharged directly 

 into the well, and a well water that was clear, colorless and 

 free from taste and odor was regarded as wholly satisfactory. 



The well from which water was to be taken for household 

 use was commonly located as close as practicable to the farm 

 buildings, especially the dwelling house, for convenience in ob- 

 taining water for household use. The water was drawn com- 

 monly with a bucket and later with a pump, and at many of 

 the farm and village dwellings the household well was for con- 

 venience located in the cellar of the house, or even in a corner 

 of the barn. The household sewage is also commonly disposed 

 of in the immediate neighborhood of the house, and at the 

 older places the privy, cesspool and sink drain, and the barn 

 with its manure pile, are often found located at no great dis- 

 tance from the well. 



Tlie question is often asked why old wells which have ap- 

 parently yielded, and probably did yield, good water many 

 years ago do not furnish water of tbe same quality to-day; and 

 it is often difficult for dwellers in a village or on well-kept 

 farms to understand why a well which has apparently yielded 



