320 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN IWRAL DISTRIdTS.' 



EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, ROCKLAND, MASSACHUSETTS. 



The message I bring this afternoon, it seems to me, is per- 

 haps the most important one of the day. 



We have been talking of better farms and better farming, 

 and of the enormous crops that are being raised and which we 

 hope will increase prosperity and lessen the cost of living. 



Now if we are to have good crops we must have good farm- 

 ers, and to be a good farmer one must of necessity be a healthy 

 farmer; and if rural life is to be what it ought to be we must 

 first of all look out for the health of the people living in the 

 rural districts. 



It is customary nowadays to speak of units in life and in 

 business, particularly in the manufacturing and heat and power 

 lines. I think that if we divide life into units we should con- 

 sider the health unit as unit number 1. We must have health 

 if we are to succeed in life and do an>i;hing well. 



Let us consider some of the most important things that in- 

 fluence our health. Probably no one thing is more important to 

 our w^ell-being than a bountiful supply of good water, both for 

 drinking and general domestic purposes. While a few, com- 

 paratively speaking, of our farmers procure their water from a 

 well-protected public water supply, by far the greater portion 

 must obtain their supply from springs or wells, and I am sorr}'^ 

 to say that these latter do not always yield pure water. Roughly 

 speaking, there are between 30,000 and 40,000 wells in this 

 State that are in daily use, and, ridiculous as it may seem, 

 there are only about 5 to 10 per cent of them that are unpol- 

 luted. Examination and analysis show these things in a much 

 different way from that in which we generally consider them. 



1 Address delivered before the field meeting of the Massachusetts State grange at South 

 Framingham, August Ifl, 1914. 



