THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
trees. But a country house without any complete 
system of drainage is lacking in the prime essentiat 
— both for decency and for health. The pipes to 
the cesspool should not be less than five or six 
inches in diameter, because small pipes will surely 
be clogged with accumulation of greasy material. 
On the other hand, very large pipes are not easily 
flushed, and do not carry waste away with sufficienl 
rapidity. 
The cesspool I have described is, however, ad- 
visable only for homes that cover several acres. 
For small homesteads the safest and neatest plan is 
the earth closet. I append a description of a good 
closet from the pen of Dr. Julius Nelson, of the New 
Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. “Shallow 
pits should be provided, with bottom and sides of 
brick laid in cement. We have a pit as small as 
four by four feet and three feet deep, adequate for 
the needs of a fair-sized family. The closet is to be 
built in front of this pit, with its rear projection one 
and one-half feet over the front side of the pit. The 
remainder of the pit is roofed in by a door hinged to 
the back of the closet. Everything is to be so 
tightly closed as to be fly-proof. In the closet should 
be kept a barrel of earth, or ashes, and a dipper. 
[40] 
