CHAPTER FOUR 
WATER SUPPLY—WELLS, CISTERNS, ETC. 
Too many country homes undertake to get on 
without adequate water supply. Very few have 
perfect cisterns and entirely safe wells. This dep- 
rivation is seldom necessary, and takes away from 
country life one of its chiefest privileges. To be 
out of washing water half the time, or for a single 
month, is a serious burden to a housewife; and for 
wells to go dry in hot weather involves not only suf- 
fering, but danger to health and life. The water 
from a shallow well of fifteen to twenty-five feet in 
depth is never quite safe; and after a drought such 
a well is filled with surface water, that easily flows 
in through the shrunken and cracked soil — after 
which the water becomes a positive menace. Most 
of our brooks are no longer quite free from some 
sort of pollution, and should not be used for drink- 
ing, unless directly at the fountain head. Even 
there spring water, before it is adopted for a family 
