THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
safe water until you have inclosed the shaft with a 
water-tight wall, reaching down to solid rock. Then 
lift it above the soil for at least one foot, and you 
have probably made your well as safe as it can be 
made by this sort of precaution. After all is done, 
have your water frequently analyzed. ‘Too much 
depends upon our drinking water, both in the coun- 
try and in the city, to allow of economy standing in 
the way of the utmost precaution. 
As a rule, the only positively sure and safe water 
for drinking is that obtained from deep rock. By 
drilling this will be, in the long run, the least ex- 
pensive supply — not only as avoiding doctors’ bills, 
but as being absolutely adequate at all seasons. I 
have three dug wells, but as they changed flavor as 
well as chemical constituents at different seasons, 
and were also liable to give out during protracted 
drought, I added a drilled or artesian well. This 
well, although on high ground, struck excellent 
water at the depth of seventy-two feet — thirty feet 
being in solid rock. The water now stands at about 
one foot above the ground surface in the pipe, and if 
not confined, would constitute a flowing well. This 
is a rare chance; but it is not difficult to obtain a well 
where the water shall stand at only a few feet below 
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