1910.] Water Supply and Small Holdings. 293 



which cannot be recommended in the matter of dependence 

 upon quantity; and if we go further, and consider the ques- 

 tion of quality, much misgiving must be entertained ; for it 

 is the commonest experience to find the cow-byre, the stable, 

 the pigstye, the cesspit, or the fowlyard placed in exactly 

 the best positions for well-fouling, and sporadic outbreaks 

 of zymotic disease in rural districts are not uncommonly attri- 

 buted by medical officers of health to the presence in other- 

 wise pure well-water of organic impurities derived from fouled 

 soil in the immediate neighbourhood. In other ways the 

 rain-water receptacle is equally liable to pollution, for bird- 

 droppings on roofs, decayed plants, and foul gutters serve to 

 promote the growth of micro-organisms, and unless the roofs 

 and gutters are kept clean, and the rain-water is first passed 

 through a separator and afterwards filtered, much risk must 

 be run by those who at times have to rely upon it for domestic 

 use. 



Methods of Supply. — Let it be assumed, however, that, 

 pure or otherwise, the well-water is never-failing and that 

 the rain-water tank is above suspicion of shortage. What, 

 then, are the means of drawing the water and conveying it 

 to where it is wanted? 



In a good example one would expect to find that the house- 

 supplv well was fitted with a horse- or hand-gear pump, dis- 

 charging into a tank in the roof of the house : that the rain- 

 water collecting-tank overflowed into a filter-fitted service 

 tank, from which the water could be drawn through a tap or 

 syphon pipe, and that -the detached farm-service well would 

 be furnished with a hand-windlass and chain for a pair of 

 dipping buckets. 



One may omit from consideration the horse-drawn water 

 barrel and the ordinary yoke and buckets, though even under 

 "good" conditions these primitive appliances are very 

 common. It is therefore proposed to show that for each 

 group of holdings of sufficient number (and that number 

 need not be large) a combined system of water supply would 

 be by far the most satisfactory, both on hygienic and economic 

 grounds. 



Advantages of a Combined System of Water Supply. — To 



