74 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Portland cement mortar is described in Bulletin 230 of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, which may be procured at 10 cents per copy 
from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, 
Washington, D. C. 
For the purposes of wells for temporary camps, in which a wooden 
casing is used, a certain degree of protection may be obtained by 
extending the wooden casing above the ground level and banking 
around it a shield of earth, 18 inches deep at the casing and sloping 
away from it to the ground level about 6 feet away. 
If the water is to be raised from the well by hand, a hand pump is 
better from a sanitary standpoint than the familiar rope and bucket, 
since the bucket coming in contact with duty hands may carry pollu- 
tion to the water in the well. The joint between the pump and well 
cover should be protected with a tin flashing to prevent water from 
running back into the well. 
If it be necessary to use a bucket, a shelf should be built on the side 
of the windlass box, so that when not in use the bucket may rest on 
the shelf instead of on the well cover. A better method suggested 
by the United States Public Health Service consists of a closed wind- 
lass box provided with an automatic device for emptying the bucket 
through a spout. By this method the handling of the bucket is 
avoided entirely. 
Surface Water Supplies. 
Surface water supplies are more liable to pollution than either 
springs or wells. Streams, lakes, and ponds receive a large amount 
of contaminating matter washed from the section which they drain, 
and usually the sanitary conditions of the up-stream watershed are 
beyond the control of convict camp officers. 
Double Water Supplies. 
Though the practice of using surface supplies generally is to be con- 
demned, it is sometimes impossible to supply more than the drinking 
and cooking demands of a camp from underground sources. In such 
cases it may be necessary to resort to a surface supply to obtain water 
for washing and other purposes. This condition existed at one of the 
camps visited, and river water was being used, without any hesitation, 
for general camp purposes, notwithstanding the fact that it was 
known to be dangerously polluted, and had caused an epidemic of 
typhoid fever. It is true that the water was heated when used for 
bathing and washing clothes, but there could be no assurance that the 
temperature was high enough to kill the germs, nor, apparently, 
was there any hesitancy in adding unheated water in sufficient 
quantities to reduce it to a comfortable temperature for bathing. 
Furthermore, even when, as in the camp referred to, a pure water is 
provided for drinking purposes, it is a well-known fact that many 
