The Suburban Water Supply — By Geo. L. Robinson, v N 0 e r " 
FEATURES THAT GOVERN THE LOCATION OF BUILDINGS, GARDENS, DRIVES, IN RELATION TO WATER 
SUPPLY— SPRINGS AND WELLS AND THE ESTIMATION OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR GENERAL DOMESTIC USE 
T HE comfort and pleasure of living 
in the country depend very 
largely on a good water supply. 
When one acquires a suburban 
property to develop the first consideration 
to make it livable is where to getgood, clean 
water and plenty of it. This is a question 
which should be gone into from every stand- 
point as it really governs the location of 
buildings, drives, gardens and other fea- 
tures which may come later on. A great 
aid to the owner is an accurate topograph- 
ical map showing the physical lay of the 
land with springs, streams, trees, rock out- 
crop, etc. 
Of course there are no two properties 
alike. One owner may be fortunate in find- 
ing a spring at such a point that he can 
develop it to fill a reservoir from which he 
can pipe an adequate supply by gravity to 
provide for all the demands of the house, 
stables and gardens. Another owner may 
find it necessary to sink a driven well sev- 
eral hundred feet to get any water at all. 
As a rule this will mean more study as to 
well location, balancing the driving condi- 
tions with respect to distance from buildings 
and gardens. 
Sometimes it is quite feasible to take 
water from a stream which is pure enough 
for domestic use. It may even happen that 
the same stream will also furnish power for 
biting the water to the distributing reser- 
voir or tank. Such power is frequently 
developed by a ram or water wheel, and, if 
the stream is large enough, with proper 
fall one might develop power for electric 
lighting as well as pumping. 
All these conditions should be revealed 
by the topographical study and used by the 
architect and the landscape architect in 
planning the location of the buildings and 
planting. 
A stream large enough to furnish power 
is, however, by the very reason of its size 
and the large watershed through which it 
passes, open to suspicion of pollution. 
Streams flowing over some distance are 
usually not within the property control of 
the owner and may be carrying the drain- 
age of estates farther up stream. 
The writer has in mind a stream of some 
size which is being used both for power with 
a ram and supply after passing through a 
sand filter. The watershed above gives 
off a rather constant flow of clear water and 
the owner in this case has installed a com- 
pound ram below his dam, which uses the 
natural flow for power and the filtered 
water for supply. There were many fields 
under cultivation above the dam and a few 
houses so it seemed best to filter through 
sand before use for domestic purposes. Of 
all pumping machinery the ram, when un- 
limited water flow can be wasted, is one of 
the most economical in operation and least 
Water tower used in connection with a pergola and in- 
troduced as part of the structural work around the garden. 
Water is pumped into this to procure the necessary head 
expensive to install. There is complaint 
sometimes of the noise, or “pound,” but 
when properly set and piped it should offer 
little objection. 
Another interesting point is the develop- 
ment of a spring which seems weak and of 
not much value. At times at the foot of a 
hillside a good flowing spring can be pro- 
duced by extending ditches or infiltration 
galleries along the contours in such a way as 
to intercept the water as it percolates down- 
ward and draw it to a central spring house. 
From here it is either pumped to the reser- 
voir or pressure system or fed by gravity 
to the buildings beyond. This plan has 
been used many times and has been found 
to give great satisfaction. 
The location of wells has caused more dis- 
cussion perhaps than any other subject 
pertaining to water supply. Many well 
drillers, with their years of experience, will 
frankly say that there is no sure way of tell- 
ing where water is to be found. Some peo- 
ple still pin their faith on the divining rod, 
which is supposed to indicate, by a twitch 
or other occult way, the presence of water 
when the operator passes the right spot. 
The Government has published reports 
of the records of wells in many districts, 
and it frequently happens that an owner 
can get much information to guide him in 
locating the boring. Such records mention 
the rock or gravel formation with other 
geological data which prove wonderfully 
useful in estimating the probable depth and 
yield of a new well in the field described. 
It may be that the owner finds that he 
needs water for gardens, lawns, etc., to such 
an extent that he will be justified in instal- 
ling a separate system to use surface water 
from a pond or brook which is not fit for 
drinking, cooking, or bathing. The devel- 
opment of the automatic garden and lawn 
sprinkler systems, with their long pipe lines 
and numerous nozzles, puts a demand on 
a water system far beyond that which would 
be allowed ordinarily for domestic uses. 
In many parts of the country an adequate supply of water can be found by means of a 
driven well, which may give a flowing head 
An automatic ram can be used to develop power to raise the water from a run- 
ning stream 
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