1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YOKKhR 
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|| Sewer System for the Country Home 
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D ifficulties encountered.— 
An objection frequently raised by 
country folks against the installation of 
bath-room outfits and kitchen sinks— 
conveniences greatly prized when once 
established—is that the drainage is very 
hard to care for. Many farmers remem¬ 
bering their trying experiences with cess¬ 
pools and underground sinks, have lost 
faith in the efficiency of rural plumbing 
and drainage systems. Thanks to a for¬ 
tunate biological discovery, there is now 
little need of such distrust; the country 
Form For Concrete Arch. 
home that utilizes the septic tank can dis¬ 
pose of its house drainage quite as easily 
as the city home can with its efficient 
sewer system. 
The Septic Tank. —The purpose of 
this article is to describe a septic tank es¬ 
tablished by the writer for the boarding 
hall of a college located in a town un¬ 
provided with a sewer system. This tank 
has been in operation two years and is 
giving perfect satisfaction. It easily 
takes care of the bath-room waste occa¬ 
sioned by 25 boarders, and in addition 
thereto the sink drainage from the busy 
kitchen. The janitor estimates that 20 
or more barrels daily pass into the tank. 
Before describing the structure of this 
tank a few facts concerning septic tanks 
in general will not be out of place. A 
septic tank may be defined as a dark, 
moist, warm chamber in which certain 
bacteria attack and decompose organic 
matter. It has been found by analysis 
that more than 99 per cent, of house 
drainage is water. When such waste is 
emptied into a septic tank it is attacked 
by the bacteria and disintegrated, and 
other kinds of bacteria, including those 
harmful to man, are destroyed at the 
same time. The outflow from the tank 
consequently is almost wholly water and 
is quite free from germs and obnoxious 
gases. This water is, of course, far from 
being pure, there being considerable odor 
and a supersaturation of organic and min¬ 
eral matter; it is, however, much less a 
pollution agent than before, and not near¬ 
ly so likely to endanger wells in the im¬ 
mediate vicinity. 
Principle of The Tank.—A septic 
tank, then, must provide three things: 
First, an airtight chamber for receiving 
the house drainage—hereafter called the 
septic chamber—and in which the par¬ 
ticular bacteria may actively carry on the 
work of decomposition : second, some au¬ 
tomatic device for continuously remov¬ 
ing the excess water from this chamber; 
third, an absorption chamber to receive 
this excess water, and from which it may 
sink away into the soil. Particular at¬ 
tention should be given to the first and 
third of the requisite just named, for 
upon them the success of the septic tank 
largely depends. If the septic chamber is 
not warm and airtight the particular bac¬ 
teria doing the work of decomposition— 
biologically called anaerobic bacteria—do 
not thrive and decomposition is incom¬ 
plete. If the absorption chamber for any 
reason retains much of its water the cir¬ 
culation through the whole tank is inter¬ 
fered with and its automatic action soon 
ceases. 
General Plan. —The tank now to be 
described shows how all of these needs 
have been provided for. The accompany¬ 
ing figures—one a vertical lengthwise 
section, the other a vertical cross-wise 
section—show how the chambers, cross¬ 
wall, inlet pipe, siphon, and outlet to ad¬ 
ditional absorption chamber were pro¬ 
vided for, and enables their arrangement 
to be seen at a glance. An examination 
of these figures will greatly assist in un¬ 
derstanding the following description: 
The tank was located about 30 feet from 
the house. A space 16 feet long, seven 
feet wide, seven feet deep, was excavated, 
the walls being left straight and smooth 
in order to form an outward wall for the 
concrete. The original plan had been to 
dig eight feet, but rock being encoun¬ 
tered it was impossible to go deeper than 
seven. The box structures seven feet 
five inches long, six feet four inches wide, 
placed so as to be everywhere four inches 
from the earth sides, made the forms. 
Concrete was shoveled in to a depth of 
five feet, thus forming four-inch side 
walls and a six-inch cross-wall. The 
ends and the cross-wall were arched to a 
height of one foot above the level of the 
side walls. Openings in these walls were 
provided for in advance by inserting 
wooden plugs at designated places, these 
plugs to be pulled out after the forms 
were removed. These openings were as 
follows: One at the end of the septic 
chamber four feet eight inches above the 
bottom, one in the cross-wall two inches 
lower, and one at the end of the absorp¬ 
tion chamber about a foot lower. The 
purpose of these openings will be given 
later. 
Construction Details. —After the 
concrete had fully set the forms were re¬ 
moved and a two-inch cement floor laid 
in the septic chamber. When this was 
quite hard the form for the arched cement 
top was put into position. Insomuch as 
the making of an arched cover presents 
difficulties to some people, the particu¬ 
lars of the method used here are given 
somewhat in detail. The first requisites, 
namely supporting arches, were made by 
nailing 1x6 boards perpendicularly to the 
wide face of 2x6 planks. The middle up¬ 
right was 12 inches high and the others 
shaded away to three or four near the 
ends. A flexible board was then bent 
down upon these uprights and nailed se¬ 
curely to them and to the 2x6 plank at its 
ends. The result of this is an arch capa¬ 
ble of supporting a heavy weight. Eight 
of these arches were needed for this par¬ 
ticular tank. They were supported from 
below by braced 2x4 pieces, and at such a 
height that the overlying boards would 
line up flush with the top of the ends, 
cross-wall, and sides. The overlying 
boards were nailed to the arches only 
sufficiently to keep both in place. Too 
much nailing would have interfered with 
their easy removal later. Provision was 
made in the forms for 14xl6-iuch man¬ 
holes into each chamber. 
Concrete and Pipe. —The concrete for 
the top was made rather rich, a mixture 
of one part cement to four of sand being 
used. This was laid down to a thickness 
of five inches at the middle, thus forming 
a top that has since proved amply strong. 
After about a week the concrete was suffi¬ 
ciently hard to permit the removal of the 
form, which was easily pulled down from 
the inside and removed through the man¬ 
holes. The conducting pipe from the 
house to the septic chamber was made of 
four-inch glazed sewer tile and entered 
the septic chamber through the opening 
previously referred to. Its decline, which 
was about three inches, has proved suffi¬ 
cient to drain the house pipes quite rap¬ 
idly. A TJ-tnbe, made by a local hard¬ 
ware man of four-inch iron soil pipe, is 
used for conveying the excess water from 
the septic chamber to the absorption 
chamber. The figure shows just how it 
was placed. It was firmly cemented into 
the opening in the cross-wall previously 
mentioned and with the open ends down 
and about eight inches from the bottom. 
Its action may as well be explained now; 
when the septic chamber began to fill up 
with sewage a part rose up in the tube 
eventually being pushed over by the 
weight of the excess into the absorption 
chamber where it was absorbed by the 
earth. Every additional inflow into the 
septic chamber causes a recurrence of this 
process, and so continues as long as the 
tank is in good working order. The ob¬ 
ject in placing the U-tube in this inverted 
position is that it may carry over first 
the bottom water which is purer. This 
is due to the fact that all organic matter 
entering the septic chamber floats until 
decomposed when the resulting water and 
liberated salts sink to the bottom. It is 
due to this arrangement that the water 
coming from the septic chamber is rela¬ 
tively pure and odorless. 
Absorption Chambers. —Insomuch as 
the bottom of the absorption chamber was 
so close to solid rock, affording as a con¬ 
sequence poor seepage, an additional 
chamber was dug some distance away and 
connected to the main tank by four-inch 
field tile. This additional chamber was 
laid up with bricks without mortar in or¬ 
der that the water might the more easily 
sink away. It was provided with arched 
top and man-hole just like the main tank. 
In a sandy soil an extra absorption cham¬ 
ber is unnecessary for the water will sink 
away about as fast as it is emptied over. 
The final act was the placing of flagstones 
over the man-holes. These were set in 
lime mortar in order that they might be 
air-tight yet easily removable. The 
trenches and excavations were then filled 
in and subsequently seeded to grass : rocks 
being left to mark the position of the 
man-holes. E. v. laughlin. 
Iowa. 
Use for Sugar Sacks 
IIAT use are we making of the num¬ 
erous cloth sacks, big and little, 
which are constantly coming in with 
sugar, flour, salt, graham flour, etc.? 
Instead of cutting the sacks open, 
ravel the threads with which they are 
sewed and thus preserve them intact and 
prevent any threads falling into the con¬ 
tents. Nearly all flour sacks can be used 
for dish towels, discarding the old and 
thin ones which shed lint and do not 
absorb water. Salt sacks are pure white 
and quite soft after washing. The 10- 
cent size make good every-day handker¬ 
chiefs to be used in time of hard colds. 
They should be raveled and hemmed on 
the machine. Sugar sacks are of light 
weight unbleached muslin. They make 
useful Summer underwear for children, 
last fairly well and the only expense is 
the labor which is not great if the ma¬ 
chine is used everywhere possible. 
Very serviceable petticoats can be made 
for school girls by cutting the 25-pound 
size in half and finishing the bottom with 
a gingham ruffle. The 25-pouud size is 
just right too, for jelly and cottage 
cheese bags, and plenty are saved for 
putting away dried apples, seeds, nuts, 
etc. Small sacks colored and pieced to¬ 
gether make very pretty quilts. 
Occasionally one gets a good canvas 
sack, and these we hail as treasures. 
Every last one is made into mittens. For 
Winter I line them with old sweaters, 
pieces of flannel or any warm material 
and for handling stone, grain and the 
like just the one thickness of canvas is 
sufficient. I have a good pattern and 
make them on the machine. Several 
pairs can be made in an hour, and by 
keeping three or four pairs on hand 
| there is always a dry pair. I make them 
for the men and children and also ray 
own work mittens, and keep clean ones 
for hanging out clothes on a freezing day. 
There are numerous other ways for us¬ 
ing them which will suggest themselves, 
such as for wash cloths, for diapers, for 
mending lining, bands and facings. < >ne 
Christmas we hemmed several 10-pound 
sugar sacks for sheets on the dolls' beds. 
MRS. NILES GROVER. 
’Obesity Cures.” 
E shouldn’t speak of curing obesity, 
however, for obesity isn’t a disease 
except in rare instances. With the ex¬ 
ception of the comparatively few cases in 
which there is some disorder of the nerves 
governing nutrition, an excess of bodily 
fat is due either to a natural habit of the 
body which we call a family trait or to 
eating more food than the needs of the 
body require. Some of us are born to be 
plump just as others are born to be bril¬ 
liant, and we can no more control our lit¬ 
tle predisposition than can they, but, just 
as it is more creditable to be born with a 
big head than to acquire one, \ve feel re¬ 
lieved of some responsibility if only our 
ancestors were portly people. Others, 
quite a few others in fact, just simply eat 
too much. If eating were a painful pro¬ 
cess, and pie were a penance, few of us 
would be short of breath or wear turn¬ 
down collars; incidentally, most of us 
would be out of a job, for supplying 
others with something to eat and then 
washing the dishes keeps the world busy. 
Our body engines require a certain 
amount of fuel, but a lot of us make the 
mistake of thinking that we are six-cyl¬ 
inder motors when we are only twins, at 
best. As a consequence, w T e pour in gas¬ 
oline until our pistons become clogged 
with carbon and our horse power is se¬ 
riously reduced. The cure for this form 
of obesity is less food and more active 
physical exertion. What! You won’t take 
this cure? Well, I didn’t think that you 
would ; I was just telling you. 
When families run to portliness a little 
excess of avoirdupois shouldn’t worry 
them; it’s hard to keep the beef breeds 
from putting their food onto the ribs. 
With reasonable care not to keep their 
appetite too thoroughly squelched they 
shouldn’t suffer physically no matter how 
much they differ in form from their ideal 
of personal beauty. Few of us can look 
like the stream-line ladies in the corset 
advertisements and none of us want to 
look like the pictures of the alleged col¬ 
lege youths who are most readily distin¬ 
guished from the puppies at the other end 
of the string by the fact that they wear 
cuffs on their pants. 
There are not wanting unprincipled 
people, however, who appreciate and 
would capitalize the almost universal de¬ 
sire of feminine hearts to retain the wil¬ 
lowy form of youth. Men may be pil¬ 
lowy and content, but the mind of the 
fair sex upon willowness is bent. These 
"obesity cure” people may know well that 
there is no drug or combination of drugs 
that will safely remove surplus flesh, 
though there are a number that have an 
unearned reputation for doing this. True, 
there are one or two that will remove 
the flesh, but un'ess judiciously used, they 
will also remove the spirit. Realizing 
that this fact is becoming popularly 
known, some of these unprincipled people 
seek dupes by advertising drugless flesh 
reducers. 
It matters little whether the obesity 
cures are drug or drugless, they are all 
equally worthless. Upon investigation it 
will be found that the “cure” consists of 
a laxative and perhaps some more or less 
inert drugs; the more dangerous ones are 
being left out. These are accompanied 
by directions for dieting and exercise that 
if followed would result in the loss of 
some flesh, but when these are discon¬ 
tinued the flesh returns and sometimes 
brings a little more with it. Few people 
have the hardihood to stop eating the 
bread, potatoes and other starchy arti¬ 
cles of the daily diet that these direc¬ 
tions ban or the persistence to long carry 
out the systematic and strenuous exer¬ 
cise that is enjoined. If they had they 
would obtain all possible benefit that the 
“cure” can bestow, and at no expense. 
The only cures that these same unprin¬ 
cipled people ever work are possible ones 
for credulity in fleshy people and lean¬ 
ness in their own pocket books. sr. b. d. 
Soil Lev ef 
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