THE RURATv NEW-YORKER 
Concrete Spring-house. 
I wish to make a concrete spring- 
house 6x10 with board roof. How thick 
should I make walls? Will six inches he 
thick enough? Can I use coal ashes for 
concrete work? If so what proportion, 
how much sand and cement with ashes? 
Is it necessary to sift ashes? e. r. e. 
Stroudsburg, Pa. 
Six inches will be thick enough for the 
wall of such a house and it may be made 
of clean, sifted cinders if desired, though 
gravel makes a stronger wall. One part 
of cement, two and a half parts of clean 
coarse sand and five parts of clean cin¬ 
ders or gravel are the proportions usu¬ 
ally recommended for such a structure. 
M. B. D. 
Keeping Rain-water Sweet. 
I have a cistern taking the rain water 
from the roof, and as I fear some odor 
may in time arise. I want to guard 
against it. This water is used for wash¬ 
ing only and cistern was thoroughly 
cleaned two weeks ago. Can you suggest 
something? a. ir. k. 
Union Hill, N. J. 
If a shunt is arranged to carry off the 
first water falling upon the roof after a 
dry interval, there will be less organic 
matter in the cistern to decompose and 
produce a disagreeable odor. Aerating 
the water by splashing it or pumping air 
into it through a hose will also help to 
rid it of offensive odors. A frequent 
change of the water is the best protec¬ 
tion, but if used only for washing pur¬ 
poses, the odor is more disagreeable than 
dangerous. m. b. d. 
A Leaking Well. 
We have a drilled well 103 feet deep ; 
it reaches limestone and leaks away. 
Would it do to pour concrete in the bot¬ 
tom for about 10 feet? A neighbor about 
eight rods away has plenty of water in 
his drilled well of 88 feet depth. He has 
8-inch easing; we have only 5-inch. The 
old well dug is only 35 feet. Would it 
do to concrete this so as to hold rain 
water gathered from the house roof into a 
small cistern of tile four feet across and 
eight feet deep, filtered into the old well 
from the small cistern? We have to do 
something for water and I am anxious to 
do the best for all time to come. J. W. A. 
.Tennerstown, Pa. 
Here is an instance where drilling for 
water supply resulted in vertical drain¬ 
age, if there was evidence of water before 
drilling that last 10 feet. I should cer¬ 
tainly try to make the well hold the water 
by filling in with cement as suggested, al¬ 
though some water may seep down 
around the outside of the casing. As to 
using the old dry well as a cistern, with¬ 
out it is of large diameter, 4*4 to five feet, 
the capacity will not be great enough to 
warrant the trouble and expense of chink¬ 
ing in and cementing the open stone wall, 
as it is usually laid up in a well. The 
more practical plan would be to dig out a 
long narrow cistern at some convenient 
point, having it deep enough to be safe 
from freezing. The side walls and bot¬ 
tom to be of concrete, well plastered. It 
is an easy matter to place a reinforced 
concrete top over a narrow cistern. Al¬ 
though rain water, as it falls from the 
clouds, is practically pure, it gathers 
much objectionable material from the 
roofs of buildings, and without rains are 
frequent to change and replenish the 
store, it soon becomes stale. For house 
use it would certainly have to be filtered. 
This could be done as suggested, as the 
water passes from the small cistern to the 
reservoir. We have a large cistern at 
the barn; this is 15 feet deep, and is 
arched over jug fashion. The water is 
used for spraying the orchard, and at 
thrashing time, and occasionally for the 
stock during a drought when the deep 
well supply is low. It is good policy to 
conserve the water from the roofs, for if 
we cannot get well water which we want, 
we would better take rain water which 
we can surely get. So get the gallon 
capacity of a cistern having a flat bottom 
and square corners, multiply the inside di¬ 
mensions of length, depth and breadth in 
teet together, multiply again by 1728, and 
divide by 231. To get the capacity of 
round cisterns or reservoirs square the 
radius of the circle in feet, and multiply 
by the depth, multiply again by 1728 and 
divide by 231. The reservoir for the 
water supply from a spring on farms 
where I have charge of this class of work 
is 16 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep ; 
if filled to the top would hold a little over 
600 barrels of 32 gallons. The overflow 
keeps the water level 18 inches from the 
top of the reservoir. n. e. cox. 
ens or sheep cannot get into the water 
supply itself. If you do this there is no 
limit to the number of hens or sheep that 
you can keep, and natural drainage from 
these animals is perfectly legitimate. In 
other words, it is a man’s duty to protect 
his own water supply, just as a munici¬ 
pality is forced to buy the land adjoining 
this water supply in order to protect it 
form pollution. 
779 
ty distance” varies in different types of 
soils, and, locally, in the same type of 
soil, but, in general, it may be said that 
no cesspool should be dug within 100 
feet of the nearest well; and it should be 
still further away, if possible. 
M. B. D. 
Avoiding Water Pollution. 
Can you give me any information on 
the laws in Massachusetts in regard to 
polluting a source of water supply? How 
near may a man keep hens or sheep? Is 
there a limit to the number kept? I 
have just bought four acres bordering on 
a man's water supply; about one-third 
of this drains on a slope to this made 
pond. Land has just been cleared of 
brush and wood. I plan to give hens free 
range, and the pond is on the far side of 
the land, so most of the droppings will 
be away from the water. Would sheep 
alone be a source of pollution? Can 
you tell me how many feet from the pond 
the fence should be if there is danger? 
Berlin. Mass. m. s. w. 
If your land adjoins the pond which 
is the source of a neighbor’s water sup¬ 
ply you must fence it so that the chiek- 
Cesspool Near Well. 
I enclose a diagram of well and cess¬ 
pool which I have just dug. Do you 
think I can use the cesspool without 
hurting the well by contamination or 
draining? I have struck water in the 
cesspool, and it has run in about six 
inches. Bottom of cesspool is a red clay. 
u. B. o. 
A cesspool located within 40 feet of 
a well would be decidedly unsafe unless 
it were positively known that all under¬ 
ground flow was away from the well and 
toward the cesspool. The surface con¬ 
tour of the land could not be depended 
upon to show this, as there are sometimes 
variations in the underground strata that 
make surface indications unreliable. Or¬ 
dinarily. the underground flow is down 
grade and toward the neighboring 
streams, but as this rule is sometimes 
nullified by local conditions no cesspool 
should be located within a reasonably 
safe distance from any well. This “safe¬ 
Septic Tanks. 
Can you give me any information con¬ 
cerning septic tanks, their usefulness, 
durability and method of construction? 
We wish to install something for family 
use, and want only the best which would 
answer for kitchen sink and bath room. 
M e have no sewers and our old cesspool 
we fear is inadequate. e. e. f. 
Morris, N. Y. 
You will find in the bulletin “Sewage 
Disposal for Country Homes.” issued by 
the College of Agriculture at Ithaca, N. 
Y., and free to residents of the State, 
upon application, a full discussion of sep¬ 
tic tanks and other means of disposing 
of sewage. Illustrations and details of 
construction are given. These matters 
have also been frequently discussed in 
The R. N.-Y. during the past two or 
three years. m. b. d. 
Colored Mammy: “I wants to see Mis- 
tah Cummins.” Office Boy: “Mr. Cum¬ 
mins is engaged.” Colored Mammy: 
“Well, de good T.awd knows I doan want 
to marry ’im. honey.”—Credit Lost. 
$5,450 Per Day Spent 
To Fortify Goodyear Tires 
The other day we cited our experts to certain well-known tires. 
And we asked, What could Goodyear save by building tires like these? 
$1,635,000 a Year 
The answer was, “Based on current produc¬ 
tion, our saving would be $1,635,000 per year.” 
That means $5,450 per day. 
But that saving would probably cost our 
users a million dollars monthly. And the cost 
to Goodyear soon would be the rulership of 
Tiredom. 
One Must Choose 
Here s the choice that confronts us day after 
day: Shall we skimp Goodyear tires in ways 
that can’t be seen, and increase our profit 
$1,635,000 a year? Or shall we pay that 
price to give our users a better tire than others? 
Our answer is this: 
Goodyear Fortified tires, for many years, 
have embodied five costly, exclusive features. 
These are five great protections found in no 
other tire. 
We spend on experts $100,000 yearly to 
find new betterments to add. 
In the past year alone we have added im¬ 
provements which cost us exceeding $500,000 
a year. 
THE GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY, Akron, Ohio 
Makers of Goodyear “Tire Saver” Accessories; also 
Goodyear “Wing” Carriage Tires and other Types 
Those are the facts; believe them. We 
never exaggerate, never misrepresent. 
Price Reductions 
Now note another side. 
Despite this ceaseless improvement, Good¬ 
year prices are constantly coming down. Our 
last big reduction — on February 1st—made 
three in two years, totaling 45 per cent. 
Yet not a feature is missing, not an item is 
skimped. And this year we are spending a 
half-million dollars on newly-adopted better¬ 
ments. 
That’s one result of our mammoth output, 
our new equipment and our modern methods. 
When we spend such sums to build 
tires better than rivals, don't you think 
it worth while to get Goodyears? 
Most men do. Goodyear tires are selling 
now much faster 
than we can build 
them. Any dealer 
”1 s u p p ’ 
Fortified Tires 
Fortified 
Against 
