424 
The RURAL N 
Making the Dug Well Safe 
What would be the best way to recon- 
8tiv~* a well? It has been dug about 
t.wc years, and the recent heavy rains 
have washed in the earth, causing the 
stonework to fall. When I moved here 
early in September last the well was 
nearly dry, so I went down and cleaned 
out about a foot of mud that was settled 
in the bottom. After I got this out I 
noticed the water started to come in freely 
from a spring in the bottom, and next day 
I had two feet of water in the well. 
While I was down the well I noticed that 
the earth which 1 had got out of the bot¬ 
tom had been washed through the stones 
from the top to the very bottom, and I 
could put a stick through the wall for 
about two feet in almost any part of the 
well. Of course this told me that there 
were not enough small stones in for back¬ 
ing, and I was not surprised when it 
caved in after three days’ steady rainfall, 
though 1 had hoped it would last until I 
had time to put in some backing. Do 
you think I should get enough water if I 
had the wall built with cement from the 
bottom up. or should it be piped with 
large sewer pipe so that the earth could 
not wash in again? Would it be all 
right to rebuild the wall with cement 
for say six feet down, and then till in 
with small stones for backing, with a 
layer of cement on top? The well is 14 
feet deep. E. F. 
North Dartmouth, Mass. 
Of the many types of wells in use, the 
dug well is perhaps met with most fre¬ 
quently. This is especially true where 
the ground water lies at no great depth 
and occurs in no clearly defined channels 
but seeps through the soil slowly, so that 
a well of comparatively large diameter is 
needed to provide storage. It meets the 
requirements of a large reservoir from 
which considerable water may be drawn 
at one time, as is sometimes necessary 
when watering cattle, filling again when 
the drain upon its water ceases. It also 
hae the advantage of cheapness, in that 
it can be dug with ordinary farm equip¬ 
ment and farm help, without the employ¬ 
ment. of outside labor or machinery. 
Unfortunately, with all its advantages, 
the dug well is likely to furnish the most 
unsafe water supply of any of the wells 
in use. It is the most open to contam¬ 
ination. The two principal sources of con¬ 
tamination are the impurities, insects, 
small animals, etc., gaining entrance 
through the covering and upper few feet 
of the curbing, which is frequently of 
loose masonry construction ; and impure 
surface water, carrying filth in solution, 
as the washings of the farmyard during 
and after a heavy rain, seeping down into 
the well. Again, unfortunately, the han¬ 
diest location for the well, near the hack 
door or barn, puts it in a position where 
it is most likely to be polluted, so that 
too much precaution cannot be taken to 
insure its protection, a pure water supply 
being a long step in the direction of coun¬ 
trywide health. 
In digging a new well, therefore, par¬ 
ticular pains should be taken in choosing 
its location. Mention has been made in a 
previous paragraph of the ground water 
from which the well receives its supply. 
This is nut standing water in the soil, as 
many suppose, but really a river or 
drainage system, nearly as well defined as 
the system with which we are familiar on 
the surface, moving slowly toward the sea 
by a more or less ‘direct route. The 
principal differences between these under¬ 
ground water supplies and the surface 
streams are the size and the rate of flow, 
the underground water flow being more 
nearly comparable to an immense stream 
which is so filled with gravel and other 
debris that’ no water appears at the sur¬ 
face, but through which it gravitates 
slowly on its course to the ocean. The 
source of this ground water is of course 
the yearly rainfall, and this may work 
through the soil for a long distance before 
it. is tapped by a well. In general, the 
flow of these underground currents follow 
the surface contour of the land, so that 
advantage of this fact, can he taken when 
locating a new well, putting it in a place 
where the water that il is likely to receive 
comes from an unpolluted source. 
In connection with the locating of a 
new well some men take into considera¬ 
tion a so-called “safety distance,” varying 
from 100 feet in the case of a tight soil, 
as clay, to 200 feet or more in the case of 
the more open soils, as the sands, through 
which water percolates more readily. By 
this is meant that if the well is located 
the above distances from a source of pol¬ 
lution the water will be purified before 
reaching it by filtering through the soil. 
As a matter of fact water is so purified, 
Construction Surrounding Well. Fig. 116 
lint, the distance is more or less a problem 
of judgment rather than one of actual 
measurement, because there are so many 
factors of slope, type of soil, source of 
suspected pollution, etc., that no meas¬ 
urement with a rule can give reliable re¬ 
sults. Other men use the depth of the 
EW-YORKER 
well as the “safety distance,” but in the 
case of a shallow well, ae a dug well is 
likely to be, this is obviously unreliable. 
As already pointed out, a well is con¬ 
taminated chiefly by material and impure 
surface water entering the top and upper 
few feet of the curbing. This is shown 
to be a fact in the case mentioned by E. 
L., the influx of surface water being so 
great in this case that it caved in the 
well by washing away the supporting 
earth back of the wall. It is said that 
the filtering of water through 10 feet <>f 
clean earth will purify it. Of course 
this does not apply to extraordinary cases, 
but only to cases where the pollution is 
slight. A method then of making an or¬ 
dinary well safe is first to secure a loca¬ 
tion on high ground, or at least on ground 
the surface of which slopes in all direc¬ 
tions from the well. The addition of a 
tight concrete cover, which because of its 
durability is really the cheapest material 
from which to build such a platform, 
tightly joined to a watertight curbing 
which should extend down into the ground 
for at least 10 feet and preferably farther, 
prevents pollution from the top. This 
watertight curbing, as will be discussed 
later, may be made from concrete or tile 
with cemented joints. As a further pre¬ 
caution against the entrance of surface 
water, tightly rammed and puddled clay 
should be placed around the upper 10 feet 
of the curbing, and should extend out in 
the form of an apron, as indicated in the 
sketch (Fig. 116). This will prevent 
waste water from the pump from seeping 
March 8, 1919 
down the sides of the curbing and re¬ 
entering the well, ae well as preventing 
the entrance of any surface water by the 
same route. It, if properly made, is in¬ 
surance that all the water entering the 
well has passed through at least 10 feet 
of soil. 
The choice of concrete or tile for the 
well lining rests largely on the use to 
which the well is to be put and on the 
type of soil in which it is dug. If dug in 
a type of soil in which there are clearly 
defined underground water passages, and 
the well taps one of these so that there is 
a constant stream of water flowing 
through the well, insuring a supply of 
water, the tile will make a satisfactory 
lining, as storage room for waiter is not a 
requirement. If in another type of soil, 
where the water was obtained largely by 
percolation or seepage, the tile might still 
be satisfactory if the well was to be used 
for no other purpose than household use. 
On the other hand, if the well was to be 
used for watering cattle or other purposes, 
where a heavy draft was likely to be put 
upon it for short periods of time, a larger 
diameter would be needed to intercept 
more of the ground wate as it. seeped 
along, and to provide a larger reservoir 
for storage, increasing the diameter or 
depth being about the only means of in¬ 
creasing storage capacity, as the water 
cannot be made to rise above the water 
table. 
The method to be used by E. L. then 
in repairing his well wfill depend upon the 
(Continued on page 428) 
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