106 
American Agriculturist, August 18,1923 
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110 Fint St., JERSEY CITY, N. J. 
also 
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CAN PULL 6 PLOWS 
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Drain! Ditch! Terrace! Protect soil 
DITCHES and TERRACES 
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How To Construct A Septic Tank 
A System for the Disposal of Kitchen and Household Wastes 
\\J ITH the installation of a system 
V' supplying running water in the 
bathroom and kitchen, there arises the 
necessity of disposing of the water and 
the wastes. For this purpose either a 
cesspool or a septic tank, depending on 
conditions, should be constructed. 
The Cesspool 
The cesspool is somewhat cheaper 
and easier to make than a septic tank. 
It may be safely used where the soil is 
sufficiently loose and open to insure 
adequate drainage through the loose 
stone walls, and where the relative lo¬ 
cations of the cesspool and the source 
of water supply are such that there is 
no possible danger of flow from the 
cesspool to the drinking water. This 
cesspool seepage may travel for a very 
considerable distance through loose 
gravel, cracks in shale rock, or open¬ 
ings in limestone formations, and there¬ 
fore a drilled well cased down to the 
surface of lime¬ 
stone or shale rock 
is not necessarily 
safe. A cesspool 
dug in soil, not 
sufficiently open, 
will eventually 
clog and overflow, 
often necessitating 
the construction of 
a new cesspool. 
The Septic Tank* 
The septic tank 
is a chamber, sim¬ 
ple in construction 
and not large, gen¬ 
erally made of con¬ 
crete, water-tight, 
and so arranged 
as to bring about 
as completely as 
possible the decom¬ 
position of the 
solids in bathroom 
and kitchen wastes. 
A septic tank must 
be supplied with a 
suitable disposal 
system of drain 
tile to take care of 
the flow of waste 
water from the 
tank. This dispos¬ 
al system is de- 
scribed later. 
While the action 
of the septic tank will turn to liquid 
part of the solids entering, it should 
not be expected that there will be 
no accumulation whatsoever in the 
septic tank. In fact, the tank should 
be properly cleaned at least once in 
every five to ten years. As shown 
in figure (drawing sent under sep¬ 
arate cover B) this type of tank is, 
on the inside, 4 feet 6 inches deep, and 
3 or 4 feet wide, and from 6 to 8 feet 
long, depending upon the number of 
people in the family. It is made of 
concrete poured around a single form 
as simple as that used for making any 
other single-chamber tank. Each side 
of this form carries two vertical beveled 
strips of wood which leave grooves on 
the inside walls of the finished tank, 
and in these grooves short lengths of 
plank are placed to form partial divi¬ 
sions in the tank. The purpose of these 
is to cause the solids to settle, to aid 
the bacterial action, and to prevent the 
solids from escaping through the 
outlet. 
The inlet and outlet passages are 
through four-inch, vitrified, Y-branch, 
sewer-pipe fittings, easily obtainable 
and very simply installed in the tank. 
By F. G. BEHRENDS 
a cleaner forced through the pipe to 
the running trap. If an elbow-fitting 
were used instead of the Y, this clean¬ 
ing operation would be much more diffi¬ 
cult. The four-inch vitrified Y used 
for the outlet is placed one and one- 
half inches lower than the inlet Y. 
With the exception of a small hole for 
a vent, the upper part of the outlet Y 
is closed and the liquid from the tank 
is made to pass out through the branch 
opening. 
with the House Drain 
bell-and-spigot vitrified 
Connection 
Foui'-inch . ^ - _ 
tile are laid from the house to the tank 
and the joints are made tight with 
oakum and cement. A grade of one- 
eighth inch a foot is permissible, one- 
quarter inch a foot is desirable, while 
more than thi’ee-quarter inch a foot is 
not recommended, since too steep a 
seepage from either the septic tank or 
the disposal tile, if the tank is carefully 
and well built and the absorption area 
is properly located. Locate the absorp¬ 
tion area where neither the slope of the 
ground nor the direction of seepage is 
toward the source of water supply. If 
so located, no contamination should re¬ 
sult if in fairly heavy soils the tile are 
laid seventy-five feet away from the 
water supply. For lighter soils lay 
the tile at a distance of 150 to 300 feet 
from the water supply. 
2. The inlet sewer should be about 
two feet below the surface, at the most 
shallow point. Sewage will not freeze 
in the sewer pipe at this depth, if care¬ 
fully laid to grade so that there are no 
sags in which the sewage can collect. 
3. The inlet sewer should have a 
grade of not less than one-eighth inch 
to the foot. A grade less than that will 
decrease the velocity of the sewage and 
thus tend to settle out the solids which, 
turn, may fill the sewer pipe; a 
m 
If 
A depth of 
INSIDE DIMENSIONS OF TYPE 
SEPTIC TANK 
“Y” 
Number of Persons 
Six or less. 
Eight 
Ten. 
Twelve.... 
Inside 
Width 
Feet 
Inside 
Length 
Feet 
6 
7 
8 
8 
APPLE BARRELS 
J. H. BEAVER 
First class quality. 
All wood hoops, 
Esopus, New Yorli 
The upper branch of the intake Y is 
plugged so that the sewage must enter 
the tank through the lower opening. 
In case the sewer pipe between the 
house and the septic tank becomes 
clogged, this plug can be removed and 
* The type of tank described in this article 
was designed by Profs. H. W. Riley and G C 
McCurdy of the State Agricultural College at 
Cornell. 
grade will produce a velocity that will 
cause an excessive agitation of the con¬ 
tents of the tank. 
Connection with the Disposal Tile 
Overflow from the outlet pipe of sep¬ 
tic tanks is best distributed evenly 
through a large area of surface soil by 
allowing the liquid to soak away from 
numerous joints between the lengths of 
one or more runs of ordinary farm 
drain tile laid underground net far 
below the surface. Disease bacteria, if 
any are present in the bathroom 
wastes, will be in pai’t destroyed during 
the rotting process in the septic tank; 
but many are sure to flow from the 
tank into the distributing tile. From 
the tile the bacteria are carried, by very 
slight movements of the water, out 
among the adjacent soil particles, to 
which they will at once adhere; and 
since the conditions in the soil are very 
different from those in which the dis¬ 
ease bacteria thrive, they will soon die 
and the danger from them will be re¬ 
moved. The action of the air and the 
bacteria always existing in surface 
soils will, if the distributing tile are 
properly installed, keep the soil open 
and fresh, by the processes of nature, 
for an indefinite period. 
Locating the Septic Tank and 
Disposal Area 
Neither the septic tank nor the dis¬ 
posal area can be exactly located until 
a number of factors have been care¬ 
fully considered. Certain definite re¬ 
quirements must be met, and as the 
topography, type of soil, and the size 
of the area available for each installa¬ 
tion vary, the tank and the disposal 
area must be so located as to meet exist¬ 
ing conditions and the requirements 
necessary for successful operation. 
Factors to consider: 
1. There is not much danger from 
to have the dis¬ 
posal tile within 
twelve to eighteen 
inches of the sur¬ 
face, therefore, the 
absorption area 
should, if possible, 
be at a level at 
least one foot be¬ 
low the proposed 
location of the 
septic tank. If the 
ground is fairly 
level, this may re¬ 
quire locating the 
absorption area at 
some distance 
from the septic 
tank, or placing 
the tile at a great¬ 
er depth and in 
greater number to 
compensate for this greater depth. 
6. The septic tank may be placed 
quite near the house or at some distance 
from it, depending on the area avail¬ 
able for the disposal plant and on the 
lay of the land. It is possible, how¬ 
ever, to place it too near the house, 
for if the se\vage enters with a rush, 
the contents will be stirred up, and this 
agitation retards the septic action. It 
is better, therefore, to have twenty-five 
to fifty feet of sewer pipe between the 
house and the septic tank. 
7. The size and irregularity of the 
ground of the plot available for the 
absorption area, as well as the nature 
of the soil, must also be considered. 
The tile can be located either near the 
septic tank or at a considerable dis¬ 
tance from it. In a soil containing 
much sand or gravel, ten to twenty feet 
of absorption tile per person will be 
required, while in a loam, thirty to fifty 
feet is necessary. Where more than 
one row of tile is needed, the rows 
should preferably be at least six feet 
apart, and better results would be ob¬ 
tained by leaving a space of ten feet 
between them. Disposal tile may be 
placed in a hillside if thev are laid in 
rows nearly parallel along the slope. 
The disposal tile, in porous soils, should 
have a grade of one-sixteenth to one- 
eighth inch to the foot, and in less por¬ 
ous soils, One-thirty-second to one-six¬ 
teenth of an inch to the foot. Only 
in exceptional cases should a line of 
tile be more than one hundred 
feet long. If two or more lines of tile 
are needed, they should be approxi¬ 
mately the same length and neither 
over one hundred feet long. As has 
been stated, the tile should be within 
twelve to eighteen inches of the surface 
of the ground. The area should not 
be shaded, nor should the tile be laid 
near willows or poplars, as the roots 
of these trees may soon fill the tile. 
