Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 151, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1915 — Good Water For Farm Homes. [ARTICLE]

Good Water For Farm Homes.

Clear, sparkling water is not always , pure water. A refreshing draught from “the old oaken bucket” may be the beginning of a long and possibly fatal illness from typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera or other disease. * The subject of pure water supplies for drinking and cooking purposes is discussed in a bulletin just issued by the United States Public Health Service under the title “Good water for Farm Homes.” The germs of the so-called waterbom diseases come from the' bodies of persons afflicted with those diseases. They do not live long outside the body and do not originate spontaneously in nature. A few diseases are communicated from animals to man, br. for the most part the germs which get into drinking water and produce disease come only from human hemgs. If we keep the waste products from the bodies of human beings and animals away from our water supplies, we keep the water free from disease germs. The usual sources of farm water supplies are wells, springs and cisterns. Running streams are so seldom free from dangerous pollution that without purification they cannot often be considered safe <for domestic . use. The most common form of supply Is the shallow well, reaching into a layer of earth saturated with water. Few of these are fed by flowing streams, except in limestone formations, and they are really little more than reservoirs for “surface water. Since they drain the surface for a radius of sometimes several hundred feet, their location with reference to stables, out-houses and stock pens is a matter of prime importance. Artesian wells, driven wells, cisterns # and natural springs are also discussed in this publication, and safeguards agaist pollution prescribed It is sometimes impossible to secure pure water for drinking and cooking, and methods of purification must be adopted. It should be borne in mind also that once a safe supply is obtained, its purity is insured only by the continued observance of the prieiples of common sense and common cleanliness. These are neither difficult nor expensive.