Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1887 — Look Out for Your Wells. [ARTICLE]

Look Out for Your Wells.

It becomes more and moro evident each year, says the American Agriculturist, that much of the sickness prevalent in the country is directly attributable to the quality of the water. By carefully studying the matter it is found that in nine cases out of ten typhoid fevers originate in families whose water supply is from a well into which impure water comes. This may be fiom the farm-yard, and quite generally such is the case. For some years the water in a well near the house may be pure and wholesome, but by-and-bv the soil between it and the barnyard will become so impregnated with pollution that an unhealthy quality will be imparted to it, and disease will result from its use. This is almost sure to be the case when the distance between the two is not great, because, as a general thing, the bottom of the'well is lower than the yard, and the drainage from the latter will extend in all directions through the most porous strata of soil, and when it reaches the well it will naturally flow into it as a reservoir. No matter how pure the water may have been when the well was first dug, sooner or later it will be contaminated by water flowing through the soil from barnyards and cesspools located anywhere near it. We have in mind a case in which four children d'ed from diphtheria. An examination by the physician proved that the slops from the kitchen had so filled the soil for a distance of twenty feet between the back door, out of which they were thrown, and the well, that the water in the latter was polluted by foul gases, and from the use of it diphtheria had certainly resulted. When making a well have it, if possible, above the barn-yard, and let the drainage be from it rather than into it. Arrange a place for slops, with cement bottom and sides, from which glazed p : pes, cemented together, allow the unhealthy matter to flow back and away from the well.