f they give your well or spring a good character, the chances are
that even the most exacting of families will find such a water supply
adequate. Whether it is pure or not is another matter but one that can
easily be determined by sending a sample to your state health
department or a bacteriological laboratory. That this should be done
before such water is used for drinking purposes goes without saying.

The driven or artesian well has two points that makes it worth the
cost. There is no question of purity or of quantity. It taps
subterranean water which is unaffected by local causes of
contamination or by drought.

The kind of water system, like the supply, is governed by geography
and geology. If there happens to be a spring on a nearby hillside
somewhat higher than the house, nature has provided the cheapest and
simplest system. A pipe line and storage tank are all that are needed.
Gravity does the rest. On the other hand, if the spring is on the same
level or lower than the house, a pump must be added to the equipment
to force the water into the pressure tank and out of the faucets. If
the spring has a large flow and adequate drainage, a water ram is
advisable. With this hydraulic machine, three-quarters of the water
that flows into it is used to force the balance into the storage tank.
The expense of operation is nothing and as water rams and pumps cost
about the same, such an installation has much to recommend it.

When the search for water goes below ground, one must reckon with
geology. What lies below the turf is the deciding factor. If it is
sand and gravel with a high water table (the level of subterranean
water), an excellent well can be had cheaply. The practice is either
to bore through to the water table with a man-operated auger and then
insert the pipe, or to drive the latter down with a heavy sledge
hammer. In either case, water is but a few feet below ground and a
shallow-well pump, which can raise water twenty-two feet by suction,
will be adequate.

There are two types of well to be considered with less favorable
subsoil formations--the shallow and the artesian. With the former
(known to country people as a dug well) a shaft from six to ten feet
across is dug with pick and shovel until adequate water is reached.
Then the shaft is lined with stone laid without cement or mortar up to
a few feet from the top. This allows water from the surrounding area
to seep into the well where it is retained unti