THE CISTERN.

Three things are all that are necessary to supply any family with the purest and best water in the world for drinking, cooking and washing purposes: a well-constructed cistern, a clean roof and a rain-fall.

CUT-OFF ATTACHMENT.

(Not patented; can be made by any tinsmith.)

These are within the reach of every one able to own a home. By a cistern we mean an excavation in the earth from twelve to twenty-five feet deep. Dig deep if you want cold water all the year round. From eighteen to twenty-five feet will produce it. If your cistern is dug in a clayey soil, there is no use of brick lining; but if in gravel, sandy or rocky soil, line the inside with hard, well burnt brick, and do the work well; using for mortar equal parts of hydraulic lime and clean, sharp sand. When completed, plaster the inside carefully with the same mortar. If the walls are clay plaster immediately on the sides and bottom, without lining with brick.

No roofing material is better for collecting chemically pure water than tin, and none so bad as wood shingles. They hold dirt which no ordinary shower will wash off, and furnish organic matter which is disagreeable to the taste and smell; the porous nature of wood makes it the home of myriads of insects, the remains of which are eventually deposited in the cistern and poison its waters.

No such objections can be urged against tin roofing. A short shower cleanses it thoroughly. Water-pipes leading into the cistern in every case should have a cut-off attachment within easy reach.

There are several on the market, but those having no inside arrangement to get out of order, or obstruct the direct passage of water into either the cistern or waste-pipe, are the best. The water should be strained before entering the cistern. This can be built of brick and be underground, or a cask can be used above ground. A strong, iron-bound linseed oil barrel answers the purpose. Its construction is very simple. Take out one end of the cask and perforate it with a sufficient number of one-inch auger holes; lay four brick on edge in the bottom of the cask, and let the perforated cask head rest upon them. Then fill the cask three-quarters full of charcoal, pounding it down on top pretty hard. Put on top of the charcoal clean, coarse gravel to within three inches of the top of cask; make a covering with an opening to receive the water which flows from the roof, and convey the water from the bottom of cask to the cistern. At least once a year this filter should be emptied and cleansed, putting in new charcoal and washing the gravel carefully. Let no summer months’ water run into the cistern. See that the first rain of a shower is used to wash the dust and soot from your roof before it is turned into the cistern, and you will have an abundance of water not equaled by any well or spring.