3. They require more personal attention and care than people generally are willing to give.
By far the most satisfactory method yet devised of caring for sewage calls for a supply of water and the flushing away of all wastes as soon as created through a water-tight sewer to a place where they undergo treatment and final disposal.
KITCHEN-SINK DRAINAGE
A necessity in every dwelling is effective disposal of the kitchen-sink slops. This necessity ordinarily arises long before the farm home is supplied with water under pressure and the conveniences that go with it. Hence the first call for information on sewage disposal is likely to relate merely to sink drainage. This waste water, though it may not be as dangerous to health as sewage containing human excrements, is still a menace to the farm well and capable of creating disagreeable odor.
Fig. 16.—How to waste kitchen-sink drainage. A, Sink; B, waste pipe; C, trap; D, clean-out; E, box filled with hay, straw, sawdust, excelsior, coke, or other insulating material; F, 4-inch vitrified sewer-pipe, hubs uphill, and joints made water tight for at least 100 feet downhill from a well; G, 4-inch vitrified sewer pipe, hubs downhill, joints slightly open, laid in an 18-inch bed of coarse sand, gravel, stone, broken brick, slag, cinders, or coke; H, strip of tarred paper on burlap or a thin layer of hay, straw, cornstalks, brush, or sods, grass side down; I, 12 inches of natural soil; J, stone-filled pit. As here illustrated, water is drawn by a pitcher or kitchen pump (K) through a 1¼ or 1½ inch galvanized-iron suction pipe (L) from a cistern (M). The suction pipe should be laid below frost and on a smooth upward grade from cistern to pump and be provided with a foot valve (N) to keep the pump primed. If a foot valve is used, pump and pipe must be safe from frost or other means than tripping the pump be provided for draining the system
The usual method of disposing of sink slops is to allow them to dribble on or beneath the surface of the ground close to the house. Such drainage should be taken in a water-tight carrier at least 100 feet downhill from the well and discharged below the surface of the ground. Every sink should be provided with a suitable screen to keep all large particles out of the waste pipe. An approved form of sink strainer consists of a brass plate bolted in position over the outlet and having at least 37 perforations not larger than one-fourth inch in diameter. Provided a sink is thus equipped and is given proper care and the land has fair slope and drainage, the waste water may be conducted away through a water-tight sewer and distributed in the soil by means of a short blind drain. A simple installation, consisting of a kitchen-sink and pump and means of disposal as described, is shown in [Figure 16].
CESSPOOLS
Where farms have water under pressure an open or leaching cesspool is a common method of disposing of the sewage. Ordinary cesspools are circular excavations in the ground, lined with stone or brick laid without mortar. They vary from 5 to 10 feet in diameter and from 7 to 12 feet in depth. Sometimes the top is arched and capped at the ground surface by a cover of wood, stone, or cast-iron. At other times the walls are carried straight up and boards or planks are laid across for a cover, and the entire structure is hidden with a hedge or shrubbery.