Rural Hygiene

by Henry N. Ogden

Fig. 33.—An inclosed spring.

Very often a larger supply from a spring may be obtained by collecting into one basin a number of separate and smaller springs. A swampy or boggy piece of ground is often the result of the existence of a number of springs, and if drains are laid to some convenient corner of the field, and a well dug there, into which the drains will discharge, not only will the swamp be drained, but an ample supply of water in this way be obtained. It would, of course, not be wise to have cows pasture in this part of the field, nor, even when the ground has been dried out, should this field be manured or cultivated. It should rather be fenced and left to grow up in underbrush, dedicated to the farm water-supply.

Extensions of springs.

Fig. 34.—A spring extension.

Again, if the water comes from a stratum W-W, as shown in Fig. 34, a large additional yield can be obtained by extending the spring from the point where it breaks out along the edge of the water-bearing stratum on each side. This extension or gathering conduit can be made by building rough stone walls on each side of the ditch, covering with flat stones so as to form a pervious channel to intercept the water and lead it to the chamber from which the supply pipe to the house leads out. The ground-water level will then be altered as shown by the broken line in the draining.

More simply it may be made by digging a trench along the hillside at the same level as the spring, or into the spring if necessary to find the water, and then laying draintile surrounded by coarse gravel or broken stone in the trench.

In the western part of the country much knowledge has been gained by investigating and experimenting on this kind of spring water development, only there the springs have been made artificially by digging down to meet the underground flow of water. For example, in the Arkansas River Valley, California, where it was suspected that water was flowing underground, a trench was dug transversely across the valley, and at a depth of six feet sufficient water was found to amount to 200,000 gallons per day for each one hundred feet of trench. On the South Platte River, near Denver, much the same thing has been done, and in a trench eighteen feet deep, water is collected at the rate of a million and a quarter gallons per day for each one hundred feet of trench. Other examples of the same sort might be given.

For a single house, the spring need usually only be extended by means of a short trench, and three-inch terra-cotta tile should be laid in the trench and surrounded by gravel and then covered over. The spring receiving water from these tiles should be inclosed, as will be described in a later chapter.