A FARM PROBLEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 3 April 1926, Page 9

A FARM PROBLEM

RURAL SANtTA J iUN LIMITS UE THE SEi’TIC TANK Air \\ . M. Armour, one of Hie inspectors of the Department of Health, lias recently epitomised some useful bints concerning rural sanitation—that, is, the sanitation of farms and country dwellings, says the Dominion. Thu town dweller is a cog in a great sanitation . machine, and has every inducement of persuasive, propaganda and every penalty of legal compulsion to keep him in the stniigin, path. So much is done for him by the community that ho has comparatively littje to learn in the tumlamentals of house sanitation. But the rural dweller, for whom nothing is done, is thrown on his own initiative, and lias everything to learn. Mr Armour stresses the need of underfloor ventlation, and of so siting the house, the well, and the animals’ quarters that none of the animals—•human or otherwise—will suffer. If. is a fact that the welfare of the four-footed animals often receives first- consideration, because everyone knows what a beast is worth, but. few people remember that a man, at the lowesteconomic compilation, is worth .£IOOO. i'or a householder who is isolated and therefore cannot be part, of a collective system uf drainage, the best means of draining is Jischlfrjge direct- into the sea. or into a large river (not used as a water supply). The next bestmeans is land treatment, such as surface irrigation (the discharge of waste water over the -surface of the land). I Ills is not a practice to be recommended for the average private dwelling, but may be the best- thing where there is no natural drainage outfall. ‘‘Surface irrigation carried out by laying lines of open jointed pipes some 12 inches below the surface may be employed. In this ease the drainage is disposed r;f by -oak,age in the surrounding soil, and is also taken up bv the roots of surface vegetal inn. . . Where the subsoil is porous, a soak pit may be used : Hie main care necessary in this ease is fo ensure that the surface of the pit doe? not clog. The provision of a small rectangular grease trap, so constructed as to permit daily removal of grease, and so placed as to take the daiunge froin such interior fittings, as the kifehI en sink, wil usually obviate this.” But underground water supplies must not he endangered. A third means of drainage is septic leaks (Mr Armour uses the phrase liquefying tanks”) and filter beds. He makes it clear that h° does not regard flip septic tank as a magical transformer, and lie says that the liquid remaining is still sewage. ‘‘Tim impression has got- into certain minds that tlie septic tank is the be all and end all of sewage purification, and that if they but install a septic tank auv liritud which may pass: through the tank can lie discharged anvwhere without Hie danger of creating a nuisance. ... In suite of misconceptons, however. a pivioerlv constructed septic tank is a useful adhuict in certain systems of sewage disposal, mainlv because of its liquefying nef’o-n op --ol'-I matters in the sewage. The effluent which oasses fro-in the tank, although :t is still sewage, is nevertheless no"' o •-irh a co-odiHoii as to permit - i '’■"•(her treat meiit ether on laud or in fiber beds. Kilter Hi-ds for sewage in fallatiios to private Imuses—excent where tiiev can he installed well away from dwellings and he under constant intelligent care—are not. however, tobe recommended because of the possibilities they provide for the creation of nuisances.”