Cottage Wells The drought has more or less broken, but
both dowsers and well-borers in country places will be in high demand for many months ; the springs cannot recover under three or four months at the very least. What is not generally realized is that the water level in the chalk (which is constant over a very wide area) has been falling for a good fifty years.- The late—or present—drought would not have mattered much fifty years ago. We must go lower down for our water, which has been sucked away beneath our feet by the greedy towns. Yet the vast subterranean lake is there. Pipes can be let down into it at the rate of 100 feet in four days and the water brought to the surface by automatic pumps at a very slight cost—a penny a day for a good-sized house pumping from 200 feet. The perception and recognition of these facts by District Councillors and cottage owners are essential for providing cottages with a decent supply of water. The sight of old people labouring at a chain and bucket for a few spoonfuls of ooze should be a thing of the past.
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