The kind of water system, like the supply, is governed by geography and geology.  If there happens to be a spring on a nearby hillside somewhat higher than the house, nature has provided the cheapest and simplest system.  A pipe line and storage tank are all that are needed.  Gravity does the rest.  On the other hand, if the spring is on the same level or lower than the house, a pump must be added to the equipment to force the water into the pressure tank and out of the faucets.  If the spring has a large flow and adequate drainage, a water ram is advisable.  With this hydraulic machine, three-quarters of the water that flows into it is used to force the balance into the storage tank.  The expense of operation is nothing and as water rams and pumps cost about the same, such an installation has much to recommend it.

When the search for water goes below ground, one must reckon with geology.  What lies below the turf is the deciding factor.  If it is sand and gravel with a high water table (the level of subterranean water), an excellent well can be had cheaply.  The practice is either to bore through to the water table with a man-operated auger and then insert the pipe, or to drive the latter down with a heavy sledge hammer.  In either case, water is but a few feet below ground and a shallow-well pump, which can raise water twenty-two feet by suction, will be adequate.

There are two types of well to be considered with less favorable subsoil formations—­the shallow and the artesian.  With the former (known to country people as a dug well) a shaft from six to ten feet across is dug with pick and shovel until adequate water is reached.  Then the shaft is lined with stone laid without cement or mortar up to a few feet from the top.  This allows water from the surrounding area to seep into the well where it is retained until it is drawn upward by the pump.  It is obvious that a well of this type cannot be built through ledge or solid rock.  In fact, unusually large boulders sometimes force diggers to abandon a shaft and start afresh.  An old house with two or three of these shallow wells on the premises serves notice on the prospective buyer that repeated and probably unsuccessful attempts have been made to find a well that does not go dry.

Dug wells are seldom deeper than fifty feet; the majority are but little beyond twenty-two feet, the suction limit for a shallow-well pump.  As is obvious from their construction, they depend on the water in the upper layers of the subsoil and so are more readily affected by dry weather.  Although not drought-proof like the artesian, a dug well, which costs much less, can be an excellent water source and supply amazingly large quantities of water.