Part 35 (1/2)

If the stream be small, the water supply may be increased by building a dam. Small springs may be dug out and each lined with a gabion, or a barrel or box with both ends removed, or with stones, the s.p.a.ce between the lining and the earth being filled with puddled clay. A rim of clay should be built to keep out surface drainage. The same method may be used near swamps, streams, or lakes to increase or clarify the water supply.

667. Water that is not known to be pure should be boiled 20 minutes; it should then be cooled and aerated by being poured repeatedly from one clean container to another, or it may be purified by approved apparatus supplied for the purpose.

668. Arrangements should be made for men to draw water from the authorized receptacles by means of a spigot or other similar arrangement. The dipping of water from the receptacles, or the use of a common drinking cup, should be prohibited.

_Kitchens._

669. Camp kettles can be hung on a support consisting of a green pole lying in the crotches of two upright posts of the same character.

A narrow trench for the fire, about 1 foot deep, dug under the pole, not only protects the fire from the wind but saves fuel. A still greater economy of fuel can be effected by digging a similar trench in the direction of the wind and slightly narrower than the diameter of the kettles. The kettles are then placed on the trench and the s.p.a.ce between the kettles filled in with stones, clay, etc., leaving the flue running beneath the kettles. The draft can be improved by building a chimney of stones, clay, etc., at the leeward end of the flue.

Four such trenches radiating from a common central chimney will give one flue for use whatever may be the direction of the wind.

A slight slope of the flue, from the chimney down, provides for drainage and improves the draft.

670. The lack of portable ovens can be met by ovens constructed of stone and covered with earth to better retain the heat. If no stone is available, an empty barrel, with one head out, is laid on its side, covered with wet clay to a depth of 6 or more inches and then with a layer of dry earth equally thick. A flue is constructed with the clay above the closed end of the barrel, which is then burned out with a hot fire. This leaves a baked clay covering for the oven.

A recess can be similarly constructed with boards or even brushwood, supported on a horizontal pole resting on upright posts, covered and burnt out as in the case of the barrel.

When clay banks are available, an oven may be excavated therein and used at once.

To bake in such ovens, first heat them and then close flues and ends.

671. Food must be protected from flies, dust, and sun. Facilities must be provided for cleaning and scalding the mess equipment of the men.

Kitchens and the ground around them must be kept scrupulously clean.

672. Solid refuse should be promptly burned, either in the kitchen fire or in an improvised crematory.

673. In temporary camps, if the soil is porous, liquid refuse from the kitchens may be strained through gunny sacking into seepage pits dug near the kitchen. Flies must not have access to these pits. Boards or poles, covered with brush or gra.s.s and a layer of earth may be used for this purpose. The strainers should also be protected from flies.

Pits of this kind, dug in clayey soil, will not operate successfully.

All pits should be filled with earth before marching.

_Disposal of Excreta._

674. Immediately on arriving in camp sinks should be dug. This is a matter of fundamental sanitary importance, since the most serious epidemics of camp diseases are spread from human excreta.

One sink is usually provided for each company and one for the officers of each battalion. Those for the men are invariably located on the side of camp opposite the kitchens. All sinks should be so placed that they can not pollute the water supply or camp site as a result of drainage or overflow. To insure this, their location and their distance from camp may be varied.

When camp is made for a single night, shallow trenches, 12 inches deep and 15 to 18 inches wide, which the men may straddle, will suffice.

In more permanent camps, the trenches should be about 2 feet wide, 6 feet deep, and 15 feet long. They should be provided with seats and back rests made of poles, and should be screened by brush or old tent flys.

675. In cold weather the contents of sinks should be covered once daily with quicklime, ashes, or dry earth. When filled to within 2 feet of the top, sinks should be discontinued and filled in.

Open pits are dangerous during the fly season. However, the danger may be greatly reduced by covering the excreta with earth or by a thorough daily burning of the entire area of the trench. Combustible sweepings or straw, saturated with oil, may be used for this purpose.

In fly season, trenches may be closed with seats covered down to the ground with muslin and supplied with self-closing lids. Urinal troughs, made of muslin and coated with oil or paint, should discharge into the trenches.