Farm House And Surroundings

Peoplc in this country appear to pay little attention to tlio laws ot' hcalth. As an ovidence of this, fnstances will strike the eye of a traveler every day, whore either the house or surroundings are such as to induce discaso. And indeed the whole manner of' living of too many of us is anything but conducive to health aud ohoerfulness. Thü Kev. J. H. Moors, in a suggestive address delivered bofore the Franklin Agricultural Society, told soine very plain truths when he said : I t li i ii I; thero are but few houses in which any of us liv e, which do not in some way conduce to avoidable sickness and disease. It may seein extravagant to say so. I believo it to bo the fact with the houses occupied by all classes of people. Farmers, mechanics, merchants, professional men, all aliko livo in unhealthy houses. Every day that I ride about this county, I see houses that aro eituated in unhoalthy looations, on tho north side of hills, in damp valleys near swamps and meadows, where fatal miasmas are bred. Riding in tho evening, you often pass froin a warm, dry stratum of air into one that is cold, and damp, and cliilly. A house situated in the latter cannot bc as heulthy as if situated in tho dryer atmosphere. Véry many houses are made unhealthy by a superabundance of shade trees. I could point you out houses within fivo miles of this vory spot upon whioh the sim rarely shines, in which the air is liki' that of i cellar. That house is nota healthy ono to live in. It is very pretty and poetioal to have a house einbowered ith graceful elms and symmetrical mans ; very comfortablc is such a house in ie hot, sweltering dnys of such a sumner as this just past. But it is not lealthy, that is all. The people do not 1 die off at once, it is true, but they have ot that measure of vigor and strength ïey ought to have, mcl would have, if ïey did not live so inuch in the shadc. - t has become the fashion to set out sliade ;rees about tho house ; a good fashion if ot carried to excess. Trees are often too umerous, and sut too noar tho house, 'hoy absorb the air and sunlight, both of rhioh Me indispensable to health. I must speak of anothor source of ill tealth in our houses. It is thu condition F the draina and water closets. Thcre ro multitudes of cases trhere theue things re so bad as to be a disgrace to the wners and occupants. In front of the lousc all will bo very clean, and tidy, and ry, and wholesome, and ber all tho mrks of refinement and taste, but go ound to the back door, and all is changd. There is fllth and disorder ; umid deaying vegetable matter, chips, blocks of vood and timber, and rotting weods, lere will bo a pool in which is collected ie water of the sink, reeking with poisnous exhalations, and filling the very oom in which the faniily lives with deadt odors. I knew a farmer who once suffered earfully every summer from niusquitoes, which deprived him of his needed rest nd made his bed a placo of torture in;ead of repose. Musquito bars were uncnown, so he usod to burn old boots or anything that would make a smudge, to keep off the tormenting insects. He ni.vtr suspected that ho was supporting a grand musquito factory just under his nosc, in the drain from his sink. Tho good Lord scnL these mnsquitoes that the ignorant farmer was tempted to curse, on purpose to devour the decaying vegetable and animal life from that drain which would have been poison to that family with evory breath thoy drew. I know of a family in which there has always been a good deal of sickness, fevers and tho like. I confidently believe that one cause was the fact that thoir pig pen was right closo to their kitchen windows, and the chips from their winter stock of wood were allowed to rot by the kitchen door. The family siraply invited disease to enter their house. They set traps to catch him. Not half attention enough is paid to cleanlinoss and health in the matter of house drains. When we find more occasion for economy than we do as yet, we shall utilize all the refuse Voin our houses. Till that time comea we can not be too careful to carry all such o deeply into the ground that no noxous gas froiu thera can pollutc the air we breathe. God, in his goodness, has rovided an abundanco of fresh and pure air, and made tho vtso of it the condition f lift; and health. It is a sin for us to abuse his gift as we so aften do. It is not viso nor manly to neglect the conditions of health, to invite disoaso and death to nter our homes, and when he comes, to harge it all upon Divino Providence. To a considerable extent we have tho conditions of health in our keeping. Entering tho house, tho cenar is the irst thing that claims our attontion. Tho ïealth of the family is materially affect:d by the condition of the cellar. A celar that is wet or ovon damp is unhealthy - a broeder of sicknes8 and disoase. How mnny such cellars therc are in which war stands for a considerable part of the vear, or into which it ooses through cracks n the Wall whcnevor thero is rain. - [ïealth (Iemands as ono of the first condi;ions in building a house, that it should stand over a dry, ventilated cellar. Very many houses are rendcred unhealthy by docaying vegetable matter in tho cellar. Old tubs, and barrels, and boxes, and boards are allowed to accumulftte there and moulder away to dust, furnishing a barbor for countless loathsome insocts ; and worso still, the winters stock of vegetables, not quite exhausted, is allowinl (o remain and rot and send up their ble, noxious gases mto tlie rooms in whicu tbc family live, mixing an element of deafh into the very air they breathe. - When our good women boast of their neatness and their thorough housekeeping, I want to seo not only their parlor and kitohen, but I want to seo how it is ii way out in the back kitchen and shed, and esiecially I want to see how it is in their cellar. A neat, even elegant parlor ■nill not atone for a dirty, (liscas'i-breeding out-house and cellar. I fear there are many such.