Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-06-23
Farmers Homes.

The surroundings of the farmers
home can be made more comtorta-
BILE. Instead of the little building
situated several rods from the house,
which must be visited in the storms
and cold and exposed to the public
gaze, and which is very often nui-
sance, let lean-to be made against
the rear of the dwelling or wood
house, with an entrance under COW
cr, where tubs can be placed, and by
an addition of little earth or plas-
ter or muck every few days, nothing
disagreeable will ever be experien-
ced. The compost heap or the ma
nure pile will receive the contents,
and at least $40 annually of addi-
tional value will be realized for each
adult. Have a cistern; gather the
materials at odd times, and if you
have room in the cellar, and do not
want to afford time to dig a hole,
wall up one corner and let the wa
ter in. Put pump in the kitchen
in the handiest place, and with a
lead pipe you may draw the water
to sink within a step from the
stove.
Keep a stock of wood ahead. Any
wife has just reason for divorce
from husband who is so mean and
so shiftless, that he furnishes her
stove wood from day to day; and
any farmer who does it with the idea
Of economy, is Ounce, for the time
spent in hunting up the ax-and
such farmer always has to hunt
up his AK or anything else he wants
and the time spent in going to
and from his other work, to cut
wood, and the delays waiting for
meals, because the wood is green
and wet, would go a long way to-
ward working up good stock Of
wood; which, being seasoned and
handy, the hard-working housekeep-
err could use SO as to save herself
many scolding; and man who
has no wood pile must be scold,
and unreasonable enough to find
fault with his wife, when he alone
should be blamed. Pork is the most
expensive food, besides its tendency
to make people gross and vulgar.
A big pork eater and man Of deli
cate sensibilities and feelings are
opposites. A pound Of chicken can
be produced on a farm as cheaply
as a pound of pork. The same is
true of mutton. Both are healthier
than hog flesh. Then why not raise
chickens and lambs, and eat poultry
and mutton?
A house on a hill with no tress
around it, looks cherries and I'M
homelike. Have grounds round the
dwelling. Tear away the fences;
they cost money and are useless. l
mean the fences shutting the house
up as if there was danger of its run
ming away. Let there be not less
than an acre of door yard-ten will
be better. Make rich lawn of this
and cut the grass. 1t can be no
waste, but it will be thing Of beau
ty, and ga thing Of beauty is joy
forever" There need not be any
loss to be tasteful; nature and beau
ty are synonyms; good taste and
economy can therefore be made
landmarks to each other. Set out
fruit trees in this enclosure, and dig
around them with spade each year,
and top dress the whole, and the
trees will grow finely, and the grass
will grow luxuriantly, and the house
will grow beautiful, the children
viii grow contented, the fathers and
mothers as they grow old will grow
happy, the neighbors will grow to
emulate and to excel, the township
will grow attractive, and the young
men and the young women will
grow up to think and to feel, that
there is no place after all like home,
"Sweet Home. "-F. d. Catrtiss.