The Ottawa free trader., 1880-09-11
site of the Farm House.

A good healthy site, says the New York
Times, does not alone insure health in farm
house. The cellar may be dry, light and airy,
but il kept full of vegetables, especially after
warm weather sets in, the chances are that a
child will have the diptheria, or parent will
suller from chills and fever or some other form
cf fever will affect some member Of the fami-
ly. In such a case the cause should not be at
tributed to a mysterious Providence. The
physician if he is sensible man, and has a
nose for smells, will tell you there is no mys-
terry about it, Those decaying cabbages or
those rotten turnips in the cellar are the cause
of all the trouble. The patient may be com
PEELED to swallow much bitter quinine, and
many suffer something worse, but Providence
ought not 10 be blamed for leaving those veg
etabes in the cellar to generate disease and
death in the family. Not only should the eel
lar be cleared OF onions, turnips, ETC., at this
season of the year, but the windows should be
taken out, the gangway door opened, and as
much sunshine and air admitted as is possible
IN an underground room. The walls and cell
ing should be whiewashed, and an opening
made into the chimney through which the
damp air of the cellar may escape, and not
permeate the house every time the cellar door
is open, or enter into the windows of the liv.
ing rooms as it emerges from the cellar win
dows. A cellar is a good thing when rightly
managed, but If left full of vegetables, stale
vinegar, and rotten timbers and rubbish, il
may become nuisance of the worst kind.
Many farmer keeps his barn nice and order
ly whose cellar Is a sink of pollution, and, We
may add, of inlquity, for 1t is a great injustice
to ones family to expose them to disease and
death, when a days work will make the cellar
sweet and clean. When 1t is once cleaned and
ventilated a little air-slacked lime scattered oc-
casionally on the floor will keep the air. .as
pure in the cellar as il is in the kitchen.
Another great drawback to the health of the
average farm. house is the want Of good sewer
age-some effective mode of disposing OF the
slops of the kitchen, etc. These are sometimes
thrown out of the windows, more frequently,
perhaps, conveyed by pipe into ccsspool.
If this pool is near the house, and 1t is not
supplied freely with copperas or some other
Idisinfectant it will generate pOsOnS OF the
worst kind. We tried such pool for years,
and by having tube running from it some
twelve feet IN the air, and using cOpperas by
the barrel, we thought we had solved the knot.
| ty problem of farm sewerage. But, with ali
our care the cesspool would sometimes defle
the premises, and we have ibis spring adopted
the plan of conducting the sewage IN an iron
| pipe to a suitable distance from the house, and
then utilizing 1t, by means of the common
iOi hiC IHit' ~ i'' Wv
plan works we'll How much the land will be
benefited 1t is too early to say, but the earth
absorbs The sewage perfectly, and not vile
odor has yet been scented by the keen nose of
our better half In the neighboring town Of
Lennox this plan has been IN operation for
years, and Is pronounced success. Farm
sewerage is one of the most difficult problems
which farmers have TO solve; but If the house
has elevation sufficient to admit of the adop-
tion of this plan, we are inclined to think ii
will prove economical and efficient. We do
not recommend it with the confidence we
should il we had longer experience, and
under more favorable circumstances. Living
on gravel knoll. as we do, we have great ad-
vantages for carrying off the sewage, and tor
its absorption by the soil.
The privy is another nuisance, but a very
unnecessary one, on many farms. 1t needs
only little attention to convert il from being
hotbed for generating disease into good
compost heap for increasing the products of
the farm. All that Is required Is to build a
lcement vault not too deep, for hn-footer ia