The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-02-28

None but those who have had some
experience in the matter know how
much serious trouble and annoyance
may be caused by an empty woodshed
on farm. Especially is this the case
in the busy and hurrying season, when
meals are wanted promptly and help is
often scarce. We question whether |
anything connected with the domestic |
arrangements of the farm is provocative |
of so much ill-temper and general dis
comfort as a neglected woodshed. The |
trying period arrives when the farmer
and his men come from the field at
noon, tired and hungry, to find their
dinner yet unprepared, the fire in the
kitchen range almost out, the house fill
ed with smoke and the house and
domestics cross and fretful. And who
can wonder that they are in this frame
of mind. They have perhaps expended
their united strength and patience all
the morning in endeavoring to coax
fame in stove full of green wood, but
their shavings and kindlings have blaz-
ed up and died out again; they have
kneeled before the reluctant pile behind
the CRATE and blown themselves breath
less, in a resolute endeavor to set the
mass aglow, and still the long, un
wieldy sticks protruding from the stove
door sizzle and fry and persist in going
out in utter disregard of the kettles,
pots and pans that are ''set over" with
their contents waiting to be boiled and
fried for the noon day meal Is it any
wonder that between that exasperating
wood and the consciousness of the fact
that hungry crowd of men and boys
will soon invade the dining room, and
want to know zOlty dinner is never ready
when it should be, that poor, frail hu
man nature often gives way to angry
words and fault-findings; and yet such
experiences as these are but too CON-
mon in homes that are otherwise well
ordered. The ever empty woodshed is
the skeleton in the family, the provok-
er of strife, the disturber of domestic
peace. And who is responsible for this
condition of things7 Who but those
who have the management of outdoor
affairs. What does it argue but lack
ofthe most ordinary prudence and fore
sight that no provision is made for what
in our climate and with our modes of
living, is a most essential part of house
hold economy. Every farmer realizes
this importance when, as in such cases
as we have mentioned, he comes home at
noon in harvest-time while, perhaps,
there is threatening storm cloud in
the west, and finds his dinner not
forthcoming. And yet such dear ex-
periences often fail to teach the needed
lesson. He heaps the blame upon the
poor, over worked housewife and her
hired help, and does not seem to real
lie that the fault all lies with himself,
in his neglect to lay in store at the
proper season generous supply of pre-
pared fuel. He makes ample provision
for his horses and cattle, his crops of
hay and grain are safely stored away,
his fruit and vegetables are gathered in
at the proper time and piled in the
cellar, but the woodshed stands through
all in utter emptiness; in emptiness
except, perhaps, of pile of knarls, the
accumulation of years, whose finty sur
faces resist all attempts to reduce them
to a manageable size, even when these
attempts are made under the spur of
urgent and dire necessity. But a de-
lay of meals in harvest-time, and all
the ill-temper and evaporation of such
occasions are not the only troubles that
arise from an empty woodshed. The
miseries it brings upon the members OF
a household are never more apparent
than in the dreary days and long even
-ings of the winter-time, when the cold
winds are bowling without and driving
in the frost through every sill and case
ment. Then the measure of discomfort
is filled when the wood refuses to burn,
and the fire goes out in spite of all in
ducements, and the children SILVER and
cry with the cold and everybody feels
very blue and miserable. The wood
will not burn, because it was fshed out
of snow heaps and its pores are filled
with ice and water. The woodshed is
empty, and the house is empty, too, of
all home-like cheer and gladness.
0, the long train of pretty trials and
vexations, the domestic jars and crea-
ture discomforts conjured up by that
phrase an empty a00Odshed Who can
fifty describe them all Who shall tell
ofthe hard, thankless lives ofwives and
mothers that would have been much
brighter and more happy if there had
been in this one respect a little consid
Grafton for their welfare, little effort
here at Tightening the burdens they had
to bear.
With most farmers the winter season
offers the most favorable opportunity
for cutting and hauling wood to the
farmhouse. transportation from the
woods and over the fields is easier then,
and men and teams are at leisure. 1t
is matter that no thrifty and provi
dent man will leave out of his calcula-