Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-02-16
Conditions of Long Ago Easily
Compared to Present Day by
Sight Of Old Buildings
MODERN coNvENleNcEs COMING
Farmer, Enabled to Secure Everything
That His City Brother Possesses
One Farmer Who Finds That There
is No Place Like the Old Home =
Wilson's Rural Observations.
Special to Times Republican.

cPSCldl " l.
Geneva, Feb. 16.-Very much is be-
ing said these times about the Won
this part of the country within the
memory Of some of the older inhabi-
tants. When man wishes to be par
ticularly impressive In his remarks
along this line he generally compares
prices paid in transactions, remote and
recent. involving the transfer Of land.
Mention. too, is frequently made of
great distances to the nearest railroad
towns, of the difficulties encountered
in marketing what the farmer had to
sell and in transporting from his trad
ing point what he found 1t necessary
to buy. Not so frequently does he APP
peal to the imagination OF the listener
in an attempt to show what has been
done in the way OF Improvement in the
houses and other farm buildings thru
out the country since land could be
bought at prices now considered in
significant. and when the nearest rail-
road station was forty miles away.
Some of these old time buildings still
stand. however. and few words are
necessary to convey to THE beholder,
an idea of what the country homes
looked like q generation ago. when land
was cheap, opportunities plenty and
winters long and severe.
One of these old structures stands on
a farm near here, now owned by Mr..
John Jones. 1t was long ago moved
back some distance from where 1t
was erected, and.a more modern dwell
ing built on the spot. Oak, hickory,
Eastwood and several other kinds of
logs entered into it's construction, the
openings between them were carefully
"chinked" and unlike most of the
houses built at that period this one
was covered with siding" Half CEN
fury ago it was considered. it is said.
the finest country home in the commu-
nifty. There is fully as much differ
ence in the homes of the pioneers. of
which this was one of the very best,
and the elegant farm residences that
now beautify the country everywhere,
as there is in the prices which the
farms OH WHICH lucy Sldiu SoAiiildlu.
ed, then and now.
1t is a safe prediction that the next
few years will see a very noticeable
Improvement in rural homes in the
way of what we commonly term mod
ern conveniences and which up to The
present time have not to any consid-
cradle extent been installed except in
the homes of town and city dwellers
Little observation is needed to con-
vince one of the almost unlimited OPP
portunties for these awaiting the exer-
else of little mechanical ingenuity
on the part of the farmer. A single i'll
lustration is here given to show what
can easily be done to improve very
much on anything that ordinary city
people can possibly obtain in the way
of water supply. A few rods from
the house on the farm of F. r. Benson
a large spring gushes out from the
side Of small hill. The owner has
enclosed the opening with square ce-
ment box, into which the purest of wa
ter flows at the rate of about twenty
gallons minute. A pipe conveys part
of the overflow to a tank in the milk
house that stands near. A little wayl