The Sauk Centre herald., 1910-11-24
undermining the
Farmhouse.
BY c. r. Barns, Minnesota Uni
versity Farm.
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A large portion Of the dissatisfac.
tion which stimulates the drift of
population from the country to the
cities has had its origin in the in
ferior comfort and convenience of the
average farmhouse as compared with
the city dwelling This inferiority has
beer, and still is, mainly shown in the
matte OF the water supply, heating,
iigAting. toilet facilities and the kitch-
eH equipment This was graphically
sci forth oy Professor John l.. Coul-
seF. OF the University of Minnesota, in
his address at the Minnesota Conser-
yation Congress, wherein he quotes
the compaT SON voiced by hundreds of
farmers, n part as follows:
The aave electric lights or gas in
the city; we have the old oil lamp or
aw candle They have furnaces in
Il 80 IS and when they get up in
trt noEnl the house is warm and
p.es ant. get up and find every
'hina frozen ana me house chilled.
They ave hos and cold running water
;na ba ahs; We must go out to the old
plmp, CT melt saow and ice, and take
or bath ip the uish-pan or wash-tub.
They have toilet facilities and sewers;
re must go out in the cold of winter
to the snow-.lle5 privy, and in summer
20 the foul-sil ling unsanitary one"
Now, the disparity in comfort be-
tween the average city dwelling and
the average country home has been
greater, of recent years, than 1t for
merly was. But this has been not so
much matter of location, but of the
greater readiness of the city dweller
to adopt improvements as they have
appeared-a readiness exhibited, not
because the city man was brighter,
but because, in the centers of popula-
ton, one becomes more quickly famil-
lar with new things, and the spread of
improvements is fastened by exam.
pies of their superiority quickly her
aided on every side. The fact of to-
day is, that the owner of many farm
homes, if not of every such home, can.
if he will, have all the comforts and
conveniences of the city dwelling, and
at little if any greater cost. He can
have electric lights, or gas, by the use
of any one of numerous inventions for
supplying isolated dwellings. He can
have furnace, or what is infinitely
better, a hot-water heating plant, just
as readily as his city brother. (The
adaptability Of the hot-water plant to
all sorts of situations, by the way.
could not be better illustrated than by
the fact that each of the street cars
in the Twin Cities is independently
heated by such a planD. The pro-
vision of "hot and cold running wa
ter" and of bathing facilities, is
brought within reach in the country
home by such a variety of appliances
in the way of elevated and basement
air-preSsure tanks, baby engines" and
pumps, as will surprise any one who
thinks that farmhouse must longer
dispense with these. The matter of
sewers and drainage. with the toilet
facilities dependent thereon. is, in
some instances, more difficult to ham
die; but an inspection of the work
necessary to drain many a private
home in st. Paul will satisfy the farm,
er that it costs not few city dwell
ers more to connect with a sewer than
it would to provide similar drainage
for his country home.
A great many farmers are already
awake to the fact that not the slight
est reason now exists why their homes
should not be equipped with all the
appliances for comfort to be found in
the city home. An illustration Is
given, herewith, of home recently
built by such farmer. Mr.. j. J.
Sprenger, at Zumbro Falls. Mimi.