Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-14
HEALTHY FARM HOUSES.
Country Homes Can Easily Be Made
More Sanitary Than City Habita-
tons.

We have seen the charge made that
the farm home is healthy only in pro-
portion to the number of hours spent
away from the house and in the fields
and a dire picture of the lack of SAM
tation and injury which the women
folk receive in being confined in these
unsanitary quarters is presented.
OF course these published statements
are in many cases wide of the TRUTH
but that there is some basis for the
charges caused by the sanitation in
farm homes there can be no doubt.
Sanitation on the farm is not diff
cult Science has taught people how to
keep their homes healthy, even where
there are no drains or sewers. In fact.
some authorities go so far as to declare
that the disposal of sewerage can be
done In a safer way than by the use OF
sewers.
All that is required Is enough pains in
keeping everything about the premises
clean. Doubtless the abundance of
fresh air and the large amount of time
spent out of doors by the farmers
wives and children render them some
what Indifferent to the necessity of san
itary safeguards.
furious filth distributor in the world.
He carries disease and death on his
dirty feet everywhere he flies. He
breeds in stable manure and outhouses
and is the personification of everything
that is vile.
However. this dangerous foe to health
can be partially baffied by sprinkling
crude oil or kerosene over the manure
piles. or better still, by removing them
TO the fields daily. Dry earth used In
the outbuildings in connection with the
screen doors and windows on the house
will largely prevent them from carry
ing disease into the house
Mosquitoes are also disease breeders,
but they are not difficult to overcome.
They breed in little pools of stagnant
water and may be found in stopped up
drains, discarded watering pots or tubs
about the house. Ponds or even depres-
sions in the earth that hold probably
not more than a quart of water, breed
myriads of these pests. and every pre-
caution should be taken to drain places
of this kind, but If any cannot. be
drained little kerosene oil sprinkled
over the surface of the water Will
speedily kill the larvae of the mosquito
and III TINS practice is kept up tHrouSH-
out the season the pests Will almost en-
tirely disappear.
Let the sun shine into the house,
darkened parlor is an abomination. If
shrubs or vines cover the kitchen win
dow cut them away and let in the sun
and air.
If the barn is within 100 feet of the
house it should be removed to dis
lance of five times as great. Even II
the change is expensive, the cost should
not be considered as against the possi-
bility of death in the family. The hog
yards, the cattle yards and the sheep
pens should all be at a distance far
enough from the house to prevent con-
tamination through taking matter
which is more or less unavoidable
around such places.
Ignorance and Incidence are prime
causes of bad sanitary conditions on
the farm, but these are bound to give
way to reform and enlightment.
With proper sanitary conditions the
farm home may be made an infinitely
more desirable place to live than the
average city fiat, but as things now
stand the facts are not on the side of
the farm house.--Kansas City Journal