CORNELL READING-COURSE 

 FOR FARMERS' WIVES. 



Issued hy the College of Agriculture, Cornell Univer- 

 sity, Ithaca, N. Y., in the months of November, 

 December, Januaty, February and March. 



Entered at the post office at Ithaca, X. Y., as second class 

 matter, under act of July, IS'Jh. 



READING-LESSON 



SUPPLEMENT NO. 2. 



For Farmers' Wives. 



APRIL, 1901. 



BY MARTHA VAN RENSSELAER. 



HOME SANITATION. 



I. The Old Farm Home as It Was. 



. A farm house of the forties, low, narrow in front and extending 

 far back hito tlie yard, stands jnst under the hill shaded by a thick 

 foliage of locusts. The windows are fitted with small old-fashioned 

 panes of glass, showing from witliout tlie dark closely drawn shades. 

 The front door and windows are closed in winter to keep out the 

 cold and in summer to exclude the flies, and to keep the room dark 

 and cool. The half story aljove discloses small windows which are 

 shaded not only by the locusts and willows but by a picturesque 

 clematis that twines over the surface of the outer wall. Tlie soil 

 about the house is damp and springy. Grass is driven from the 

 doorway for want of sunlight, and mosses thrive upon the roof. 

 Not far from the house and on higher grounds is the barn, of the 

 same ago as the house, with a spacious barn yard, in the centre of 

 which, with the ground sloping towards it, is a large watering 

 trough. The cows stand up to their knees in mud. A rim of sod, 

 close up to the fence, is the only safe though circuitous path to the 

 barn. From the big pen between the barn and the house comes the 

 satisfied grunting of the pigs, which is mingled with the gobble of 

 the turkeys and cackling of the hens as they roam over the yard. 

 On the other side of the house is a half pond and half swamp where 

 tlie ducks dive their heads in deep and the frogs sing to the micro- 

 organisms a soothing lullaby. At the corner of the house stands 

 the old rain barrel, the joy of the mosquito and an offense to the 

 nostrils during dry weather. Where the eaves did not feed the 

 barrel they have emptied the water over the door yard from the 

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