' INSTITUTES. 683 



FARMERS 



SANITATION OP THE FARMER'S HOME. 



MISS FANNIE NOE, LAPORTK, IND. 



[Read before Laporte County Institute.] 



Sanitation lias been studied b.y the scientist and the philanthropist 

 so long and so well that the conditions which make the populous city 

 or the isolated country dwelling healthful or unhealthful are thoroughly 

 and generally known; but the great mass, even of thoughtful people, 

 look upon it as a science whose only scope is to change a pest-ridden, 

 epidemic-breeding city into a healthful resort, not pausing to consider 

 that the same conditions that hatched death in plagme-stricken Havana 

 will develop typhoid, diphtheria and kindred scourges in the lonely 

 country home. 



Pure air and pure water being the absolute essentials of life, soil, 

 exposure and drainage should be carefully and intelligently considered 

 in the selection of a site for a dwelling. 



The location should be higher than the surrounding land, should be 

 distant from other residences, and should have neither high hills nor 

 dense forests in close proximity on the east or south, for the first affects 

 drainage, the second may bring infection, and the hills or woods may 

 shut off the sunlight which is nature's great disinfectant. 



The soil should be porous— permeable— such as permits the rapid 

 escape of the siu-face water and prevents the formation of stagnant pools, 

 which are ever a dangerous neighbor. 



Coarse gravel, sand, gravelly loam and rock, if sloping, are, from a 

 sanitary point of view, good; while clay, marsh, and filled soils are bad, 

 the very worst, perhaps, being a porous soil with a substratum of clay, 

 which serves to hold the water in the surface soil, making a disease- 

 creating cesspool. 



. The cellar of a house, built upon clay, marsh, or filled land, should 

 extend under the entire building and ought to have a cement floor because 

 the air of the house being warmer than the earth below, will suck up the 

 noxious exhalations of the soil; for this reason; also, no dwelling should 

 be built upon the ground. 



In all directions the ground should slope away from the house, so 

 that water will flow from not toward it, thus avoiding, as much as may 

 be, damp walls and cellars. 



The site being good and the home well built, care must be taken to 

 admit pure air freely, but there can be no pure air if the surrounding 

 yards- contain masses of decaying vegetables or reeking pools, whose 

 exhalations taint the air. 



