424 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the city this goes iuto the sewer, but in the country it generally goes 

 on the kitchen door and helps to pollute the surrounding soil, 

 and this country soil-pollution is a disturbing factor in health, not 

 only from poisoned water, but also from the poisoned air surround- 

 ing the house. 



In the absence of sewers the proper way to dispose of slop waters, 

 is by some form of a surface or subsoil drain, allowing the filthy 

 waters to drain over or under cultivated land. Cultivated land, 

 by the way, is the great sewer in the country, yet it is even better 

 than a sewer, for it not only removes filth but actually destroys it. 



The garbage or solid waste from the kitchen, if not fed to the 

 pigs, should be put in a furrow in a field or a hole in the garden bed. 

 The sum and substance of the sanitary disposal of all putrescible 

 waste about a country house, is its speedy removal to cultivated 

 land. 



When we come to the "out buildings'" on the farm, the pigpen, 

 the barnyard and the cow stable are the attractive, rather I sup- 

 pose I ought to say, the unattractive points from a sanitary view. 



Pigpens should have a water-tight floor, with an air space of at 

 least a foot underneath; and to keep them in proper condition, so 

 as not to become a nuisance or prejudicial to health, they should be 

 cleaned every day and the filth carted away to the field. 



The filthy barnyard — an eyesore to many an otherwise fine farm 

 — is a great point for improvement, not only on account of its un- 

 sightliness, but on account of the adjacent soil pollution, and the 

 fact that stable refuse is a breeder of flies, and flies you know, have 

 been accused of carrying disease. 



At the Agricultural Department at Washington, they made some 

 experiments on screening manure piles, and found that flies dimin- 

 ished very rapidly in the immediate locality; but such a procedure 

 is not feasible on the farm. A better way, and the only way, is to 

 cart the manure immediately to the field, as my friend Mr. Stout, 

 of Pinegrove, has been doing for the last fifteen years. This is its 

 proper place, and the sooner it is gotten there the better, not only 

 in a sanitary sense, but for economic reasons, for the nitrogen in- 

 stead of being wasted, gets into the soil where it is needed. 



However much we desire to rid our homes of flies, the removal of 

 mosquitoes is vastly more desirable, for one family of mosquitoes, 

 and the family that especially breeds in the country and suburban 

 places, carries the germ of malaria, and malaria though not es- 

 pecially dangerous in this part of the world is, nevertheless, a dis- 

 ease to be prevented. The rain barrel, the cistern and the country 

 privy are the great mosquito breeding-place, although the malarial 

 variety quite often prefers the roadside puddle and the pools of 

 little streams. To diminish the mo(]uitoes, th(Mi. of a localitv, it 



