Buildings and Yards. 



503 



shelves inside may be used for the storage of things used only at long 

 intervals, such as empty fruit jars, etc. 



The kitchen is in many respects really the most important room in 

 the farm house. Instead, however, of being a model of convenience, as a 

 little thought might make it, it is all too commonly mean and inconvenient in 

 the extreme. j\Iere size has little to do with convenience, and a kitchen 

 may be bad simply from being 

 too large, so that too much 

 energy is used in going from one 

 thing to another in doing the 

 work. A good kitchen should 

 have the range, the work table, 

 the sink (with running water), 

 and the cupboard (or kitchen 

 cabinet) so arranged and placed 

 that the fewest possible number 

 of steps and turnings will have 

 to be made in passing from one 

 to the other. Of course there 

 are other things to be considered, 

 such as the number of persons 

 who are to assist in the work of 

 the kitchen, the location of the 

 necessary doors, windows, etc., 

 and the space that must be al- 

 lowed for the various kinds of 

 work other than the simple cook- 

 ing of meals that inevitably goes 

 to the farm house kitchen even 

 though it may seem to belong 

 elsewhere. 



The kitchen should be well 

 lighted and well ventilated ; with 

 windows on two sides if possi- 

 ble. Unless there is some special 

 reason for making low windows, 

 the high windows with sills from 

 three and a half to four feet 

 from the floor afford a material 

 saving in space by making it pos- 

 sible to place tables and sinks on 



outside walls in the best of light without interfering with the windows 

 or exposing the plumbing pipes to direct cold drafts in winter. 



Fig. 313. — The second floor of Fig. 312. 



