504 Reading-Course for Farmers. 



To the writer, a farm house kitchen without a back porch is some- 

 thing not to be thought of. The porch need not be large, Init it will bring 

 untold comfort to the spirit of the tired worker in the kitchen on hot 

 summer days. 



The weekly washing should not be done in the kitchen if other 

 provision can be made for it. The simplest arrangement, if a separate 

 laundry is out of the question, would be to have a good sized wash room 

 immediately adjoining the kitchen, where the men coming in from the 

 field may wash and cast off their muddy boots and rougher work gar- 

 ments preparatory to entering the dining room, and where the Monday's 

 wash may be done, using the kitchen stove if need be for the boiling of 

 the clothes, etc. It would be very desirable to have this wash room so 

 placed that the men might pass from it by way of a back hall or even 

 the back porch into the living room or dining room without intruding 

 on the workers in the kitchen. In fact, throughout the house everything 

 should be planned and arranged so as to do away with all unnecessary 

 labor and to avoid interference between persons and things that do not 

 belong together. 



If a bed room is to be given a place on the first floor, — and many 

 people in the country insist upon it with good reason, — it must, while 

 accessible from the hall, still be so located that it will be inconspicuous 

 and not be mistaken for one of the public or common rooms of the house. 

 The difficulties of satisfactorily placing a bed room on the first floor are 

 so great, however, that most architects discourage the idea rather than 

 accept the results usually attainable. 



Before proceeding to the second floor of the house, it may not be 

 amiss to say a word or two concerning the hall and stairway, although 

 these have already been mentioned in another connection. A reasonably 

 roomy hall with an open stairway is not a luxury, but a practical neces- 

 sity in a good modern house. IMany of the real old fashioned halls were 

 commodious and beautiful, but the typical halls and stairways of the 

 farm houses of a generation or two ago arc crowded and cramped to 

 such an extent that it is almost impossible to move a piece of furniture 

 through them or even to use them as mere passage-ways with any degree 

 of comfort. The hall is the introduction to the house and it should be 

 so designed that the visitor who calls for the first time will feel the wel- 

 come of the home in it. 



The sleeping room, or bed room, obviously ought to be designed with 

 place for a bed, though actual examples too numerous to mention would 

 seem to point to the prevalence of a contrary opinion. There ought to 

 be a place for a double bed, or better yet, two single beds, a bureau, and 

 usually a wash stand in every bed room ; and furthermore, the spaces 

 ought to be so arranged as to admit of changing the furniture about 



