50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



The health of ourselves and famiUes are in Uke manner 

 subject to the influences which surround us. 



We are taught in Holy Scripture that more than four 

 thousand years before the Christian era it was recognized 

 that the health of man depended upon his conduct and his 

 surroundings. And Moses laid down a code of sanitary laws 

 that have never been excelled at any subsequent period. 



It has formed the foundation of all modern sanitary legis- 

 lation. It is due to the observance of these laws that the 

 Jewish people, in all countries, under the most diverse con- 

 ditions of climate and social relations, a broken, wandering, 

 outcast nation, have maintained such wondrous health and 

 vitality as to outlive in the race of years all other nationalities 

 in every part of the habitable globe. It is also to be observed 

 that the sanitary code of Moses is in no respect in conflict 

 with the sanitary science of the present day. 



It may therefore be assumed, as the unvarying experience 

 in all forms of civilized life, that the great boon of good 

 health is a possession which is very much under control. 



I am to talk to you of " Farm Sanitation." My theme 

 scarcely involves a consideration of sanitary methods of agri- 

 culture. I shall not be expected to describe an}^ hygienic 

 way of planting potatoes or plowing your corn, although I 

 may have something to say of the sanitary ways of treating 

 your live stock. But I assume that the topics upon which 

 you expect me to speak relate more particularly to your 

 homes, your house and its surroundings, and to your do- 

 mestic life. We think of the interior of the house as the 

 home. The many hours of the day spent within doors and 

 the closer intimacy of the family w'hile in the house make it 

 the very center and heart of home. 



That is sufficient to emphasize the importance of giving 

 attention to its sanitary condition. 



There is too a permanency and stability about the farmer's 

 home that in these latter days scarcely pertains to any other 

 class of citizens. The tendency to the centralizing of popu- 

 lations in cities and the consequent condensation of commun- 

 ities in temporary lodgings, in parts of houses, in flats, in 

 boarding houses, and in clubs, and again the incessant 

 activity of commercial and manufacturing enterprises with 

 the social and financial fluctuation incident thereto, are all 



