1902.] FARM SANITATION. 5 1 



impediments to a settled family life, and more and more it 

 is true that parents rear families flitting from place to place, 

 without once establishing what could rightfully be called a 

 home. 



The home of the farmer differs from that of the resident 

 of the town, in being almost wholly independent of the co- 

 operative action of his neighbors on many important con- 

 cerns. He is not taxed in common with them for any elabo- 

 rate sewer system or public water supply. His neighbor's 

 cesspool is too far away to contaminate his well. His hog 

 pen too remote to offend his nostrils. In fact, the farmer 

 makes in large measure his own environment. 



He is therefore individually more responsible for the sani- 

 tary situation about his dwelling than the occupant of a brick 

 block on a city street. This fact has not been as generally 

 appreciated as it deserved to be. 



The considerations which have controlled the farmer, in 

 the arrangement and disposition of those appurtenances to 

 his house which have always been found necessary, have been 

 based upon accessible convenience rather than upon a just 

 estimate of their relation to sanitation. 



The well is an absolute necessity, and its proximity to the 

 kitchen an important matter. It matters not how near, if 

 good water is available. 



Some place for the waste discharges from the kitchen 

 and laundry is imperative. Frequent observation assures me 

 that a slop puddle near the kitchen door or a hole in the 

 ground not far away provides that accommodation. A small 

 building often called as it is a " necessary " cannot be too 

 distant from the house to serve its purpose satisfactorily. 



The hogs must be fed, and, as their food is largely from 

 the refuse of the kitchen and dairy, the same idea of conven- 

 ience often locates the hog pen in too close proximity to the 

 executive office of the establishment, the kitchen ; and the 

 swill barrel, which is a commissary department to the pigstye, 

 is too commonly beside the kitchen door. 



The barnyard and stables with their accumulations of 

 polluting material may be more distant, but too often so 

 located that the drainage from them is towards the house 

 and well. It is not many years ago that the conditions I 

 have described were not at all uncommon and were not re- 



