1902.] FARM SANITATION". 53 



grow rapidly, and about it will be formed a colony of the 

 same kind of germs. So, by simply counting the colonies, 

 you fix the number of germs in the original planting. 



Now, the number and character of such germs will vary 

 under varying conditions. They will always be more abun- 

 dant in the presence of decaying organic matter, which is 

 the same thing as saying in the presence of hog pens, cess- 

 pools, garbage heaps, swill barrels, etc., because such ma- 

 terial affords their food. They are not all disease producing 

 germs, but if disease germs are present they find already at 

 hand the conditions best adapted for their propagation and 

 multiplication. 



Another point about house air. It never is and never 

 can be kept as pure and wholesome as the air outside the 

 house. Every good housekeeper, which is the same as say- 

 ing every Connecticut farmer's wife, knows how difficult it 

 is to get the dust out of the house. Her practice is, period- 

 ically, to take all her carpets, rugs, curtains, cushions, and 

 movable articles of that kind out of doors and hang them 

 on a line. 



The first blow of the broom handle or switch reveals in a 

 cloud the quantity of dust they contain, notwithstanding 

 while in the house they had been swept and dusted daily. 

 What is the significance of this fact when you reflect upon it? 

 You have had your doors open and your windows open every 

 day. You have tried to have abundant ventilation, and yet 

 it is a fact that there is more dust in the air of your house 

 than in the outside air. How can it be explained? The 

 solution of the mystery is simple. Your house is an air iilter. 

 During the night or at any time when the house air is still 

 the dust brought in from without settles by gravity upon 

 whatever surfaces it falls upon. 



It attaches itself so closely upon loose textures and fabrics 

 of every kind that it is not dislodged by an inflow of outer 

 air. The ventilation which you have practiced, although in- 

 dispensable to health, yet has added each time its quota to 

 the accumulation of dust already there. 



Your attempts by sweeping and dusting to cleanse the 

 filter has been but an imperfect and partial success. Hence 

 I repeat that the house air is never so pure as the air out 

 doors. And also the importance of providing that the at- 



