1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 137 



servance It is safe to say that two-thirds of the Connecticut 

 farmers, when they retire to-night, will do so to a room on the 

 ground floor, on the north side of the house, and immediately 

 over the cellar. One window is closely screened, the bed placed 

 against it, precluding its use, the other opens upon an almost 

 grassless corner of ground, made rank and noisome by the shade 

 of an apple or other tree, intensified by the addition of a rampant 

 growing grape-vine, making in summer a capital place for the 

 boys to dig their bait when they go fishing, and in winter a reser- 

 voir for ice cold air, conducive to pneumonia and rheumatism. 

 Why not use the best and most cheerful room in the house, in- 

 stead of stealing away to such a place resembling the penance cell 

 of the criminal. The best room in the house is not too good for 

 the farmer. He owns it, and by his day of toil has earned a 

 further right to its comforts and benefits; and I firmly believe 

 that he would not only feel happier, brighter, and stronger for it, 

 but also that his "doctor's bill" at the end of the year would be 

 far smaller. 



There are but few farm-houses constructed so as to be heated 

 by a furnace, which is perhaps as well, for the stove dealer has not 

 yet given us one adapted to general use, that will supply a health- 

 ful atmosphere. A cheap air-tight stove is too frequently de- 

 pended upon to warm the sitting-room; it has thfe advantage of 

 warming the room quickly, but at the expense of every particle of 

 moisture that the room contains, similar in this respect to the 

 furnace. The long winter evening is passed in this baked and 

 drying atmosphere till the brain feels dead and inert as a conse- 

 quence. The inventor of the air-tight stove has a colossal sin to 

 ansv/er for. There is a large variety of stoves that will give a 

 cosy, attractive appearance to a room, and at the same time fill it 

 with a moist, agreeable heat, more akin to the air of summer, and 

 why the air-tight, with its baneful properties, should have become 

 so popular, is more than I can understand. Allow me here to say 

 that warming an upper room with the heated and vitiated air of 

 the room below it by means of a register, is a false economy; 

 better bring the stove pipe through the ceiling, and into a drum 

 which will utilize the heat which otherwise escapes into the chim- 

 ney, and which will give a temperature sufiicient for all purposes 

 for which such an upper room is used. 



These healthful arrangements for the lighting, heating, and 



