174 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



WATER SUPPLY AND DRAINAGE IN THE FARM HOME 



By MRS. JEAN KANE FOULKE 



There can be no subject of raore importance to the well being of a 

 nation or state than the health and happiness of the individual men 

 and women who make it. To have health and happiness, we must 

 have good houses to live in, not necessarily fine houses, not ex- 

 pensive buildings, costly to build and costly to maintain, but we 

 must have houses properly built to meet the climatic conditions of 

 their environment and the occupations and needs of the people liv- 

 ing in them. 



As the business of running the house is usually regarded as "wo- 

 man's work," the planning of the interior of the house at least, should 

 be governed by what is best and easiest for her. Only such plans as 

 will best facilitate her work, conserve her strength and surround her 

 with most convenience and comfort, should be considered. A house 

 to be a good house must be sufficiently well built to keep out the 

 winter winds and weather and the extreme summer heat. It must 

 have a dry, light cellar and a good tight roof with gutters and con- 

 ductors to carry the rain water aAvay from the foundations. It must 

 have enough well fitted windows and doors to insure ventilation and 

 fresh air and sunshine in every room and hall. It should also have 

 some sort of heating apparatus other than stoves, a central system 

 such as steam heat, vapor, hot water or even hot air, but when this 

 last is used care must be taken that the air to be heated is drawn 

 from the fresh air out doors and not from the cellar. Incidentally, 

 I would say a certain heating system will be found cheapest and 

 best in the end as one fire can be made to do the work of several 

 and so save in the cost of fuel and labor. 



When we have such a house we have what most people regard as a 

 good house, but to my mind and from my experience as a house-keeper 

 and mother and from what I know of other houses, "It is like the 

 play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out," or like a liuman body strong 

 and well made, but with a weak brain. No house can be a good 

 home, I am not using the word home in its sentimental sense, — al- 

 though I own it is less likely to be a home in that sense also, if it 

 does not have a good pure water supply connected with it. And no 

 home can be a good home that does not have a sanitary way of car- 

 ing for the waste and the water that has been used hj the house- 

 hold. I know T shall be met bv the usual statement when I sav this 

 "That the average farmer cannot afford to have these thing." I say 

 in reply that it is not a question of the large expenditure that in most 

 cases is the cause of having the conditions we do in our farm homes 

 in regard to these matters. 



It is due to lack of determination to have such comforts, such 

 necessities in our houses. It is due to a lack of planning for im- 

 provements in our houses and to the acceptance of the old way as 

 the only way. To the unfortunate idea, "that what is, is right," when 

 in fact it may be all wrong, It is a rare exception in Pennsylvania, 



