1882.] THE HOMES OP OUR FARMERS. 233 



mote the health and prolong the lives of American women. 

 Though dyspepsia stands third in the list of diseases among 

 farmers, it is the first in its prevalence among their wives and 

 daughters. 



In many cases farmers' wives suffer from overwork, and some- 

 times this is true of their children. The duties of the farmer's 

 wife are excessive, when to the bearing and rearing of child I'en is 

 added general housework, including the cooking for farm laborers, 

 besides her own family and the care of a dairy. 



The location of the farmer's home is often in a low, damp, and 

 unhealthy spot. Low ground is preferred as more accessible, 

 more shielded from winds, nearer springs, and more convenient 

 for digging wells. The early settlers in New England sought the 

 hills and mountain sides to escape malaria. When that danger 

 disappeared, the tendency of their descendants was to the valleys, 

 and many now suffer from damp locations, near wet meadows, and 

 little above the water level, or on hard pan which, holding the 

 surface water, is always wet and cold. In such cases, cellars are 

 damp and the drainage poor. It is by no means affirmed that 

 farm houses are more likely to be badly located than houses in our 

 cities and villages, but in the latter, there is little or no choice. 

 Farm houses may be and ought to be belter located than city 

 residences. Low sites, where the house drains are sluggish, the 

 fogs frequent, the air stagnant, and the effluvia from out-buildings 

 confined, should always be avoided. 



Next in importance to location is cleanliness in the surround- 

 ings of the farm house. The fact that these are already prefera- 

 ble to those around the tenement houses in our cities is no reason 

 why they should not be still better. Typhoid fever is one of the 

 four special dangers of the farmer. This preventable disease is 

 invited by the putrescent animal and vegetable matter around his 

 house, which poisons the air he breathes and the water he drinks. 

 This mischief comes usually from faulty drains, sometimes 

 from an open, stagnant drain under the kitchen window, or from 

 neglected pi-ivies or cess-pools too near the well. Sometimes a 

 cellar made foul by cats, rats, or decaying vegetables, taints the 

 air of the whole house. 



The direction that needs greatest urgency and iteration to house- 

 holders is, look carefully to your wells. Visiting every town of 

 Massachusetts while officially serving that State, and more recently 

 every town in Connecticut, I have often learned of the ravages of 



