206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



in themselves and children the seeds of disease, if they did 

 not reap sudden early death. 



The old-fashioned living-room of the farmhouse, used for 

 cooking and eating by day, and as a sitting-room in the 

 evening, was well ventilated so long as the old fire held its 

 place on the hearth ; but most of the sleeping-rooms were 

 "bed-rooms," so called, just large enough to hold a bed, with 

 standing-room to get into it ; and in such rooms two persons 

 breathed the air over and over again through the long winter 

 nights. In the summer they were driven to ventilate ; but 

 in winter the air, though cold, was unfit for human beings to 

 live in. While the houses generally were so ill-heated as 

 to be cheerless, they were so poorly ventilated as to lower 

 vitality, and lay the foundation for consumption and other 

 kindred diseases. There was also in the cellar all the vege- 

 tables from the farm ; and in spring-time many of them were 

 left to decay, and contaminate the air of the house, the foul 

 air making 'its way readily through the defective floors. 



Then the well was dug in the most convenient place, with- 

 out any proper regard to the drainage on the farm. If the 

 water remained clear and tasteless, it was considered pure, as 

 a matter of course. So fevers were abundant ; and some 

 families were said to have a predisposition to fever, which, 

 in most cases, meant that the sanitary condition of their 

 homes, the impure air and water, brought fever to some 

 member of the family almost every year. 



Then, look at the products of the farm, and the labor re- 

 quired for its cultivation. The raising of stock of all kinds 

 was a haphazard matter, — " native stock," we called it. The 

 animal raised was spared simply because it had some peculiar 

 color or point of form to recommend it ; but no one could 

 tell what would be the result. The promising-looking heifer 

 might make a cow that would give half a mess of milk, or 

 milk so blue that cream was either an unknown quantity, or 

 a steam-engine was needed to get any butter out of it. I 

 wonder if some farmer before me does not have a grudge 

 against those old cows that furnished cream, that had to be 

 punished all the long winter evening to yield butter, and 

 then often yielded nothing but froth. No wonder the old 

 New-England housekeepers so often thought their churns be* 

 witched. 



