SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 645 



SANITATION ON THS FARM. 



George Scott, V. S., Waterloo, Iowa, Before Black Hawk County Farmers' 



Institute. 



As one generation passes away and another takes its place, the in- 

 fluence exerted by the adoption of sanitary measures on the health of the 

 human race is ever gaining a broader recognition, and these days of the 

 twentieth century, there are few 'homes being erected without careful 

 calculations being made regarding the facilities with which drainage of 

 the building site can be accomplished, and good ventilation from cellar 

 to garret, with the admission of all sunshine possible, is being more and 

 more demanded in the construction of the modern home. A brief review 

 of the past and present health conditions of many of our eastern states, 

 including Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, furnishes a chapter of positive evi- 

 dence in defense of the assertion that sanitary science properly applied 

 has power beyond any other agent at man's disposal in promoting the pub- 

 lic health. 



Only a few decades ago these portions of the country were unhealthy 

 places of residence for man. At that time the land was still covered to a 

 large extent with the primitive forest; the swamps and marshes were 

 filled with water, decaying vegetation and ooze the year round; the mos- 

 quitoes were as the sands of the seashore, and ague, malaria and kindred 

 ailments were epidemic among the people year after year. Today, in the 

 same states, the forests having been cleared away, the surface of the land 

 exposed to the invigoration influence of the sun's rays, the swamps drained, 

 the land cultivated, the mosquitoes almost exterminated, owing to condi- 

 tions being made unfavorable to their existence, the air purified of the 

 pestilent exhaltations of swamps and swale, we find that ague, malaria and 

 other diseases of the early days have become as rare as on the beautiful 

 rolling prairies of our own state, and these lands, once the breeding places 

 of diseases, have been transformed into veritable health resorts. That the 

 Improved sanitary conditions to which these states have been subjected 

 are the chief factors in the promotion and maintenance of this glorious 

 conversion, I believe no sane person will for a minute dispute. Similar 

 results from similar courses are being noticed in many of our southern 

 states, and on the Island of Cuba, and I believe the day is not far off when 

 the health officers can truthfully proclaim the absolute eradication from 

 the south of the dreaded yellow fever, a victory which can be achieved 

 In no other way than by the application of such thorough sanitary meas- 

 ures, that life will become a burden to the mosquito, that carries the 

 causative germ and by its bite inoculates it into the people. Health sta- 

 tistics show and observation verifies the accuracy of the report, that the 

 practice of sanitation in our great cities has been as prolific of results, 

 as it has been in the country. 



