98 



(CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



would make our cellar too warm to keep vegetables 

 nicely. We want to keep the temperature there 

 at about 34° during the winter. At that tempera- 

 ture apples do not rot nor potatoes shrink and 

 sprout. Therefore we decided against a furnace. 

 Then came the question, " Shall we have grates ? " 

 They are very pleasant and cheerful, and ventilate 

 the rooms well, but they burn a large amount of 

 fuel. In other words, a large part of the heat goes 

 to waste. Then the3' are expensive, and it is a good 

 deal of work to take care of them, and, really, in 

 cold weather one wants to have the house warmed 

 in some other waj', when he has a grate to sit by. 

 About the time we were thinking over this ques- 

 tion of how to warm our house, after it was built, 

 a gentleman who had just put in a grate, and was 

 loud in its praise, asked me to go home with him 

 one evening and see for myself how cheerful and 

 comfortable it was. I went, and there sat the wife 

 with a heavy shawl around her shoulders, and her 

 feet to the grate. One glance told the story— com- 

 fort on one side. Well, wife and I, full partners, as 

 Prof. Cook says, determined to warm our home so it 

 would be comfortable, cheerful, and healthful, hav- 

 ing due regard for economy and cleanliness, and so 

 it should be as little trouble as possible to take care 

 of the Are. For the latter purpose we determined 

 that one lai-ge stove should warm the three main 

 rooms below, and that it should be a base-burner 

 anthracite -coal stove. To make it healthful we 

 would not live in one room, but in two or three 

 large ones, thus having lots of air-space, and then 

 we would arrange for plenty of ventilation. We 

 looked for a stove where we could see the Are burn- 

 ing all around, so that it would be just as cheerful 

 as a grate. As for comfort, after quite a trial (this 

 is the fourth winter) we think we have found a 

 pretty good supply of it. 



Parlor. 



niii 



Dininn-rovm. 



Bedroom. 



Before going further, please notice the ariange- 

 ment of the main rooms below, as shown in the ac- 

 companying plan. This plan merely gives the out- 

 lines of the body of the house, without showing 

 porches, bay window, pantry, kitchen, etc. This is 

 sufficient for the point 1 am trying to bring out in 

 this letter. You will notice, that from the dining- 

 room into the bedroom, and also into the parlor, or 

 li\'lng-room, there is a wide double door. These 

 doors are eight feet high, so that, when open, the 

 three rooms are practically one. The stove shovvn 

 is in a position so central that it radiates heat read- 

 ily into all the rooms. The doors may be closed 

 so as to warm the dining-room, and either of the 

 other rooms, or the dining-room alone. Ten or fif- 

 teen minutes' work will take care of the fire for 34 

 hours. Directly over the stove is a register opening 



into the hall above. From this hall are doors into 

 five bedrooms. The chill can be taken off in these 

 bedrooms, if desired, although a stove upstairs in 

 the writer's office generally answers this purpose. 

 The double doors opening into the bedroom open 

 back into that room, one on each side. Of those 

 opening into the parlor, one is hung on the other, 

 and they fold around in front of the chimney. 



As I have written before, our kitchen was built 

 for work. It is just the same size as Prof Cook's. 

 We eat and live in the hest of the /(ou.sf— perhaps I 

 should say in the body of the house, as the kitchen 

 is just as nice and pleasant as any other room. I 

 pity those poor people who live almost exclusively 

 in the kitchen, or a rear dining-room, perhaps, and 

 open up the main body of their house (not home) 

 only when they have company. I am happy to say, 

 that my wife thinks her husband and children are 

 just as good as any other company. How I dislike 

 to visit where they have to go and build a lire in the 

 best part of the house, and be thrown all out of the 

 regular order of things by my arrival ! 



As we use it, our stove burns about 4i4 to 5 tons 

 of coal between, say, Sept. 15 and May 15. I paid 

 last summer f 3.5.00 for 5 tons— not a very large sum 

 for the comfort. The fire, of course, never goes 

 out. To keep the entire house warm, upstairs and 

 down, would probably take 8 tons. As to healthf ul- 

 ness, as we use it we consider it all right; but a 

 base-burner in a single room, poorly ventilated, 

 would be another matter. When the children have 

 company in the evening we give them the house 

 below, and wife and 1 go to our large room (my of- 

 fice, 16x18) upstairs. The floor of this room is 

 deadened, so we hardly notice any racket that may 

 be going on below. The bedroom below is used for 

 company. 



I have written to you in favor of sunshine in our 

 homes. There are 9 large windows and 3 glass 

 doors in the three rooms. Our room (wife and I) 

 upstairs has 4 large windows, and in a bright day 

 in winter the sun will almost warm it. 



I should, perhaps, call attention to the fact, that, 

 with a large (a little too large rather than too small) 

 base-burner, properly managed, a gentle, uniform 

 heat can be kept. The stove never becomes redhot, 

 thus burning up the air. One can avoid being too 

 hot one hour and too cold the next, as is often the 

 case with wood-stoves or cheap soft-coal stoves. It 

 is partly on this account, 1 think, that we have not 

 had more than one-fourth as many colds in our 

 family for the last three winters as we used to 

 have; in fact, they are almost unknown. 



Hudson, O. T. B. Terrv. 



I believe, friend T., that I ngree with you 

 in the main. I suppose you aie aware, that 

 your base-burner could be arranged so as to 

 take pure air directly from outdoors, without 

 very much more expense. AV^ith the large 

 number of rooms you have communicating 

 with each other, however, I do not believe 

 I would advise this. It takes very much 

 more fuel, especially during zero weather, 

 where all the air we require is brought by a 

 cold-air pipe from outdoors. We have test- 

 ed, at different times, ahuost all arrange- 

 ments and appliances for heating. I do not 

 like a furnace in the cellar, because there is 

 always more or less liability of leakage that 

 will permit coal gas to come into the rooms. 

 Xew furnaces often work without this 

 trouble for two or three years ; but when 



