1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



125 



parents spare no effort, either of precept or ex- 

 ample, to hold our children, that we may influence 

 them aright in this most susceptible period. How 

 thankful we all ought to be, that Gleanincs has 

 taken the stand it has on this question! What a 

 power for good it would be, if all our editors would 

 join in the same blessed undertaking- 1 



I am also one with our friends in the thought that 

 home should be made the most delightful of all 

 places. Only last night, wife remarked: "There 

 are two things we will use most liberally— light and 

 fuel. We can not afford to stint in genial warmth, 

 or the pleasant cheer which a well-lighted room 

 helps so materially to diffuse through the home." 

 Wife is right. It is a wiser economy to burn a lit- 

 tle more oil and wood, and keep the children at 

 home, than to lose their company as they go else- 

 where to burn tobacco. Why, Mr. Editor, just 

 once fill a home with loving self -sacrifice; have 

 ever in reach in the pleasantest room of the 

 house— the living-room— such papers as Glean- 

 ings, the Youth's Companion, etc., and good 

 books; have the house warm and bright these win- 

 ter evenings, and we shall find it very easy to hold 

 the dear children. Yes, this costs something, liut 

 less of both money and worry than does the street- 

 corner, the cigar, the saloon, and, last in this awful 

 sequence of events, the way that leadeth down to 

 hell. 



But I must differ with both our friends as to the 

 method of heating our houses. I was brought up 

 in the warmth and glare of the old fireplace, with 

 its huge back-log of hickory, the ample fore-stick, 

 and open work of crossing timbers all aglow with 

 the leaping, crackling flames. I have used wood- 

 stoves for years. I have used the hard coal stove, 

 lauded by friend Teri-y ; 1 now have my ofhce, lab- 

 oratories, and lecture-room heated by steam, which 

 you, Mr. Editor, praise as the best thing, while our 

 present home is heated bj- the furnace, which you 

 both decry, but which, in the judgment of all at 

 our house, is by far the best way to heat our dwell- 

 ing's. I fear, Mr. Editor, some may be misled by 

 what you have said— indeed, I know of one reader 

 of Gleanings who is now proposing, the coming- 

 summer, to remove stoves and replace them with a 

 furnace. He is a bee-keeper, and keeps his bees in 

 his cellar. Yet I think he is wise, and I would not 

 have him or any other falter in such a wise inten- 

 tion. 



Let me briefly state my reasons for this conclu- 

 sion. 1 think they will commend themselves to 

 any interested person : 



Steam heat is mainly objectionable in that it 

 heats the air already in the house, and in no waj' 

 effects to change it. Thus our rooms are apt to be 

 ill ventilated, and colds and headache are the re- 

 sult. Again, the coils are usually not attractive, 

 and are in the way. Once more: If the house is 

 to be shut up, and through neglect or carelessness 

 the steam is not thoroughly shut off, and the water 

 all drained off, then there is liability to have burst- 

 ing pipes and no end of trouble. It is also more 

 expensive to secure a little quick heat in summer, 

 spring, or autumn, to temper the chill of a cold 

 morning with steam. I have a brother-in-law 

 whose house is heated by hot-water circulation in 

 pipes. I think the above objections all hold to this 

 method of heating. 



1 object to the coal-stove heating— I mean wife 

 and I— because it heats only a part of the house, 



is a dirty thing at best— even the bard-coal dust is 

 very pervasive and annoying, is in the way, is apt 

 to be out of the way in cold days of summer, and 

 is hard to start when just a little heat is desired. 

 While the coal-stove is a little better than the 

 steam for ventilation, it is not conducive to good 

 ventilation. True, it draws a little of the air from 

 the room, but in the main it heats only over and 

 over the vitiated air, which, with these stoves, is 

 usually retained in the rooms to be breathed again 

 and again, thus engendering disease and enfeeljled 

 strength. 



Now for the furnace. It is in the cellar, and all 

 dust and are dirt avoided. The pleasant living- 

 rooms are not cumbered witli ugly stoves or coils. 

 The husband can arrange the fires, and so the wife 

 is saved to the utmost. Best of all, the heated air 

 is drawn right from outdoors; and as it can not 

 enter the rooms unless just so much air passes out, 

 there is a constant exchange of air, and so our 

 rooms are constantly well ventilated. With no 

 trouble, every room in the house can be heated, or 

 by the push of a lever any can be kept cool. A 

 stick or two of wood in the furnace, on a cool 

 morning, just removes the chill of the whole house 

 and makes a happy household. We have had our 

 furnace for over twelve j-ears, and it has heated 

 our house perfectly, has given the most perfect 

 satisfaction, has never been out of order, and we 

 scareeb' ever go to visit our friends, where stove 

 or other heat is used, but that we join in praise of 

 the blessed furnace. 



In arranging for a furnace, the room to contain 

 it should be large^ours will hold eight cords of 

 three or four feet wood, and this room should l)e 

 entirely separated by a l)rick or stone wall from 

 the remainder of the cellar. Thus we can keep our 

 vegetable-cellar just as cool as though we had no 

 furnace; and still, l)y simply opening a door we 

 can surely prevent freezing in case of very severe 

 weather. The cold-air shaft should open toward 

 the prevailing winds— west at this place— for if it 

 opens east the strong west winds that rush around 

 the house so suck the air as to reverse the current 

 of hot air, and it is too expensive to heat all out- 

 doors. But -with an east opening, all will work 

 well, even with a heavy west wind, by opening the 

 cold-air flue into the cellar, and closing the outer 

 opening. Yet I prefer to always take the air from 

 outdoors. We have our chimney in three divi- 

 sions—the center division carries off the smoke, and 

 the whole chimney is kept warm. Eacli room is 

 connected, by means of a register and a close pipe, 

 with the outer divisions of this chimney. We see, 

 then, that the ventilation is perfect. We start the 

 flre, which heats the air fresh from outside, which 

 passes to our rooms. This rises and pushes the 

 cold air down. At the same time the heated 

 chimney causes the air in it to rise, and this is re- 

 placed by the colder air from our i-ooms passing 

 out. I can not see how we could have more per- 

 fect ventilation. Good ventilation means good 

 health and long life. 



We keep three rooms on the first floor, two large 

 halls, and our children's two rooms above, heated 

 all the time, and a third chamber when needed, 

 and it costs us »40.0() a year. At night I fill the 

 furnace, close the dampers and shut tlie registers, 

 except in the dining-room and sitting-room— we 

 have no "parlor" at our house— and when I get up 

 in the morning these rooms are warm and com- 



