1 8 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



for your comfort and your crops. Look out for a 

 good evergreen screen; but best of all is it to nestle 

 down in the warm hollows under a ridge of hills. 



It is absolutely necessary that your country prop- 

 erty be capable of good drainage, and it is equally 

 necessary that it get such drainage. This does not 

 always demand a hillside, or even much of a slope, 

 but for health and for tillage alike it is an absolute 

 requisite; without health you had far better be in 

 the city. There are locations also which become un- 

 desirable because they take the wash of neighbors' 

 drains. The law will hardly protect you in such a 

 case, and if it does, lawing is the last thing that you 

 wish to engage in. I would make sure not to buy 

 my way into a quarrel. 



Involved in this drainage problem is, once more, 

 that of soil wash. Many of our hillsides are being 

 denuded of all valuable dirt and fertilizers are swept 

 away as fast as they are applied. Look out for this, 

 of course, in your purchasing; that is, select your 

 property with a clear vision and a certain knowledge 

 as to its being easily drained and not too easily 

 washed. In future chapters this subject will come up 

 for careful discussion. 



The highways of the United States are In a transi- 

 tion state, and they will not count so seriously in mak- 

 ing the choice of a homestead after the reign of 

 the automobile is well established. This new gaso- 

 line power belongs to the people after all al- 

 though the farmer has had something of a tussle at 



