'54 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



All these preliminaries which we are discussing 

 involve education and they will accumulate common 

 sense. A man may live in the country half a hun- 

 dred years and be insipid in all his thoughts, and 

 stupid in his work. Nothing is lost in time by these 

 preliminaries. All this work will have to be done, 

 and what I am after is to see it is done in time, while 

 it can be done best. 



I greatly dislike to go into a country house and 

 find them drinking lake or river water, and washing 

 at a pond some rods from the house, and in winter 

 with snow that has been thawed over the stove. I 

 dislike to see all the trees in an orchard growing at 

 a slant, for lack of wind-breaks. The only drives 

 that you can find associated with half our country 

 homes are mere ruts through the turf, running from 

 the street to the back door and then to the barn. 

 The owners consider it a waste of time to construct 

 a good private road. Just as limited is the supply 

 of shade trees generally confined to a few old 

 apple trees and a single diseased maple or possibly 

 an elm here and there. 



However, we are about through with our pre- 

 liminary talk and only care to reinforce it with a 

 point already touched upon, that is unity. Perhaps 

 I have implied in what I have said about charting 

 before planting that all these preliminaries must work 

 together and create a simple unity, a single home 

 idea; all the parts must fit to each other. And this 

 is the sum of the whole story. You must digest 



