66 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



shady, with basswood trees reaching over, you will 

 find your bee yard a very peaceable place, where you 

 can sit and enjoy the marvelous industry and skill of 

 your winged allies. In other words, create harmony 

 in all parts of your place and have no part that is 

 dissevered from the human. 



A foul stable or outhouse is not only bad in itself, 

 but it spoils the whole thing. You will find dirt to be 

 a disease. Dirty stables mean a dirty disposition to 

 begin with and will breed dirty dispositions in the 

 children, and there will be traces elsewhere. Piles 

 of old lumber and ash piles and other refuse can just 

 as well be put into the compost pile as be scattered 

 about in disorder, but a barnyard ankle deep with 

 rotting stuff is an unendurable waste and an abomina- 

 tion. Clean up, and let your animals have tidy quar- 

 ters; even the pig likes cleanliness. I have grape 

 vines running all over my barn, and plum trees hang- 

 ing over the fence, as well as a big apple tree that 

 spreads its shade at noon day. 



Animals degenerate in disagreeable surroundings 

 as surely as they become humanized by humane sur- 

 roundings and treatment. My neighbor Harding 

 built a house over his barn well, " Because, sir ! my 

 horses, eight in number, would take two hours drink- 

 ing every morning and every night; for they would 

 be looking over the valley. I think, sir, you have 

 observed that horses know more about Nature than 

 some folk." 



I took blinders from my harnesses long ago, be- 



