292 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



To rid a neighborhood of insects also requires 

 the fullest unity of action. One stable left un- 

 cleaned will infect a mile square with flies. One 

 mosquito breeding cesspool is enough to infect fully 

 as large a neighborhood with that pest. A com- 

 bined effort in any community in the use of kerosene 

 would entirely rid us of both flies and mosquitoes in 

 a very short time. We have unnecessarily become 

 tolerant of dangerous enemies. If you have a small 

 lake, stock it with fish that will eat larvae. 



There is no reason why cooperation should not 

 go somewhat farther, without encroaching on inte- 

 gral home life. Building in the country should not 

 defy the very spirit of independent home life; a real 

 house is a growth of the self, of our feelings and 

 our aspirations. It is also a child of the spot that 

 it occupies. A Mr. Edgar S. Chambless has invented 

 what he calls an endless house. It may be as long as 

 you please, and on paper it looks like the Chinese 

 Wall, or a modernized cliff-dwellers' establishment. 

 It is to be of cement, with a railroad in the basement, 

 as well as any number of elevators. It will have the 

 best of water supply and perfect sewerage. It will 

 be lighted by electricity and heated by the same 

 power. 



This plan would save the hucksters and farmers 

 from driving from house to house. Engineering up 

 hill, however, and across valleys with a house wall 

 would be liable to meet some facts of a stern sort. 

 Still, cooperative building is likely to win consider- 



