THE TRAINING OF FARMERS 



Good air 



There is still great need of emphasizing 

 the importance of fresh air. It is most 

 strange that persons who spend the day 

 in the open air are likely to bottle them- 

 selves up at night. I suppose that the 

 fear of fresh air is in part expressive of 

 our general philosophy of life, whereby we 

 unconsciously carry the idea that man is in 

 warfare with nature. We shut our doors 

 to nature. Our windows are small and 

 cramped, as if we only grudgingly let in the 

 out-of-doors. Before we knew the nature 

 of contagious disease, it was very natural 

 that we should consider the atmosphere to 

 be responsible for all kinds of insidious 

 enemies. Disease was supposed to be due 

 to some effluence or miasma, and we shut 

 our doors to it. Now that we are able to 

 distinguish the effects of air from mosqui- 

 toes, flies, and germs, we should begin to 

 discriminate in our habits. The best civili- 

 zation will come when we put ourselves in 

 sympathetic attitude toward nature, rather 

 than when we antagonize it ; and we shall 

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