68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



HEALTH ON THE FARM. 



H. W. WILEY, M.D., FORMER CHIEF, BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY, UNITED STATES 

 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



When we speak of agricultural subjects we usually do not 

 think of health, sickness or death. Theoretically the farmer 

 should live longer according to his numbers than any other 

 profession. He lives largely out of doors; he has simple foods 

 to eat; he is engaged in a profession which gives exercise to 

 both body and mind; he is isolated to a certain extent from 

 the dangers of contagious disease; he has, in everything except 

 perhaps his housing, better sanitary conditions than the 

 urbanite. The question is one of interest: Does farm life 

 tend to promote health and to prolong life, or the contrary? 



I assume that farmers are as much interested in living as 

 other people. The instinct for life is the dominant instinct. 

 If we look at it in the proper sense, and from the proper point 

 of view, we must acknowledge that life is the most precious 

 possession we have. Being the most precious possession it 

 demands more than an ordinary share of attention. Does it 

 receive it? The answer must be in the negative. Agricultural 

 discussions often are based upon the best method of preserving 

 the life and health of farm animals, but rarely do they include 

 the life and health of the farmer and his family. 



In accepting the invitation of the Board to give this address 

 I assumed that you were not anxious to have my experience 

 as a farmer. I am proud of the fact that I was born and 

 brought up on a farm, and I am proud of the fact, also, that 

 during all of my active life I have been directly and indirectly 

 interested in farming. Of late years I have become a farmer 

 again, and I hope that it may be my good fortune to end my 

 days in the manner in which I began them, namely, on the 

 farm. I consider, therefore, the discussion of the relation of 



