88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



personally or through skilled agents, 9,753 farmhouses in 

 Indiana, and scored them on a scale of 10 points, each point 

 counting 10. The following remarkable result was obtained. 

 They were scored on the following points : — 



1. Site. 



2. Sanitary condition of premises. 



3. Character of the house. 



4. Character of the cellar. 



5. Ventilation. 



6. Water supply. 



7. Sewage disposal. 



8. Barn, barnyard, pigpens, chicken coops, et cetera. 



9. Disposal of manure. 

 10. Health. 



The average score for the 9,753 houses was only 45.4. The 

 highest score was 90 per cent and the lowest was 24 per cent. 

 The score which passed the house as sanitary was 75. Dr. 

 Hurty, in commenting on this condition of aflfairs, said : — 



The prevailing "stomach trouble" among farmers, which surely fre- 

 quently comes from poor food, tells plainly that the farmers' dietary is 

 frequently poor. 



The open and usually noisome privy, the frequently polluted well, the 

 manure and the flies, make plain why typhoid prevails upon the farm to 

 a degree greater than in the cities. Consumption should be practically 

 absent from rural homes, and it will depart when the farmer opens his 

 windows and gets rid of his stomach trouble. 



The farmer needs to be better informed of the conditions productive 

 of health, and, as said by the farmer's wife who was quoted, he should 

 be compelled by law to build hygienically and keep his farm clean, if he 

 does not voluntarily do it. 



In further elucidation of this problem it is interesting to 

 know that while it is perfectly certain that the sanitary control 

 of the rural districts and the conditions of life therein are 

 inferior to the similar conditions in cities, yet as a whole 

 people live longer in the country. In this connection, there- 

 fore, it might well be suggested that if we could introduce into 

 country life all the perfections and improvements of sanitary 

 science which now most cities enjoy, the record for long life 



