22 Our Farming. 



the boards, as also a part of the boards from the outside of barn. 

 The roof was about like the sides, except one side of main barn, 

 which had been reshingled not long before, but it was done about 

 as the cows were cared for, and you could see daylight through 

 it in ever so many places. The stable was in a horrible condi- 

 tion. The ten cows had not been put in before I bought the farm 

 in January, and I asked the tenant to put them in at once, and 

 he replied that they would be more comfortable outside, and after 

 looking around a little I concluded he was not trying to shirk the 

 work, but this was really the case. Stanchions, cracks, boards 

 off, roof leaking like a sieve, and floor in awful condition a man 

 ought to be hung that would put cows in there, and they staid 

 out till some repairs were made. 



The fences along the road were just about all burned up for 

 firewood. They were rail fences, I was told, when they were 

 built. The other fences were not much better. It was simply 

 impossible to keep neighbors' cattle off my fields for a time. 

 One farmer of means turned his stock in the road, and they 

 would come right here and go into my lots, and he would go by 

 entirely unconcerned, almost taking the bread from my babies' 

 mouths. I tried shutting up his stock, but had no place but the 

 stable that would hold them. Put all these things together, 

 friends, and those were terrible days 1 but they had to be even 

 worse before they became better. 



I wish you could have seen the dooryard when we came here 

 cowyard would name it better. It had been used as a milking 

 yard, and the only possible inviting feature about it was the 

 chance to scrape up a load or two of manure. Bvery bush or 

 little tree was gnawed or broken down. To cap all, there were 

 many acres of swamp land about, and cat swamps here and there 

 on the upland, only valuable as breeding places for malaria, to 

 help the local physician, and as watering places for stock, which 

 often got stuck so we had to get help to pull them out. The well 

 at the house mercy! It was awful to think human beings 

 could drink from a well surrounded by such accumulations of 

 filth. For years we brought water from a spring forty rods away. 

 The late Dr. Danforth told me he had to come to this farm so 

 often he was actually ashamed. No wonder ! I think all of the 

 family that last owned the farm before it passed into the hands of 

 tenants are dead, and I do not think Providence wanted all these 

 deaths to take place, either. But with reasonable precautions we 

 have never had any severe sickness in the family, except as result 

 of accident, and we have now made the farm, we believe, one of 

 the most healthful homes in the State, and I shall take great 

 pleasure in telling in another chapter all about how this was done. 



