306 Our Farming. 



case of sickness, or when we get older, we may prefer to have a 

 bedroom below. Also, it comes handy, sometimes, when one 

 has company. So this room is arranged so it can be turned into 

 a bedroom in one minute. A folding bed stands up against the 

 front room wall. It is ornamental when not needed, and always 

 ready. For a centre table in the room we have a curious combi- 

 nation got up by some inventive genius. Not one person in a 

 hundred would ever dream it was anything but a handsome centre 

 table, but by simply lifting a lid you find wash bowl, and pitcher, 

 and slop bucket, towels, soap, etc., and a large French plate glass 

 mirror to dress by. Our folks use this room to sew in, the machine 

 standing in there. It has two large windows, the one onto veranda 

 being built to go up high enough to use it as a door. Notice the 

 large closet C. Now, you have been around the living part of the 

 house. You see these three rooms are practically all one, with 

 the doors open. It makes just as nice a home as we could devise 

 or want. The large square base-burner anthracite coal stove 

 stands near the corner of the dining room, but notice, it is almost 

 exactly in the centre of the three rooms. It will warm all three 

 perfectly, or two, or one, as we may desire. This is the way we 

 manage : At night when we go to bed (not until the evening is 

 passed) we shut all the double doors, thus keeping only dining 

 room, where flowers are, warm all night. In the morning we eat 

 breakfast before opening 'double doors in very cold weather. In 

 moderate weather the doore into bedroom are not shut. After 

 breakfast, while our folks are stirring about, in the kitchen and 

 up stairs, the dining room is well aired, and then double doors all 

 thrown open and house all warmed. With all this room I feel as 

 though my wife and daughters could hardly suffer from poor 

 ventilation, with the house thoroughly aired every morning, and 

 sometimes oftener. We can warm the entire house in the coldest 

 weather, but except on extremely cold days we do not always try 

 to. The saving of coal when it is below zero and blowing hard, 

 seems to my wife more important than warming more than two 

 rooms. A fire is not kept up in the kitchen (K) all the time in 

 winter, but the door is left open and the big stove keeps that room 

 partly warm, also. I never start into the winter with less than 

 seven tons of coal (have eight now) , but in as mild winters as we 

 have had lately, we burn less than six. Our house is covered 

 with building paper, and is quite warm. The writer has visited 

 homes that were warmed in every known way. There is no plan 

 in existence that seems to him as perfect and homelike and 

 economical and cheerful as this. A furnace would ruin our cellar 

 for keeping vegetables, and how much real pleasure is there in 

 sitting around a hole in the floor to get warm, where you cannot 

 see any fire ? Grates, where one can look at the fire, and a furnace 

 to make warmth will do, but look at the cost. Steam heat gives 

 no ventilation. I have been in fine city homes warmed in all 



