44 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HOW TO KEEP YOUR HOUSE WARM 

 IN THE COUNTRY. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH. 



Open Fire-places nearly Obsolete— Old-fashioned Kitchens — 

 Sledding Wood — Franklin Stoves and Fire -frames — Heat and 

 Fresh Air, Necessaries as well as Luxuries — How much air a 

 Man uses — How agreeable to breathe the same Air that has 

 just beem used by a dozen others ! — Close Stoves — Carbonic 

 Acid by Slow Combustion — Poison from red-hot Iron — Ven- 

 tilation, Principles of. 



Discourse as pleasantly and as learnedly as we 

 may, of the cheerfulness and healthfulness of an old 

 fashioned Avood fire on the hearthstone, we can nev- 

 er bring back any more of that agreeable idea than 

 the pleasant memories of one generation wliich has 



before my day. In our own Homestead, we used 

 to burn four-foot wood in the kitchen, and ours 

 was a modern house, built about the year one, of the 

 present century. Now as to the comfort of this 

 style of fires — everybody knows who ever lived in 

 an old fashioned house, in the country, that in a 

 cold day, everything froze, even in the back part 

 of the room, with the big fire blazing, and the 

 chambers where there were no fires, seemed con- 

 siderably colder than out-doors. Who, that re- 

 members how his breath was frozen like snow upon 

 the blankets, — (we should have perished in sheets) 

 — at waking, ever desires to go back to the old 

 Avay of keeping warm ? 



And then the labor and expense ! To be sure 



just lived through it, choose to furnish to posterity. 



Wood piles on the hearth, like wigwams and log- the wood Avas reckoned of little value on the lot. 

 houses, are, as the clearings increase, getting to be i But, at my father's, and at every respectable estab- 

 matters of history. They are very pleasant things lishment, it was the winter's work for two mer, and 



to remember, but on the whole would be, to our 

 more cultivated sensibilities, in these times,very un- 

 comfortable to depend on, for house warming, in a 

 New England winter. 



I trust I am not ungrateful in what I am saying. 



a team of four oxen and as many steers, to g up 

 the years stock of fuel. The men and teams were 

 oflf by daylight, and brought home the wood, sled- 

 length, load after load, and rolled it up into huge 

 piles in the door-yard, and he was considered an 



Many a pleasant evening have I danced with the uncommonly forehanded farmer, who ever had a 



boys and girls of the village by the hght of the 

 blazing fire on the kitchen hearth. Many a time 

 have I sat on a stool in the chimney corner, and 

 looked up and seen the stars twinliling through the 

 broad flue. Well do I remember the high-backed 

 settle, which was as essential then in a kitchen, as a 

 sofa is now to the parlor. There may be readers 

 of the Farmer so ignorant as not to know what a 



stock of seasoned wood on hand. And so they 

 toiled all summer, to raise corn and hay and pota- 

 toes enough, to keep the men and teams through 

 the winter, and worked all winter long, getting up 

 wood to keep from freezing ! 



Wood fires, on the hearth, are out of the ques- 

 tion. They cost too much, and that is decisive of 

 the matter. Next in order, came Franklin stoves, 



settle is! It is a high-backed wooden bench, long' nd fire-frames, and patent fire places, of all de- 

 enough for four or five, or occasionally, six or eight, Lcriptions. The old fashioned people must see the 

 boys and girls to sit on, boarded close, from top tol^^-g^ and war was, for a long time, waged against 



bottom on the back, and with arms at the ends, 

 and a board overhead — a piece of furniture doubt- 

 less designed, not only for a seat, but for a screen 

 to break the current of cold air, that always whis- 

 tled past every door and window toAvards the big 

 fire-place to supply the tremendous draught. I 

 remember well, too, the fun we had, getting in the 

 wood for the evening fires, at one of our neighbors' 

 where the old fashioned fire-place flourished in its 

 piu-ity. The boys had a sled, with a yoke at the 

 end of the tongue, for the two largest to pull by, 

 and a rope hitched forward, for the smaller ones. 

 We piled on the wood, four-foot length, to the 

 top of the stakes, about three feet high, and then at 

 the word, with the doors set open, in Ave Avent, into 

 the kitchen, sled and all, and unloaded near the 

 fire-place. A back-log of any size not less than a 

 foot and a half in diameter, and a fore-stick of half 

 the size, were essential to every respectable fire, and 

 a supply of pine knots for light, finished the prepa- 

 ration for the evening's comfort, in the Avay of light 

 and heat. They say there is a house in Chester, 

 where the occupants ahvays hauled the wood into 

 the kitchen, sled-length, with a horse, but that was 



close stOA'es, mainly because they shut the fire from 

 sight, I have ahvays fancied, that the reason Avhy 

 we love to see the fire, is because we are usually 

 cold Avhere open fire-places are used. I i ever knew 

 a person Avho thought a blazing fii-e a very beautiful 

 object in dog-days, and am inclined to think, that a 

 person who is comfortably warm, usually thinks 

 very little of the presence or absence of the fire 

 that warms him ; while it is very natui-al for one 

 who is obliged to stand close by the andirons, and 

 turn round, like a goose suspended by a string to 

 roast, once a minute, to keep fi'om freezing — it is 

 very natural for liim to like the looks of a wood 

 fire. Some one has suggested, as an economical 

 substitute for the use of those who want a fire to 

 look at, that they should warm their house Avith a 

 stove, and have a picture of a good fire painted on 

 the fire-board. 



The objections to Franklin stoves and fire-frames 

 were found to be, that they smoked, because in 

 modern buildings, the rooms Avere too tight to sup- 

 ply the draught, and again they consumed too much 

 wood. They too are gone, like the Indians, an oc- 

 casional straggler, only, remaining, and we in New 



