THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



Either the lower or ground floor is a real story, with 

 furnished rooms for housework, or it is a semi-dark, 

 uncomfortable, and often ill-smelling storage place. 

 We have got, before we can grow a house, to solve 

 this cellar problem — the real footstool of human 

 life. The right sort of cellar is not less than eight 

 feet to the ceiling, with grouted floor, thick walls, 

 half above ground, and thoroughly lighted. Such 

 a cellar should be as clean and as sanitary as the 

 upper floors, and should be perfectly safe for sleep- 

 ing rooms, if needed for that purpose. Civilization 

 covers nothing so outrageously barbarous as filthy 

 cellars, where, among decaying vegetables and 

 storages of mildewing barrels and bins, diseases are 

 cradled, to break out above stairs when conditions 

 are favorable. Therefore, first of all look out for 

 your cellar. Your vegetables and your fruit will 

 need moist storage, and should on no account be 

 placed in the basement of your house, but rather in 

 a storage-room under a part of your barn or carriage 

 house. While digging for such storage, I tapped a 

 spring which flowed so that I could, by piping it, 

 retain it under the floor. This is left open at the 

 head so that the moisture may modify the atmos- 

 phere. Remember that a fruit cellar should not be 



[42] 



