THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



other seeds or esculents that have been scientifically 

 produced by ourselves. No matter how simple and 

 elementary the work that you can accomplish here, 

 do not fail of having a laboratory. Where house 

 room is not abundant, it may be an adjunct to the 

 barn. This and the shop will become the center of 

 much family thought, and more attractive for your 

 young people than any social device that would 

 draw them away from home. 



Your chimney should be built out of doors, with 

 just as little as possible contact with woodwork, and 

 the flue should be so small that the heat of the fire 

 will easily send the draught upward. Nearly all 

 smoking chimneys are caused by the fact that the 

 fire is not strong enough to send up a column of hot 

 air to overcome the dropping column. In other 

 words, the chimney draws backward. To lift the 

 chimney higher does no good, but makes the trouble 

 worse. Old-fashioned fires, made of piled logs in 

 huge fireplaces, would heat big chimneys and drive 

 upward a column of smoke and heated air; but our 

 furnaces and grates are not able to do this if the flue 

 be large. An open fireplace is desirable in the fam- 

 ily room if possible. Never will this world happen 

 upon anything more homeful than the old-fashioned 



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