No. 4.] AGRICULTURE AND HEALTH. 265 



How can a man take root and thrive without land? He 

 writes his history upon the field. How many ties, how 

 many resources, he has : his friendships with his cattle, his 

 team, his dog, his trees ; the satisfaction in his growing 

 crops, in his improved fields ; his intimacy with nature, 

 with bird and beast and with the quickening elemental 

 forces; his co-operations with the cloud, the sun, the sea- 

 sons, heat, wind, rain and frost. Nothing will take the 

 social distempers, which the city and artificial life breed, 

 out of a man, like direct and loving contact with the soil. 

 It draws out the poison. It humbles him, teaches him 

 patience and reverence, and restores the proper tone to his 

 system." 



It is the out-door life, the keen observation of the every- 

 day events of the farm and the forest, the watchful eye and 

 ear, the minute observation of birds and their habits, of the 

 squirrel, the rabbit, the weasel, the ferret, the fox, the 

 muskrat and the woodchuck, of the multitudes of different 

 kinds of insects both useful and injurious, that have given 

 us such books as have been written by Gilbert White and 

 Thoreau and John Burroughs and Bradford Torrey and 

 Seton Thompson, — books that every observing farmer 

 ought to have in his library to read in the long winter 

 evenings. 



But there are exceptions to every rule. I have said that 

 the farmer is, with one exception, the longest-lived man. 

 Were it not for certain circumstances, he would lead the 

 list. How, then, may his condition be improved? I shall 

 now direct your attention to a few of the points wherein 

 improvement nuiy be made. 



And first, since 1 have spoken of the value of fresh out- 

 door air in promoting health and long life, I will add to this 

 that fresh in-door air is quite as important to those who 

 live in the house, and especially is this true of the sleeping 

 rooms. Too often does it happen in the modern farm- 

 house that the sleeping rooms are too small, and are also 

 wanting in the proper means of ve)itilatton. Ventilation 

 means the change of the foul air of the in-door apartment, 

 and its renewal by fresh air from out doors. This cannot 

 be done in a sleeping room in which the windows and doors 



