10 



ious iight in which they are brought up, but country lads and lasses have a 

 birthright to more light and life. 



The house should be built with two or more stories. Why our fathers built 

 so many low, squat-looking houses, with hot, dark, ill- ventilated and incon- 

 venient chambers, has ever been a mystery to us. Probably it was don ', partly 

 from motives of economy, and partly from ignorance. It costs, however, but 

 a little more to build with two stories. The same shingles that cover one story 

 will cover two, and the increased accommodations will pay fourfold for the in- 

 creased expense. We once asked a farmer who was building a one story house 

 with a cellar kitchen under it, why he did not put on another story and arrange 

 his kitchen where it ought to be, on the first floor? His reply was, "The 

 nearer you can get your work to the earth the more convenient it is. I don't 

 like climbing up into chambers." But will not your wife find it inconvenient 

 to be running up and down the cellar stairs? "Yes, possibly, but women were 

 made for work, and the cellar kitchen is very handy." The dismal, damp cel- 

 lar may have been very handy for work, but we noticed that the wife did not 

 live very long to work in it, and with the advent of a second wife, the cellar 

 kitchen was converted into a potato bin. 



If our family consisted of only two persons we would build the house with 

 two stories, and would sleep in a chamber on the sunny side. "Climbing up 

 into chambers" may be a little inconvenient for old folks, but when thej' are 

 once there, the dryer, purer air will compensate for the labor. The nearer the 

 earth the more convenient it may be for sleep as well as work, but we should 

 not, on this account, either work or sleep in a cellar. The more remote from 

 the ground the chamber, the better is the air, especially in the night, and good 

 sleeping air is one of the essentials for health and long life. 



A story and a half house is but little better than the old-fashioned one storied. 

 It has a four-pence half-penny look. The chambers are low and warm, and 

 the little windows under the eaves furnish poor light, and still poorer lookout. 

 A house with twelve feet posts may be considered economy by some, we call it 

 parsimony. Sixteen feet posts cost but little more, and furnish far more com- 

 fort and health. 



Analogous to this parsimony in the height of the house, is that of putting a 

 cellar only under a part. We rejoice that this old practice is pretty much ob- 

 solete. Cellar room is alw T ays wanted, even though we may not stow away so 

 much cider in it as formerly. The expense of a whole cellar is but little more 

 than that of a half cellar, as the walls must be built on two sides in both cases, 

 and when built of the same size as the house they furnish a stable foundation. 

 Half -cellared houses are very apt to be lop-sided. 



One word as to the ventilation of cellars and farm houses. Farmers generally 

 utilize cellar room for the storage of potatoes, turnips and other root crops. It 

 would be more for the health of the family if these were stored in the barn eel. 

 lar. They are wont to decay more or less before spring, and in their decay 

 they emit the seeds of disease and death. Decay propagates decay, as surely as 

 life propagates life. How the decomposition of vegetable matter should pro- 



