unusual luxury and marks only the most advanced homes. No 

 one convenience does more for the comfort of the family than 

 the ice house and refrigerator. It is not a lack of money that 

 has stood in the way of more comfortable farm homes but 

 rather a lack of ideas. In building the farm home, as in build- 

 ing the country school house, the farmer has followed a cus- 

 tomary plan and the individuals fit themselves to the house in- 

 stead of having the house fitted to the individuals. Mail or- 

 der houses "with their plans for country homes and the numer- 

 ous firms now selling supplies for plumbing, lighting, and heat- 

 ing are doing much to improve conditions. One of the best 

 things which a rural school could do would be to make a col- 

 lection of material on the planning and equipment of homes. 



A few simple lessons in sanitation should be taught in 

 every country school : 



1. That bad water is dangerous ; hence the well should 

 not be so located as to receive the drainage from the barnyard. 

 Particularly dangerous is the open or dug well if great care is 

 not exercised to keep it scrupulously clean. 



2. That fresh air never hurt anyone. Cold air is not nec- 

 essarily fresh air. The sufferer from tuberculosis is made to 

 sleep in the open air to cure a disease which he has often con- 

 tracted by living in rooms where fresh pure air was lacking. 

 Children should be taught that headaches, colorless faces, list- 

 lessness are the results of sleeping in tightly closed rooms and 

 that sleeping room windows should be open. 



3. That sunlight kills more germs than all of the doctors 

 in the world ; hence the rooms should be thrown open and the 

 sunlight let in. 



4. That good food is necessary to sustain health and that 

 we should take time to eat. The opposition to the teaching 

 of domestic science in rural schools on the ground that the pa- 

 trons of the school know how to cook is absurd in the extreme. 

 Rural people are neither better ,nor worse cooks than urban 

 people, yet cooking is taught in city schools,. 



5. That the open privy of the country school and the coun- 

 try home is an ever present menance to health. In winter it 



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