126 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The difficulty of obtaining good water supplies in schools and of 

 equipping them with proper sanitary arrangements, adequate surface 

 drainage, dry playgrounds, etc., is largely due to the want of resources 

 caused by the scattered situation of the schools and of the dwellings 

 from which the children come. In too many cases, the farmer has 

 his farm in a situation where he cannot get a good water supply or 

 cannot co-operate with his neighbours in obtaining it from a distance. 

 In numerous cases his well is in porous ground, at a lower level than 

 his barn, his pigsties, and his manure heaps, and his privy is constructed 

 without proper sanitary precautions. Education is necessary to 

 secure much improvement in conditions which must necessarily 

 remain under the direct control of the individual, but education itself 

 would be easier and more likely to lead to results if farms were situ- 

 ated nearer to each other and hygiene was practised in the village 

 communities. 



It is stated by federal authorities who have been engaged in 

 the examination of water from farm wells, that about seventy per 

 cent of farm wells are contaminated and the water unfit for use. 

 As against the difficulties of meeting the expense of making proper 

 sanitary arrangements in villages and on farms, there is the advantage 

 of space and the latitude of choice of situation for buildings which 

 does not pertain in urban communities. 



Keeping Young People on the Farms 



One of the essential factors in encouraging the young people to 

 remain on the farm is the provision of good sanitation in rural homes. 

 A drainage inspector in a Canadian province once visited a certain 

 farmer and found him not only in possession of a good house, with 

 modern sanitary equipment, but he and his family were enjoying the 

 occupation of the best rooms in the house. On being asked why he did 

 not live in the kitchen like his neighbours, and why he looked so 

 much after the comforts of his home, he replied that he wanted to 

 keep his boy on the farm, and that he could not expect to do so if 

 he did not provide him with home comforts equal to those enjoyed by 

 people of equal means and rank of life in the city. There is more sound 

 philosophy in the method of that farmer than is found between the 

 covers of many text books on rural depopulation. 



The average farmer has learned to appreciate the value of giving 

 his children a good education but, in too many cases, he does not appre- 

 ciate the fact that this education kindles desires and awakens sensibili- 

 ties which he may not have experienced. The boy and girl goes to the 

 high school in the city, and visits the homes of scholars whose parents 



