By G.H. Alford
The humble home can be made comfortable and beautiful with trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, grass, paint, waterworks, an electric lighting system, screens, washing machines, oil stoves, fireless cookers and so on.
The dwelling should be screened against the flies and mosquitoes and other insects which are menaces to human health.
The kitchen should be made as convenient as possible. Racks and shelves should be provided for all cooking utensils. A good table, every needed cooking utensil and scores of little time and labor-saving conveniences should be provided. An oil stove, a fireless cooker, a vacuum cleaner and, most important of all, a small gasoline engine should be fitted up with pulleys and belts so that the gasoline engine may furnish power for the washing machine, the wringer, the separator, the churn and so on.
You should by all means paint the house, put in waterworks and install a modern lighting system. Of the three much needed improvements, let paint come first. Paint is cheap, and it adds immeasurably to the looks of a farm. Moreover, it is a splendid form in insurance against decay, which in the long run is actually responsible for greater losses than fire.
The house should be made healthful and pleasant by keeping out flies and mosquitoes. You should first buy first-class screens and, second, see to it that they are properly placed on every door and window in the house. Not only does keeping out flies and mosquitoes add greatly to personal comfort, but it is the best kind of insurance against typhoid and malaria, two of tour deadliest enemies.
Provide Convenient Water Supply
There are many farm homes where a well on pump located some distance from the house furnishes the only water supply. To say nothing of the other members of the family, this necessitates the good wife’s going up and down the steps to and from the well, carrying water so frequently that one would be amazed at the burden carried from the well to the house and lifted up steps in a year.
Every farm home should be provided with the best water system the owner can afford. No home is complete without an adequate supply of pure water.
Manufacturers have recently turned their attention to the production of private water supply equipment, and it is now possible for any farmer to install a private system at a small cost.
A well, a pump, storage tank, a kitchen sink and some other equipment means a water supply system that may be improved until there is hot and cold water in the bathroom and every room, a water closet, and a septic tank.
Electric Lighting Plant to Furnish Power
A small electric lighting plant consists of an engine, an electric dynamo, a storage battery and a switch board. This small plant gives the farm family the advantages of having the very best form of illumination. An engine can furnish power for the dynamo and the rest of the apparatus can be furnished, all mounted on a skid, completely wired, which occupies only a small space and is very simple to operate.
The engine runs the dynamo and the dynamo generates electricity, which is stored up in the battery for use at any time. The original cost of the plant is small and it is only necessary to run the engine a few hours each week to store the necessary electricity.
Probably no other machine will do more to save time and labor, to conserve health and to save mother from premature old age than a washing machine. The farmer should buy more labor-saving machinery for use on the farm, but at the same time he should also buy a washing machine and other home labor-saving machines to prevent the wife from slaving at the tub and elsewhere.
Adjust the ironing board and chair to the most comfortable height for you to use your arms best, and learn to sit down and iron. There is no use in standing all day long and ironing.
The telephone is a necessity as well as a great pleasure in the farm homes. The doctor is called, farm products are sold, purchases made and so on. It is very enjoyable to keep in touch with neighbors and friends over the phone.
Waste of Woman Power
A farm home survey conducted by specialists of the United States Department of Agriculture shows that the waste of woman power is one of the greatest menaces to rural life. A reasonable well directed investment in modern equipment for farm homes would prevent the larger part of the wastage of the energy of farm women.
No home is complete without one or more musical instruments of some kind. A flute, a violin, an organ or piano for the members of the family who can play. If no one can play any instrument, be sure and have a phonograph.
There should be some of the superb agencies for reproducing the world’s best music in every home. If you have no such facilities at present and cannot buy them now, be sure and get them out of this year’s crop money.
From The Western Sentinel, Winston-Salem, N.C., August 8, 1922
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