soil, the poorest or dryest on the farm or lot, is the best point to
erect a healthful home.

The habit of embowering the house with a dense growth of shrubs and
trees, even where the soil is naturally dry, defeats the desired end,
and provokes disease. There are many places made so cosy and attractive
with these aids that, with persons of culture and taste, the tendency is
to run into extremes, and, while they render their homes beautiful to
the eye, they are fatal to life. A few shade-trees and shrubs properly
distributed about the ground can be indulged, and in numbers quite
adequate to give an air of grace and beauty to the home, while not
endangering its inmates. They should stand at proper distances from the
sides and roof, or not to constantly shadow them through the whole
summer, but allow, instead, the caressing sunshine to have full, free
play over them. Again, we have often entered dwellings where it seemed
to be the study of the good, ambitious housewife to shut out all the
light, and shut in--of course, unconsciously--all the death which comes
of dampness and dark, only so that her carpets are kept bright and
shining for some--gossip's tongue.

Sunlight has come to be, of late years, one of the great remedies, and
sun-baths are now duly administered in establishments erected for that
purpose, and there can be no doubt of their efficacy in giving health
and strength to all whose habits of life prevent their exercise in the
open air.

Next to a proper location, by which health is to be promoted, is


VENTILATION,