Three Acres And Liberty | Page 6

of them would be happier in penal servitude than in the
country. The work is as hard and requires as much skill as a mechanic's
work, besides personal qualities that are demanded of no mechanic, and
commands half its wages.
Those who, like Henry Ford, can afford to pay mechanics' wages for
help can get all they want.
Many people go to the country without plan, preparation, or vocation,
to make a living. They usually start to build a bungalow but seldom get
further than the bungle. Don't build anything without plan. Get a
comfortable house proof against cold and heat as soon as possible and,
above all, well ventilated. At present the air in the country is good,
because the farmers shut all the bad air up in their bedrooms.
They say
"The farmer works from sun to sun For the summer's work is never
done."
We might add, it's never even half done--naturally. A donkey engine
can work like that, but then it hasn't any brains. No man can work from
sun to sun all summer and think at all or be good for anything at the
end of it.
Above all things don't work long hours, even in learning, with the idea
of saving that way. All up-to-date employers are agreed that an
eight-hour day produces more and better results than a ten-hour day and
that a twelve-hour day brings sheriffs and suicides instead of profits.
That's just as true of the individual worker as it is of the factory "hand."
Yet most men and a few women proudly say that they "work like a
horse" (it's usually not true). They don't; a horse won't work and can't
work over eight hours a day steadily. Neither can you: you may keep
buzzing around much longer--but the best work requires the best
conditions and the best hours. You think, or you flatter yourself that
you think, that it is necessary; but nothing is necessary that is stupid

and wrong. It is hardly too much to say that when we are tired out or ill
either we have been doing the wrong thing or doing it wrong.
There is besides, as an anti-rusticant, railroad discrimination in favor of
long hauls, but the main reason that the small farms of the Eastern
Coast are less settled than those farther west is the great difficulty in
getting farm loans or loans on farm buildings. New York companies
and others in the great cities will loan on farms west of the Alleghenies,
but even the otherwise excellent eastern Building Loan Associations
usually restrict themselves to places within twenty-five miles of a city.
The Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society will help approved
Jewish farmers to buy and build: and there is a Federal Land Bank in
Springfield, Mass., which lends to some Farmers' Associations, of
which some four thousand are already formed. It is hoped that the State
Land Bank of New York City may improve the situation in New York
for Farmers' Organizations, but "generally nearly all available funds of
the local banks seem to be drawn off for investments in Wall Street."
However, it is not to be forgotten that this difficulty is reflected in the
lower prices of eastern Land.
One more thing that keeps many people from the country and drives
some people back to the city is the mosquito (of course there are
mosquitoes in town, but we are not out as much, so we notice them
less). Mosquitoes breed or rather we breed them, in still water in which
there are no fish, in pools, hollows in trees, wells, etc., and above all in
old tin cans. They can no more breed without water than sharks could.
Mosquitoes do not breed in grass, but rank growths of weeds or grass
may conceal small breeding puddles, and form a favorite nursery for
Mamma Skeet. A teacupful of water standing ten days is enough for
250 wrigglers; their needs are modest.
Different species of mosquitoes have as well-defined habits as other
birds and are classified as follows: Domestic, Migratory, and
Woodland.
The common domestic or pet species breed in fresh water, usually in
the house yard, fly comparatively short distances, and habitually enter
houses. They winter in cellars, barns, and outhouses. Some of them are
conveyors of malaria.
The Migratory Species breed on the salt marshes, fly long distances, do
not habitually enter houses, and are not carriers of diseases so far as

known.
Certain varieties of Woodland Mosquitoes breed only in woodland
pools, appearing in the early spring, and travel a greater distance than
the domestic species. They are not usually troublesome indoors.
It has been proved that malaria is transmitted only by certain species of
Anopheles, one of which is the domestic mosquito. Eliminate this one
species of