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.
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