p. 701 | LOOK AFTER THE CELLAR

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 44.

LOOK AFTER THE CELLAR.

Mrs. Whitaker says, in the New England Farmer:—

“Recently, I went into a barn in the cellar of which potatoes were stored. No unpleasant odor was noticeable from them, but bending to speak to a child, and thereby getting down to the level of the little one’s head, I found the odor of rotten potatoes so strong as almost to cause nausea. This shows how little children may sicken from foul house cellars where the gases from decaying vegetables are continually creeping up under the cellar door and through the floors, but are not noticed by the adults. When a cellar door is opened in winter, the strong ‘cellary’ smell is often commented on; but that gas may be continuously present in the lower portion of the rooms, and the little ones creeping, running about, or lying asleep, may get nothing better to breathe all winter than air well seasoned with cellar smells.

“It is none too early to plan what to put in the cellar and what to keep out; and don’t forget to have one window hinged so that it may be opened in the middle of warm winter days, and the air freshened under the house. Then keep out of the cellar potatoes on the verge of decay, cabbage, and turnips. This is a man’s part of the work; his wife must be sure that nothing unclean is left about the cellar, no mouldy board, no paper, rags, scattered fruit, or vegetables. She must use a broom on every foot of the cellar’s surface and walls; wash and wipe away all specks of mould, and see that it is aired in fair weather. Then if the cellar is well drained it need not be a source of harm to the family living above it.

“A thin coat of whitewash, once a year, with a little carbolic acid mixed with it, would do much to keep the cellar walls sweet. In some respects the cellar is the most important—as it usually is the most neglected—room in the house.”