Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1914 — Better Homes for Farmers. [ARTICLE]

Better Homes for Farmers.

• The providing or popularizing of inexpensive but well-arranged and wellbuilt farm houses is a part of the program of the federal department of agriculture. The avowed purpose involved in inducing these better housing and living conditions Is to Increase the efficiency of the tenant fanners, whose ranks are rapidly growing. The number of rented farms in the United States has increased more than 824,000 in the last decade. Conditions on many of these farms are not of the besL Outbuildings and field equipment may be modern, but sanitation generally has received but sinall attention from the owner. Good sanitary equipment le not always easily Installed In rural dwellings and It is usually expensive. Not much attention, likewise, has been paid to the Interior arrangement of the houses, so that the housewife has not had at her command the laborsaving conveniences that dispense with the drudgery of heir tasks. W. A. Etherton, an architect in the department argues that it is ae profitable to improve the bousing conditions of the farm worked ae it is to Improve the housing conditions of the Industrial worker. Hence the desirable designs for farm tenants' homes prepared by the departmenL