SPRING CLEANING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 229, 28 September 1898, Page 6

SPRING CLEANING.

By spring-cleaning we do not mean the annual beating of carpets, washing of windows and general over-turn of everything indoors,/ for which women are famous. What we are thinking of is a spring-cleaning for men—a work which, if it were faithfully clone, would lessen the . death rate: One thing of prime importance is the care of the cellar. The air circulates as freely from cellar to attic as the blood circulates in the body, and that, too, in spite of closed doors. Indeed, the cellar should be kept pure the year.-round; but if this has not been . done, the time to rectify the mistake is before the disease breeding heats of summer arc upon us. If there are decaying vegetables in the cellar, or rotten wood from boards that rest upon the ground, whether loose or as a, fixed floor, or accumulations of useless rubbish in the corners, or under the stairs, or under the front doorsteps, by all means let them be removed. The cellar floor should be thoroughly swept and the sweepings removed. Effectual ventilation should be kept up from this time until winter. Another important thing is to examine anew the sewage pipes from the kitchen and the bath room to make sure that there is no leakage. Siieh leakage is often going' on under flpors, Avhich conceal it, but do not prevent the deadly mischief. Now is the time to clean out the cesspool. Let it be exa-mine'd afresh, to see that no disease-bearing gases can pass back from it into the house. Note, too, its distance from the well, and if this is less than one hundred feet remove the cesspool to at least that distance.

If during the winter the slops have been thrown upon the ground near the hoiise—an unwholesome and filthy practice —see that every vestige of them is removed, and clean sand or soil or gi*een turf put in their place. Let nothing- remain that can in any way corxupt the air or annoy thesig'lit. So far as possible make the surroundings pleasant as well as pure.