Trees should not be planted so close to a house as to obstruct the free ingress of light and air. If the walls are damp, the tree’s shade will help to preserve the dampness. Numerous instances are recorded of the deaths of persons clearly traced to the damp walls, moss-covered roofs, and general unhealthfulness arising from the close proximity of dense trees which overhung the dwelling and shut out the sunlight. When the sad truth was at last discovered, and the trees were removed, the houses which, before, were seldom free from sickness and sorrow, became wholesome and cheerful. =Warming.=--The subjects of warmth and ventilation are so closely related that they will necessarily overlap in their treatment. In point of importance probably no two subjects have a larger bearing upon health. No scheme has yet been devised by which satisfactory means of heating and ventilation are combined with money-saving. For purposes of ventilation, the old-time open hearth was without a rival. But while the faces of our grandparents were roasted, successive chills chased up their backs. In these days of scarcity of fuel, the open hearth is the rich man’s luxury. Most houses throughout the country are still warmed by stoves. In cities and towns, dwelling houses are generally warmed by the hot-air furnaces, while many of the larger establishments--stores, offices, hotels, banks, apartment houses--are supplied with steam heat. An important consideration in all cases of hot-air heating is that the air be taken from the outside through a conduit instead of using the air from the cellar, as is too frequently done. In some cities and suburban towns, pure air is brought into the cellar through a conduit where it passes through a box in which it is heated by steam pipes, the steam being brought from a central plant which supplies several hundred houses. The air when heated passes through flues to the several rooms of the dwelling, and is turned on and off by registers in the usual way. This system avoids all dirt of coal and ashes, and all care of fires, and is much to be commended. =Uniform Temperature.=--In all schemes for the warming of houses, it is important to keep the entire building at a uniform, comfortable temperature. In dwellings, the halls and living rooms should be so evenly warmed that no sensation of chilliness is felt in passing from one room into another. This, in itself, costs much fuel, and when there is added the further cost of heating the fresh air which is necessary to supply the place of that which has become vitiated by use, the truth of the proposition that suitable heating and ventilation are costly becomes apparent.