Because of the very nature of winter weather, there are other distressing things that may happen to make life in the country just a little bit less enjoyable.  The first of these is the possibility of an old-fashioned blizzard that may block roads and cut off the country dweller from the usual source of supplies.  Before the days of the automobile, one could travel roads several feet deep in snow with horse and sleigh.  An automobile has its limits and is more or less impotent in more than two feet of snow on a road unbroken by a powerful plow.  So, if the oldest inhabitants can remember the winter of 18—­ “when we had snow to the top of the fence posts,” it is a wise precaution to have an emergency supply of canned foods on hand.  In February, 1934, we were snowbound for three days but lived in comfort, thanks to a minimum reserve supply and, by a happy coincidence, liberal marketing done the morning the storm began.  Several neighbors took to snowshoes and skis and so made their way to the nearest store to replenish essentials like milk, meat, eggs and the like.  Winter sports are a great institution, but trudging two miles for a quart of milk across a countryside waist deep in newly fallen snow is too great a mixture of business and pleasure.

Similarly, a medicine cabinet stocked with the primary remedies, and a physician whom you know sufficiently so that you consult him by telephone, are wise precautions against sudden crises of weather or health.  Of course, if a member of your family is seriously ill, your doctor will come with all haste when summoned.  But he is a busy man who often works from before breakfast until nearly midnight covering unbelievable distances in his automobile.  So, if you can report illness clearly, give exact symptoms, and have a stock of the simple medicines that you can administer as he directs, both the sick person and the physician gain.  Present-day country doctors show their appreciation for such cooperation by the speed with which they reach patients whose symptoms indicate more than a minor ailment.

But all the emergencies of country life are not serious even though they call for action.  There are scores of little things that the house owner can do for himself.  Take rats and mice.  They will get into the most carefully built and best run house.  When this happens it is a matter of either traps or the new scientific poison baits that domestic pets will not eat.  There is also the old farm method of mixing equal parts of plaster of Paris and corn meal, an entree harmless in itself but with fatal results for the invading rodent.  In summer there is the possibility of a plague of ants.  For this there is now a cheap and scientific liquid bait that works rapidly.