740 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



dinarily monkeys do not breed in captivity; in the 

 Lincoln Park Zoo, however, monkey babies are by 

 no means rare. One, which was born last August, 

 spent the entire winter outdoors, with a most in- 

 vigorating eflfect. 



What do you think of that? When they 

 turned the whole outfit out in the open air 

 there was not a single death from disease in 

 Jive years. Now for a moral that comes 

 home to us poultrymen. Just as soon as I 

 took up poultry (so vehemently) four or 

 five years ago I became more and more con- 

 vinced every day, that the chickens should 

 be outdoors — yes, even little chickens; and 

 when I had decided that artificial heat in- 

 stead of the heat of the mother-hen was a 

 mistake and a blunder, our good friend Philo 

 came to my aid with his discovery. Now, 

 do not misunderstand me. Chickens just 

 hatched must be kept warm; but they must 

 also have plenty of pure outdoor air, just ex- 

 actly as they get it from under their moth- 

 er's wings. I have not tried newly hatched 

 chickens in the tireless brooder at a zero tem- 

 perature; but I think Philo demonstrated, 

 even before our college professors did, that 

 it can be done; but of this I am sure: That 

 thousands and thousands of chickens are 

 sent to a cruel death by mistaken kindness, 

 just as the monkeys were. Again and again 

 I visit poultrymen (and poultrywomen too) 

 who are hurting their chickens by lamp- 

 heated brooders; yes, I have repeatedly seen 

 them shut in these artificially warmed 

 brooders when the sunshine outdoors gave 

 an abundance of heat without costing a cent. 

 Two years ago I had a lot of chickens that 

 did not seem to do well. They had an abun- 

 dant opportunity to run outdoors, but they 

 just kept inside and hugged up against the 

 hot-water pipes. After several had died, 

 and I saw they were all going to die, I took 

 away the lamp and hot- water pipe, and just 

 put a warm blanket over their backs. Of 

 course they peeped, and made quite a fuss 

 for a while, but in a day or two they went 

 outdoors and ran about in a way that chick- 

 ens ought to do, and all at once began to 

 grow like weeds. They were like the mon- 

 keys that kept crowding to get over that hot 

 shelf. They had gotten into an unnatural 

 condition, by unnatural surroundings. 

 Now, my good friends, I hope you will re- 

 member what I have said about chickens; 

 and I rejoice to know that just now there is 

 a great wave starting toward " fireless brood- 

 ers," and it is extending all the way from 

 Maine to Florida. It will probably take 

 some time for the manufacturers of the heat- 

 ed brooder to get over their notions (or, per- 

 haps we might say, to get rid of the stock 

 of lamps and fixings they have on hand), 

 but they are coming to it. 



Now, I think you will all agree that mon- 

 keys and chickens are of small account com- 

 pared with the bodies of schoolchildren and 

 grown-up men and women. After Dr. Evans 

 had succeeded in curing the monkeys, and 

 making them stay cured, he turned his at- 

 tention to humanity in the great city of 

 Chicago. He was a rising young man, and 

 the mayor of Chicago had the good sense to 



appoint him health commissioner, and he 

 commenced the study of conditions then 

 existing in that great city. The author of 

 the articles gives us some of the advantages 

 Chicago now enjoys: 



Few realize — the people of Chicago least of all — 

 the services rendered by an expansive body of water 

 like Lake Michigan in purifying the air supply. It 

 provides the air with indispensable moisture; and 

 it acts as a huge filtering-plant, picking up dust 

 particles and bacteria, and leaving for human con- 

 sumption the unadulterated oxygen. Then from 

 the prairies comes the wind, that indispensable 

 adjunct to thorough ventilation; for good breath- 

 able air, as all authorities insist, is, first and al- 

 ways, moving, circulating air. 



Of course, they have the black smoke 

 from 10,000 factories and 26 great railroad 

 systems; but there is a chance for pure air, 

 after all. And, by the way, Chicago has 

 been doing some wonderful things in work- 

 ing for the health of its inhabitants. See 

 the following: 



Everywhere modern science has made wonderful 

 progress in combating the diseases caused by bad 

 water and bad food. Take the city of Chicago, for 

 example. It built its famous drainage canal, and, 

 at a stroke, cut down its typhoid rate about eighty 

 per cent. 



In Dr. Evans' researches through the city 

 he went into the schoolrooms. Here is one 

 of the headlines I found in this article about 

 our cities: 



HOW CHILDREN ARE " KILN-DRIED " IN THE PUBLIC 

 SCHOOLS. 



I never thought of it before, but Dr. 

 Evans tells us that one of the great causes 

 of catarrh and other diseases of the breath- 

 ing apparatus is that dry air has so great an 

 affinity for moisture. Do you remember 

 the way the women-folks tell us, that some 

 days their clothes on the line will dry very 

 quickly, and again they will hang there all 

 day long and not dry out at all? Well, dry 

 air, especially this artiflcicdly dried air, is 

 constantly seeking moisture. If it can not 

 find it anywhere else it will take it from the 

 mouth and nostrils of breathing children; 

 and this drying process causes these sensi- 

 tive organs to crack and become sore, and 

 thus invite microbes, bacteria, etc. Some 

 of us have been laughing at T. B. Terry be- 

 cause he carries four or five pailfuls of water 

 every day to fill up his "humidifiers " as he 

 calls them. Terry keeps every cubic foot of 

 air moistened up every wintry day, in every 

 room in his house that is warmed by artifi- 

 cial heat. When I stood by his wondrous 

 display of rank and thrifty house-plants 

 that stood in his front window he said some- 

 thing as follows: 



' ' Mr. Root, the outcome of my humidifiers 

 that evaporate several pailfuls of water a 

 day is these beautiful plants grown in a nat- 

 ural and healthful atmosphere." 



Then, pointing to his wife, who stood 

 near, he said, "Here are the beautiful healthy 

 plants;" and, with a comical look on his 

 face, he added, "and there is a beautiful 

 healthy woman, the result, like the plants 

 and flowers, of an atmosphere that is con- 

 stantly Aw wM as well as warm." And he 

 told the tiuth. Mrs. Terry, even if she is 



