1S95 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



277 



FLORIDA FOR HEALTH. 



Before I go any further, I think I must an- 

 swer a few questiones in this line. When I left 

 home, I was suffering from a severe cold that 

 had settled into a kind of bronchial trouble, 

 that has followed me more or less winters ever 

 since I was away up in Portland, Ore. After 

 being in Florida three or four weeks, this en- 

 tirely disappeared. My appetite greatly im- 

 proved, and I was particularly impressed with 

 the fact that I could sleep better than I had 

 been able to for years. I used frequently to ask 

 the privilege of going to bed when it was only 

 eight o'clock in the evening, and I often slept 

 soundly until the sun was up and shining in my 

 face next morning. This is a new departure 

 for A. I. Root. During the last four weeks I 

 was in Florida, as a consequence of this, I 

 learned to omit entirely my naps in the middle 

 of the day. Since I have been home I have 

 been feeling more vigor and strength of mind 

 and body than for years past, unless, indeed, 

 it was when riding the wheel. I can not ride 

 my wheel now here in Medina, for the roads 

 are too muddy. 



Well, you will find people all over the State 

 of Florida who went down there to live because 

 they could not live anywhere else; and quite a 

 few say they came without any expectation of 

 living many months aniiwhere. I do not know 

 whether it is the beautiful climate, or whether 

 it is spending so much time sitting in a rocking- 

 chair on the veranda, or whether ii is the gen- 

 eral fashion of taking thins^s ea*v. that makes 

 people get well and strong in Florida; but I 

 have been told many times that careful statis- 

 tics show the death- rate according to population 

 to be less than in any other State in the Union: 

 and this, too, right in the face of the fact that 

 the State is the general rendezvous for invalids 

 from all over the world. If this is true, it is 

 something really remarkable. By the way. I 

 want to say. too. that I did not once feel a bit 

 of my old nervous prostration. I got around 

 lively every day, as I do anywhere else, and 

 enjoyed lots of energy, strength, and enthusiasm 

 during the whole time. I was told several times 

 that nobody ever has grip down there — at least, 

 in the southern part of Florida; catarrh is also 

 almost unknown. Some eight or ten years ago a 

 young lady worked in our office, who was quite 

 deaf. She finally went to live with a brother 

 at Sorrento, Fla. Most of you remember Nellie 

 Adams, who used to advertise queens from that 

 point. When I met her I expected I should 

 have to shout to make her hear; but as I 

 noticed she heard every word of the most com- 

 monplace conversation, I said, "Why, look 

 here. Nellie, how does it come that you are 

 hearing every thing we talk about? What 

 great doctor brought about this cure?" She 

 replied in substance that she had reason to be- 

 lieve it came about from living in Florida. 

 When she was here in Ohio, she was troubled 

 with catarrh, which became so bad that it 

 affected both her hearing and speech. She 

 noticed her trouble began to improve almost as 

 soon as she arrived at her Southern home, and 

 it finally disappeared entirely. Since then she 

 has been North, and stayed a whole year at a 

 time, but she hears perfectly. 



Now, friends, before spending very much 

 money with doctors or medicines I would trv 

 at least a few weeks in Florida; and by all 

 means try Florida rather than Electropoise, or 



anything else of that ilk. If you have not very 

 much money, you can rent some sortof domicile 

 very cheaply, and you can get along down there 

 as economically — that is, if you are so inclined — 

 as in almost any place in the world. A great 

 part of the year you do not really need any 

 house at all, except for the looks of the thing; 

 and if you do not care to put on much style, food 

 and clothing may be had for a very small sum, 

 comparatively. 



It occurs to me that I may have put the mat- 

 ter of health pretty strongly in the above, and 

 perhaps it may be no more than fair to say that 

 a great part of Florida is occupied by people 

 who have taken up homesteads. They have 

 160 acres of land, but they really make use of 

 not more than five or ten acres — that is, a great 

 many of them do this way, and every home- 

 steader is anxious to have neighbors. He would 

 sell five or ten acres very cheap — sometimes he 

 would rjive it away in order to have somebody 

 move in and start a settlement. There are lots 

 of towns — that is, they are towns on the map — 

 in Florida where there are not any houses at 

 all. At Giftord Station, for instance, which is 

 to be seen on the map, there are no houses, not 

 any station, nor even a platform — no, not even 

 a crossroad. There is a sort of road that runs 

 parallel to the railroad, and the town is sup- 

 posed to be somewhere on this parallel road. 

 Well, you see people are very anxious to have 

 towns built up, because thnt would advance 

 their property. They are intei ested everywhere 

 in having people move in, and. as a natural 

 consequence, they are all the while studying up 

 the advantages of their locality. This is good, 

 and I am glad of it; but it has a tendency to 

 makeeverybody honestly think that/iis locality 

 is an exceedingly healthy one. I was led to 

 believe there might be some honest bias in their 

 opinions, because so many will say. "Oh, yes! 

 over at so and so it is sickly. They have 

 malaria and fevers;" and at some other place 

 they will tell you that there are mosquitoes, 

 fleas, etc., so that a body can hardly live; "but 

 where we live you don't have any troubles of 

 this kind. See how well I am. There ain't 

 anybody sick anywhere in this neighborhood." 

 I did find people sick, however, in some places, 

 but it was mostly rheumatism. Even Florida 

 does not seem to be proof against some kinds of 

 this dread disease. 



DEATH OF MR. HENRY NEIGHBOUR, SENIOR 



MEMBER OF THE FIRM OF GEORGE 



NEIGHBOUR & SONS. 



The above announcement comes in the Brit- 

 is?! Bee Journal for Feb. 38— another reminder 

 that the veterans in our industry are passing 

 away. For more than a quarter of a century 

 the name of George Neighbour & Sons has 

 been almost a household word in apiculture; 

 and notwithstanding the criticisms that dealers 

 in apicultural implements are pretty sure to 

 get now and then, I can not remember that I 

 have ever heard a reflection cast on the busi- 

 ness methods of the above-named firm. Their 

 dealings, and their whole lives, in fact, seem to 

 have been characterized by a sort of manly in- 

 tegrity and gentlemanly bearing that it would 

 be well for us to imitate on this side of the 

 great water as well as the other. Perhaps it 

 would be well to mention that one of the 

 standard works on apiculture in England comes 

 from this same firm. A. I. R. 



