1896 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



25 



some little time after eating almost any thing, 

 that I got to expect It as a matter of course. 

 With the lean meat or zwieback I have never 

 noticed this once; but if I eat fruit or sweets of 

 uny sort, the same old result is sure to follow. 

 Very nice zwieback can be m&de oi white bread, 

 or even o{ baker's bread, but it has not the rich 

 nutty flavor that we find in ihat made from 

 whole-wheat flour. Well might bread be truth- 

 fully termed the ■■ staff of life." if the bread is 

 made of whole-wheat flour, and then afterward 

 baked, or twice baked, as 1 have described. I 

 believe invalids almost all agree in regard to 

 this. Let me say once more, that it is ever so 

 much cheaper than crackers, and ever so much 

 more wholesome. I do wi^h zwieback of some 

 kind might more largely take the place of 

 crackers. When I went to Atlanta 1 carried 

 along such a quantity that I brought some 

 back. It was put aside, and by some oversight 

 it did not get on the table until two or three 

 weeks after it was made, be.<ides taking that 

 long journey in my lunch-basket. Hut after 

 all this, the whole family pronounced it just as 

 good as the freshest made. 1 believe, however, 

 Mrs. Root gave it a third baking in the oven, 

 to purify it and dry it out. If 1 am correct, 

 Drs. Lewis and Salisbury place zwieback next 

 to lean beef, and I am sure they are right. 

 Vegetarians and meat-eaters can all unite and 

 agree on zwieback, even if they do not on the 

 rest 



Now, when one has got so that he can eat 

 other kinds of food, what shall he take next? 

 Well. I presume each person must experiment 

 and study into the matter for himself. I found 

 the gluten preparation or graham crackers, 

 granose, wheat-germ grits, and Pettijohn's 

 breakfast- food, to come next to the zwieback. 

 In the way of fruit I was pretty strongly in- 

 clined to baked apples, or nice apple-sauce 

 made without sugar, first. Dr. Lewis, however, 

 places California prunes, cooked without sugar, 

 ahead of any other fruit; and after consider- 

 able careful experimenting I have decided his 

 head is level in this matter also. I wonder if 

 our friends out in California, who raise prunes 

 by the tons and carloads, are aware of this fact. 

 Whv don't thev make a bigger stir about it? 



When the digestion is still weak, the prunes 

 should be first boiled, and the water or juice 

 poured off. In some cases it may be better to 

 do this a second time. Now cook them once 

 more, carefully peel off the skins, and eat the 

 pulp with your zwieback (of course, you will 

 not swallow the stone): and if you commence 

 eating, say one at breakfa>i, and no more dur- 

 ing the day, and keep this up until your diges- 

 tive apparatus has learned how to manage the 

 one prune, then you may take one at breakfast 

 and one at dinner; and in a little more time 

 you may take two at breakfast and two at din- 

 ner, and finally three; and later still as many 

 as yon really care for. just as you eat your 

 meat and zwieback. If, however, you should 

 commence by eating a whole saucerful just be- 

 cause they taste so delicious, you would have 

 a backset, and possibly imagine that all the 

 pains you had taken with your diet had not 

 really amounted to any thing — you were the 

 same old sixpence. Your digestion must get 

 acquainted with things just exactly as people 

 must get acquainted with each other. When 

 any delicacy in the way of fruit or vegetables 

 first comes on to the table at the proper season, 

 take a iiMie at first. One reason why so many 

 people say honey makes them sick is because 

 they go and eat a great lot when they have not 

 tasted any honey before for perhaps weeks or 

 even months. No wonder it did not " agree " 

 with them. 



Now I have something more to tell in regard 

 to doctoring without medicine. My venerable 

 friend VanDeusen was inclined to poke fun at 

 me at Atlanta because I had two kinds of med- 

 icine to take, even in a public restaurant, be- 

 fore I commenced on my meat and zwieback. 

 At present I am not taking a particle of medi- 

 icine, and have not been for *ome little time. 

 Now, this is not the best part of it. The best is 

 this: I was really surpri>ed to find a few days 

 ago that I had reached a point when I not only 

 did not need the medicine, but was better off 

 without it. My digestive apparatus seemed to 

 say, "'Look here, Bro. Root; this outside assist- 

 ance is not needed at all now. In fact, it is be- 

 ginning to stir up unpleasantness." I todk the 

 hint, and used a smaller dose. Finally Nature 

 said. " We do not want the S7/wxi/er dose. There 

 is now no need of any 'physic' or any thing of 

 the sort. Ymi just leave your medicine on the 

 sideboard, and attend to your other affairs, and 

 we will run your daily habits as regularly as a 

 clock." And Nalure is doing it right straight 

 along. It is a mystery to me, and I can hardly 

 understand it. I can eat &< much beefseak at a 

 meal as is used by a good sized family ordinari- 

 ly —y(^s, more too: and I can do it three times 

 a day, and not a hit of constipation. I am now 

 eating just what I please, if you will accept this 

 last with some modification. I am not using 

 any sugar, however, at all. I do not want it. I 

 have prunes whenever I want them, and as 

 many as J want. I can almost say the same of 

 baked apples. I should like potatoes in a little 

 larger quantity than Nature approves of; but 

 this is a comparatively small trifle. 



Before I go further, perhaps I should say I 

 tried leaving off medicine several times during 

 the first ihree or four months of my beef diet, 

 but it did not answer. Again and again I was 

 forced to conclude that the doctor knew best. 

 I have always been afraid of becoming a slave 

 to quinine, physic, pepsin, or something of that 

 sort. You might in one sense say 1 am a slave 

 to lean meat even yet; but I think no more, or 

 but little more so, than to hot water. I rarely 

 drink any thing at my meals, but f do have big 

 drinks of hot water in the middle of the forenoon 

 and middle of the afternoon, and this I must 

 have. One need not worry, however, when he 

 feels that he has become so much addicted to 

 pure water that he can not very well get along 

 without it. May God be praised ; and may he 

 help others out of their troubles as he has help- 

 ed your old friend A. 1. R. 



ATLANTA. 



By some misunderstanding, the first session 

 of the bee-keepers' congress was to meet in 

 Council Hall, on the exposition grounds. It 

 was announced through the bee- journals to be 

 at the Hotel .fackson. This threw things out 

 of shape, so that the first day was spent mainly 

 on the exposition grounds. 



The 4th of December, you will remember, 

 was not only about the coldest day during the 

 whole of that month, but It was one of the cold- 

 est days ever known in Atlanta in any month 

 or any winter. On leaving home I took the 

 precaution to be well bundled up; and, fearing 

 I should get chilled, I chose to go over to the 

 grounds by steam-cars instead of by the electric 

 line. Somebody said they were rather warmer. 



