576 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



Our Homes. 



Ho, eveij' one tliat- tliiistetli ! come ye to the 

 wiiters; and lietbat liath no money.— Isa. 5.5:1. 



For years I have been talking and writing 

 more or less about pure water. On my wheel- 

 rides I have rejoiced on finding a spring, espe- 

 cially if it were one of soft water. Again and 

 again have I enjoined upon the friends where 

 I have visited, that they should thank God for 

 their beautiful drinking water. I remember 

 especially the springrs of soft water and the 

 wells of Florida. While at friend Keek's, near 

 Bowling Green, they told me the drinking 

 water seemed to them just like water from 

 melted freshly fallen snow— snow-water they 

 called it. Well, while looking at that great 

 spring near the town of Thompson. Geauga Co., 

 O., described elsewhere, it seemed to me as if 

 we must have soft water on our own premises 

 at the Home of the Honey-bees. We have an 

 abundance of rain water, it is true; but it is a 

 very difficult matter to keep rain water in the 

 summer time so that it shall remain as pure 

 and wholesome as the water from a running 

 spring. By the way. do you ever think how 

 hard a matter it is to produce a real spring 

 artificially? In many of our public parks, and 

 at the Soldiers' Home, in Dayton, O., they have 

 " manufactured " springs; and I quickened my 

 steps as 1 caught sight of one of them; but 

 when I stooped down to drink from the cup 

 hanging near, what a disappointment! The 

 water was carried in pipes, and let out through 

 the rocks. It was very good water compared 

 with the water of our modern cities; but it was 

 not the spring water of the country, at all. 



I have told you about the spring on our own 

 premises; but it is not soft water — not by con- 

 siderable. It is very nice and cool on a hot day; 

 but even with my present tiptop health I should 

 hardly dare to drink as much hard water as I 

 crave on a hot summer day; besides, hard 

 water never quenches my thirst — I mean it 

 never satisfies, for in a little time I become 

 more thirsty still. If I keep drinking this water 

 (laden with the salts of lime and other chemi- 

 cals) pretty soon there is a rumpus in the di- 

 gestive apparatus. From the age of four till I 

 was sixteen I lived in Mogadore, Summit Co. ; 

 and our drinking water came from a soft-water 

 spring at the base of the sandy hills. How 

 often have I craved a drink from those refresh- 

 ing waters near my childhood home! You 

 have all read the story of David when he longed 

 for a drink of water from a well in his native 

 town of Bethlehem, then in possession of the 

 Philistines; and you remember how he poured 

 it out on the ground, reckoning it as the blood 

 of the three mighty men who broke through 

 the ranks of the enemy in order to get it for him. 



When I first commenced my wheelrides some 

 years ago I visited most of the noted springs 

 in Medina Co. ; and I asked, through our county 

 papers, for information in regard to *^^he nearest 

 soft-water springs. I did not find any nearer 

 than about five or six miles; and I have actu- 

 ally ridden that distance several times just to 

 have a drink of spring water. Is not cistern 

 water all right when the cistern is properly 

 made, the water filtered, etc.? Yes, it will do 

 very well if you boil the water, then filter it, 

 and cool it in a refrigerator. This is consider- 

 able trouble; and even then if it stands very 

 long exposed to the air at a summer tempera- 

 ture it will soon contain forms of animal and 

 vegetable life that can be detected by means of 

 a microscope. Do you tell me that spring 

 water, as it comes right from the rocks, also 

 contains microbes? I know some people talk 



that way, and some would-be scientists; but it 

 is not true. I have handled some of the best 

 microscopes to be had, and I could never find a 

 trace of organic matter, either animal or veg- 

 etable, in cold water just as it issues from the 

 rocks. Water from a well is all right providing 

 enough of it is taken from it every day to keep 

 up a steady running stream at the bottom. A 

 well that stands still, or one that is allowed to 

 fill up so that the water stands, is not the thing 

 for people to drink from. It becomes more or 

 less stagnant water. Better water your horses 

 and cows at the well where you get your drink- 

 ing water for the household; better still, have 

 a windmill to keep pumping it so as to let off 

 the surplus water. This will give you the con- 

 ditions of a running spring. I do not say that 

 other waters may not be as good as the waters 

 from a running spring; but 1 think the chances 

 are in favor of the latter. I am sure I am 

 sound in regard to the matter, for I had quite a 

 talk with an officer belonging to the Ohio State 

 Board of Health, only a few days ago, and he 

 said my ideas on the subject of pure drinking- 

 water were sound and correct. 



About a year ago somebody told me there 

 was a well at our gristmill, nearly a mile away, 

 that furnishes soft water. At first I had so 

 little faith that I did not pay much attention 

 to it. Finally I visited the mill, and saw the 

 stream of water that is pumped daily to supply 

 their boiler. It certainly tasted very much like 

 soft water. I carried a little pailful of it home 

 to let Mrs. Root see whether it would really 

 "wash." I had carried her so many samples 

 of water that I thought were soft she was be- 

 coming incredulous. I detected a little sarcasm 

 in her smile as she took the water and reached 

 for a piece of soap. She expected, as a matter 

 of course, that it would all curdle, like the 

 many samples I had brought before; but to her 

 great surprise and astonishment it made a 

 beautiful suds. She tasted of some of that re- 

 maining in the pail. 



" Why. this is not soft water to the taste; but 

 as sure as you are alive it washes most beauti- 

 fully. Why, it actually seems as if there were 

 a little borax, or something of that sort, added 

 to make it suds still better than rain water." 



I too decided that there was a little taste of 

 something in the water, different from pure 

 soft spring water, and we boiled some of it 

 down. There was a little trace of a whitish 

 powder; but it was beautiful water to drink or 

 to wash with, notwithstanding. I interviewed 

 the men at the mill. They said the water 

 never made any scale on the flues of the boiler 

 at all. Only one set of flues had been in the 

 boiler since they put it in place, ten years pre- 

 viously; and the expense for repairs since that 

 time had not been teii cents. During that 

 time we have paid out for flues and for repairs 

 toward a thousand dollars. In fact, I have 

 said again and again that I would give a thou- 

 sand dollars in a minute for a spring of soft 

 water of sufficient volume to supply our boilers 

 and other wants. Many of the friends where I 

 have visited have smilingly told me that I 

 might have one of their springs, and welcome, 

 if I could dig it up and move it to Medina; but, 

 of course, I could not undertake it. Why not 

 drill some deej) wells and see if some soft water 

 can not be found ? Why, dear readers, since 

 we have been on our present premises we have 

 dng four wells down to the surface of the rock. 

 We have also drilled down deep into the rock 

 in at least three other places. The water is 

 always hard— some of it so terribly hard that, 

 when it was spattered on the windows, and 

 dried there, it looked almost as if some white- 

 wash had been put on, on account of the large 



