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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 15. 



choose, and will be ail right; but after having 

 made many careful experiments I am convinced 

 that safety lies along the line of moderation. 

 Don't overload and clog the machinery of di- 

 gestion just because God's gifts are delicious. 

 Now in regard to vegetables: 



1 have been having an excellent appetite all 

 summer. I never sit down to a meal without a 

 feeling of thanl<fulness to God. If the circum- 

 stances are such that I am not prepared to 

 thank him out loud I ttiank him in my heart. 

 Well, with this good appetite there is great dan- 

 ger of overeating. Perhaps I should be asham- 

 ed to say it, but I thinli 1 might as well confess 

 that it is quite a little cross for me to breaii 

 right square off when I do not feel half sat- 

 istled, especially when others at the table keep 

 right on eating without seeming to be obliged 

 to exercise any control over their cravings at 

 all. One day we had a new muskmelon and a 

 new watermelon on the table for dinner. There 

 were also some new kinds of peas and lima 

 beans, if I am correct. 1 wantea to taste of all 

 of those things, but I feared the consequences. 

 I thought I would try an experiment. By the 

 way, when 1 overdo this matter of cutting off, 

 the only trouble is I get faint and nervous 

 before) the next meal. But it is not very often 

 that I make a mistake in that way. VVell, on 

 the day in question 1 tirst ate half or less than 

 half of my usual quantity of meat. Then I ate 

 a very ft' w beans and a few peas, a small piece 

 of bread and butter, and some apple-sauce; one 

 small slice of watermelon and uitlo of musk- 

 melon. I was hungry for all these things, and 

 had eaten perhaps half the usual quantity. 

 But I was seeking for truth, and so 1 broke 

 away from the temptation to even taste any 

 thing more, and carefully watched Dame 

 Nature during the afternoon. 1 was greatly 

 rejoiced to find that at supper time I was not 

 as weak and nervous as usual. I had not lost 

 strength, but could have worked half an hour 

 longer or more if need be; neither had 1 any 

 unpleasant reports from the regions of diges- 

 tion and assimilation. Eveiy thing went on as 

 quietly as if I had eaten only meat. The whole 

 secret lay in eating just enough and no more, 

 and letting Nature have ju>twhat she could 

 handle nicely without being overloaded or 

 clogged. Let me now give you a lesson on the 

 other side. 



This (Oet.1) is the fourth day it has been 

 raining almost continuously. I have been con- 

 fined to the office pretty much all the time. I 

 have not ridden my wheel, and scarcely been 

 out in the gardens. At such times I have to be 

 more careful of what I eat. My breakfast and 

 dinner yesterday were pretty moderate because 

 I had certain warnings that there was danger 

 ahead. The consequence was, last evening I 

 was very faint long before five o'clock. It 

 seemed as if I could hardly wait until all the 

 members of the family were gathered at the 

 table (at our home we always ask a blessing 

 first, and therefore no one present commences 

 eating before all the rest are ready). I ate my 

 usual quantity of beefsteak; but at the same 

 time there was a craving for something else, I 

 didn't just know what. I finally spied a dish 

 of milk toast. Now, 1 had not tasted of a bit 

 of milk, either raw or scalded, for a month or 

 two previously. Several times it has made bad 

 work. Last night, however, it seemed as if 

 that milk and toast would hit the spot; and a 

 trial seemed to accord with my feelings to such 

 an extent that I was helped to toast the second 

 time. I went to bed feeling all right, and was 

 rejoicing to think I had got so far along that I 

 could eat even milk with impunity. Just be- 

 fore the clock struck twelve I was awakened by 

 certain well-known unpleasant feelings. Be- 



fore I got to sleep again I heard the clock strike 

 twelve, half-past twelve, one, and half-past 

 one. During this time I had vomited ^vc times. 

 Mrs. Root asked me what it could have been I 

 had eaten, t^he could hardly believe me when 

 I said it was the milk toast. But there was no 

 mistaking it; and part of the milk and toast 

 was just about as 1 swallowed it at supper 

 time. Certain other parts, however, that seem- 

 ed to be at the •" bottom " of the mischief, were 

 bitter and acrid. It fairly scalded my throat 

 and mouth as it came up. It seemed to have 

 turned into sharp vinegar and wormwood ; and 

 when I came to taste and smell the stuff I did 

 not wonder a bit that I felt sick* Now, for 

 many years milk and toast was the safest thing 

 I could eat. Dr. Lewis told me, you may re- 

 member, that I had lived on milk so many years 

 I had got what they called milk dyspepsia; 

 and he said that, while milk is excellent food 

 for most people, he did not believe I should 



* I want to tell you that, when I was half through 

 my sujjper the niglit before, I said to Mrs. Root 

 something' like this: "As I have had just a little bit 

 of my peculiar headaclie this afternoon, I shouldn't 

 wonder if It would be better for me to stop off right 

 here and not eat another bit; but I am so very hun- 

 gry, it would be a good deal of a ci'oss to do so." 

 And this I'eminds me that Dr. Lewis said that peo- 

 ple with impaired digestion have at times an un- 

 natural or morbid craving for food; and this crav- 

 ing is almost on a par with that which the intem- 

 perate man feels for liquor. He said it would seem 

 almost impossible at limes to withstand the tempt- 

 ation. Nevertheless, one must .eouqupr it. It would 

 111 become one who professes to be a Christian, to 

 censure a drinking-man while at the same time he 

 himself did not contiol his own appetite in eating. 



By the way, the conviction again and again forces 

 itself upon me that the workings of the human 

 sysiem are very much like that of the interior of a 

 bee-hive. I have told you in the ARC book cf my 

 experiments in the way of introducing moldy and 

 moth eaten combs into a strong coloiij' of Italians. 

 They will, during a good honey flow, cleanse it and 

 make it sweet, pure, and clean, in an hour or two. 

 When I first discovered this (by putting in one comb 

 at a time) I was so astonished that 1 could hardly 

 believe mj' eye-— that is, that they could do such an 

 amount of cleansing in so short a time. Then I 

 gave the colony two or three combs to clean out 

 and fix up. It was done almost as quicl<ly ; at last, 

 I removed all the combs from the hive but two or 

 three, and replaced them with combs that had he- 

 come moldy and praciicall.v spoiled on account 

 of some leaky hive covers, The bees finally decided 

 that I w.is carrying things too far, and so they 

 swarmed out, thinking they could find an empty 

 hive, and till it with comb cheaper than to put up 

 with such indignities. Well, are not our digestive 

 organs much like the bees? They do not " swarm 

 out,"' bul they decide, when there is an (iverflmo of 

 unhealihful rubbish, that it iiiiist be got rid of, and 

 that speedily, in one of two ways. A wonderful 

 thought comes to me right here— who cfoe.s this de- 

 ciding V It was not myself, for I was sound asleep. 

 I did not direct the "dumping" process, for I em- 

 phatically ob.ieuted. In fact, I was a silent, suffer- 

 ing victim. As I knelt on my knees, with tears in 

 my eyes and anguish in my soul, no one could say 

 that 7 was "bossing things." Let us now look at 

 the bees. TF/io decided that it was the best thing 

 to do to swarm out and desert the filthy combs ? It 

 was not the queen, for she is perhaps as much or 

 mure the servant of the workers as any one of them. 

 Did the workers hold a council ? If so, how did 

 they communicate one with another? Physiol- 

 ogists tell us there is something that takes charge 

 of the economy of the human system that is entire- 

 ly separate from the individual himself. There is a 

 something or .somebody that decides what is best to 

 be done, and proceeds to do it— a sort of involun- 

 tary action of the in.iured organs and processes of 

 the system. It keeps the lungs breathing, the heart 

 beating, directs digestion, defends and protects the 

 life of the person, and without his knowing any 

 thing about it. 



I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully 

 and wonderfully made.— Ps. 139:14. 



