834 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



who like thingfs nice and tidy, and who nia3' 

 be g'lad to know of a way of abolishing the 

 whole business of carrying in wood, and its 

 attendant trouble — dust and an empty wood- 

 box. Mrs. Root found that a spring- thirty 

 rods fi"om the house would be found a great 

 inconvenience; but so far I have rather en- 

 joyed the walk. We have a rain-water 

 barrel close by the door, and it has so far 

 contained enough, only it is pretty strongly 

 flavored (and tinted) with the cedar shin- 

 gles. 



You may remember I was here in Ma3% 

 and planted a garden. Well, we supposed 

 most of the stuff would have been matured 

 and gone by the latter part of September. 

 Not so. This wonderfully fertile soil (at 

 least wonderfull}^ fertile on our new soil of 

 "woods dirt") seems to have kept the stuff 

 growing; and green corn that was in its 

 prime a month ago is even yet the most deli- 

 cious green corn I ever ate; and Mrs. Root 

 declared at dinner to-day that the snap 

 beans I brought in were nicer than she ever 

 thought snap beans could be, and yet there 

 were dry pods of mature beans on the same 

 stalks. Well, it surprises us to know what 

 a verj' small piece of rich ground it takes to 

 provide a great plenty for two people, even 

 if the two do have wonderful appetites. A 

 good dinner at 50 cents is usually consider- 

 ed cheap enough; but our meals do not cost 

 /J cents for both of us, and yet we have fish, 

 meat, fruit, and ever}' thing we want. One 

 great reason for this is that not a thing is 

 wasted. At first we were in somewhat of a 

 quandary without a refrigerator ; but Mrs. 

 R. sent to the store for a box, and wire cloth 

 enough to cover one open side. This wire 

 cloth was put on a door to open and shut; 

 and after our meat, fish, milk, etc., were 

 placed on shelves in this box it was placed 

 on a shelf on the north side of the house. 

 The nights are cool, and the air is cool near- 

 ly all day, out of the sun. There is nobody 

 around to steal, for we are too far away 

 from the main road ; and who would expect 

 to find people living away out here in the 

 dense woods ? Our windows slide hori- 

 zontally instead of up and down, and I 

 greatly prefer this arrangement. Under 

 one of the north windows we have a shelf 

 outside on which to place any thing that is 

 to be kept cool. This shelf and window, 

 and, in fact, all the windows, are covered 

 outside with mosquito-netting to keep out 

 flies. 



For a kitchen table we procured a large 

 dry-goods box, of the proper height. One 

 side and one end are open. The box has 

 shelves inside; and as fast as the utensils 

 are washed they are placed on these shelves. 

 Not only every day, but almost every hour, 

 we discover some new short cut in the work 

 of getting the meals. For the first time in 

 our forty years of married life we are work- 

 ing side b}'- side all day long. You may 

 say it is not every man who can afford to 

 drop business and be "hired girl." Well, 

 most men can take a vacation at least a 

 part of the year, and this is 7)iy vacation. 



If king Solomon had carried in wood for his 

 wife (?) to bake with, brought water from 

 the spring, and "whacked" carpets, he 

 would never have "hated life," and called 

 it all "vanity and vexation of spirit." 



Ask the doctor why so many people are 

 sick, and he will tell you it is because we 

 are getting so far away from nature and 

 plain and simple living. We two are in the 

 woods all the time, and, in fact, we are out 

 of doors most of the time, in ordinary, rath- 

 er light clothing. At home I wore an over- 

 coat and fur cap, even when the tempera- 

 ture was above 70; but here I am out of 

 doors in my shirtsleeves, and quite comfort- 

 able at 50. Candidly, I do not know why 

 this is so. This health-giving locality has 

 much to do with it, no doubt; but "out in 

 the woods" all the time is something of a 

 factor, I am sure.* Not only my garden 

 but my fruit-trees are growing wonderfully. 

 They lay at the depot until in bad shape, 

 and were put out quite late, because I was 

 delayed in getting here. I found several 

 peach-trees to-day that filled the wire at- 

 tached to the label until said wire had 

 nearly cut off the top of the tree. I went 

 over them in July, and thought I fixed all 

 the labels; but it seems I didn't. My neigh- 

 bor, Mr. James Hilbert, is now fitting the 

 ground to plant 30 acres of peach-trees in 

 the spring. These sandy hills seem to be 

 specially adapted to peaches. The quality 

 is be3'ond an}' thing I ever saw; but the 

 usual way of managing is to let the tree 

 break all its limbs off by its overload of 

 fruit about the third or fourth year. 



I have been very anxious to know if Mrs. 

 Root would share my enthusiasm; and I 

 was, therefore, greatly pleased, a few days 

 ago, to hear her say she would like to stay 

 here till Christmas if it were not for the aw- 

 ful job of housecleaning that looms up be- 

 fore her day and night — not housecleaning 

 here (with our one room), but in the big 

 brick house in Medina. You get a glimpse 

 of it in the ABC book. AVhy not hire help? 

 We can't get any. A few years ago, when 

 women were scarce who would clean house, 

 several j'oung men "took lessons," and did 

 very well; but now they too have gone out 

 of the business. She says that, even though 

 a large part of the house is now unused, the 

 empty rooms must be "cleaned" twice a 

 year, just the same. A few years ago we 

 had paper collars that were never cleaned. 

 In some restaurants, even now, they have 

 paper napkins. When they are soiled they 

 are burned up and new ones bought. Well, 

 why can't we have "homes," or perhaps I 

 should say houses, that can be burned up 

 or given away when housecleaning time 

 comes, and then just get a new one, bright 



* I have told you Mrs. Root has been for years trou- 

 bled greatly with insomnia. Now she goes to bed ear- 

 ly, and sleeps all night until daylight In fact, she is 

 now sound asleep on the lounge by my side while I am 

 writing She did the washing for us two this fore- 

 noon, because there isn't a washwoman to be hired 

 within miles of us. .-^he had it nearly done before I 

 knew any thing about it. >ow, is this great gift of 

 health and enjoyment due to the locality, or is it be- 

 cause we are getting back to pioneer times? 



