GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



vvorld. Let us make haste to drive out the 

 saloons, gambling-dens, and red-light dis- 

 tricts." 



Now, with our readers' permission we 

 will let that cultivator with its bright sharp 

 clean hoes rest a while in the shade while 

 we talk about something else. 



When I was ten or twelve years old my 

 father rented a pasture-lot that contained 

 a piece of woodland, and the trees in it 

 were mostly sugar maple. I begged the 

 privilege of using the trees for a sugar- 

 camp. I think there must have been thirty 

 or forty trees. I was given a kettle, some 

 tin pails, a sharp little ax, and told to '*' go 

 ahead." And I want to tell you that one 

 of the happiest days of my childhood was 

 when T made sugar down in the woods just 

 below that Mogadore pond. The rest of our 

 faraily of seven were pretty sure to go down 

 to the sugar-camp when ^'sngaring-olf" time 

 came. I was so careful of my utensils (of 

 course under my good mother's dii'ections) 

 I produced the nicest maple sugar, stirred 

 off white and di^y (like what we call "maple 

 cream" nowadays) that no wonder friends 

 all around became fascinated by this spring- 

 time industry. Some of yon may recall that, 

 years after, l^rofessor Cook and I published 

 a little book on maple-sugar making. Well, 

 throughout all my life when siDringtime 

 comes T have longed to get out in the sugar- 

 camp and taste the delicious maple syrup 

 once more. During those boyhood days we 

 used to hunt up a little snow, if we could 

 find it in some drift that had not entirely 

 melted, and the hot sugar was dropped on 

 the snow so as to make ice-cold maple wax. 

 The great world may talk about ice-cold 

 lemonade and other temperance drinks and 

 the various kinds of ice cream; but to my 

 notion nothing has ever yet — no, not even 

 honey — equaled the God-given new maple 

 sugar. 



Once more, friends, I ask you to bid 

 good-bj' to the sugar-camp, while we talk 

 about something else. 



Forty years ago or more, while working 

 at the bench as jeweler and watclimaker I 

 not only put in the orthodox ten hours, but 

 twelve, fourteen, and sometimes fifteen 

 hours. My digestion became impaired — 

 funny, is it not? Well, I consulted a noted 

 Cleveland specialist. He said the trouble 

 was that everything I ate, especially fruits, 

 fermented. He added that I was running a 

 sort of '• beer-shop " in my stomach and 

 intestines; and from some unpleasant ex- 

 periences I had been having I thought he 

 was about right. He said I should first get 

 outdoors, no matter what happened to the 

 jewelry business; and this was quite an 



element in getting me started in with chick- 

 ens, bees, and gardening. Furthermore, he 

 said that if 1 wanted to get back to health 

 qtuck T would have to cut otf all starch and 

 sugar — everything sweet. In fact, he put 

 me on a diet of lean meat, principally 

 ground beefsteak; and for eighteen weeks 

 I did not taste a crumb of bread nor any- 

 thing but lean meat of some sort. Some of 

 you maj' think this is a rather large story. 

 In fact, my good friend Professor Cook 

 once said, before he knew me very well, that 

 it was impossible — a man could not live on 

 lean meat alone. From an average of about 

 135 lbs. I went down to 112. This was 

 when I was riding a bicycle; and when 1 

 got warmed up I had so little weight that 

 I could go uphill and down almost like a 

 bird. But, dear friends, the tired and ex- 

 hausted feeling that I had during those 

 eighteen weeks was terrible. After I had 

 become warmed up by exercise I got along 

 IDretty well. Why, I have lain awake nights 

 longing to get a taste of some moldy crack- 

 ers that somebody had thrown out in the 

 road; and when I saw red apples ripening 

 on the trees — well, I felt as if I would give 

 a dollar apiece for a great lot of them if 1 

 dared disobey the doctor's order's. I got 

 over my indigestion; but I think now the 

 outdoor exercise with a careful diet, includ- 

 ing grain, fruit, and vegetables, would have 

 done about as well. Under some circum- 

 stances, perhaps many, the lean-meat diet 

 may save life ; and once in a while even now 

 I tell Mrs. Root that I shall have to get 

 back to beefsteak for two or three meals. 

 I do not regret this experience, for it gave 

 me a love for fruit, grain, and other gifts of 

 God that T should never have had otherwise.* 

 When the doctor told me I was all right, 

 and that I might eat what I chose, provid- 

 ing I was careful, one of the first things I 

 wanted was ground wheat, and I had a 

 grinding-mill attached to the windmill that 

 used to make the hives long ago. My fa- 

 vorite dish for quite a while was boiled 

 cracked wheat and maple sugar or good 

 honey. I think Airs. Root told somebody 

 that I ate a panful at a meal; but she did 

 not say how big tlie pan was. I soon got 

 back to my 135 lbs.; and after a trip (o 

 California I got up to 140 lbs. Now, I tell 



* Just one word about that eighteen weeks of lean 

 meat diet. A good many of the doctor's patients 

 "broke o\er tlie ti'aees." They would get real hun- 

 gry for fiuits and sweets, and eat them on tlie sly. 

 But the doctor, with his microscope, claimed he had 

 a method of detecting such cheats. Well, I made up 

 my mind that I myself, and not appetite, was going 

 lO be bos.s. I learned self-control. I learned to be 

 master of temper, appetite, and almost everything 

 else. The experience has been of value to me, all 

 my life. But, of course, again and again I fell back 

 on my little prayer, " Lord, help." 



