1014 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



nothing at my meals but a cup of milk; but 

 about two hours after each meal, when I begin 

 to feel thirsty, I take a big drink of boiled cistern 

 water. I prefer it boiled, because the large 

 amount of coal smoke in our vicinity settles on 

 the roofs of even our slated buildings so as to 

 ■ give the water a smoky taste. Boiling precipi- 

 tates this smoke and dust, and makes sure that 

 all germs are destroyed; and I am pretty sure 

 that boiled water is more wholesome — at least for 

 myself. 



In closing let me say something about the lean- 

 meat diet. It is no doubt a fact that many peo- 

 ple can live on a purely vegetable diet (and 

 perhaps keep in better health on such diet), while 

 others can not. I do not pretend to decide in 

 legard to this matter. I believe a majority of 

 our physicians think a mixed diet is the most 

 wholesome. Those who have charge of the mili- 

 tary schools of our government have, I believe, 

 decided in favor of a mixed diet for soldiers; and, 

 notwithstanding what I have said in the above, 

 if I should have an attack of chronic dysentery, 

 just as I have had every little while almost all my 

 life, I think I would adopt an exclusively lean- 

 meat diet for several days until I got over it. 

 This diet which I have prescribed so many times 

 in the past dozen years or more is hardly worth 

 while to go over. What is termed in restaurants 

 a " Hamburg steak "* comes the nearest to what 

 is called the Salisbury treatment. It is just 

 chopped or ground lean beef nicely broiled. 

 Talce this and nothing else three times a day for 

 three or four days, and, so far as my experience 

 goes, it will wind up every thing in the line of 

 dysentery or summer complaint.! You will need 

 to get fresh meat for this purpose. Now, our 

 vegetarian friends might be able to furnish me 

 some substitute for the lean-meat diet. Milk 

 toast is very commonly used, and I think I would 

 try the milk toast first. If that will not answer 

 then try the ground meat. 



Some have anxiously inquired about garden 

 vegetables. You know I have been a great ex- 

 ponent of gardening; in fact, I have written sev- 

 eral gardening books. Well, just now we are 

 having beautiful green peas, string beans. Golden 

 Bantam green corn, etc ;'and I occasionally have 

 a small dish of some one of them with my shredded 

 biscuit — not all three of them, and not as much 

 of any as I might feel inclined to eat. I can use 

 almost any of these without any bad results if I 

 make a principal meal of them, and be careful 

 not to eat too many. Nature will handle things 

 difficult of digestion if not too big a dose — espe- 

 cially too big a dose to start with. You can grad- 

 ually accustom a cow or horse to a change of 

 food; but do not give them too much the first 

 time. It is so with humanity, I am sure. Peo- 

 ple are made sick by eating honey because they 

 have not had any for a long while, and then all 

 at once they eat a big lot. Notice how the boys 



*When you go into a restaurant and order a Hamburg steak, 

 tell them you want it without onions. Unless you do they will 

 be pretty sure to serve it with onions; and onions always distress 

 and trouble me. 



X You need not think I am recommending something I have 

 not tried thoroughly; for, to tell the truth, at one period in my 

 life 1 was on the lean-meat diet for 18 weeks, not having even a 

 cracker nor a crumb of bread during all that time. I know from 

 practical experience that one can live and get along very well on 

 either meat alone or on a vegetarian diet alone. 



get sick after cutting a bee-tree, or how children 

 eat too much of any thing when they first get 

 hold of it. I eat a great lot of apples and feel 

 better than without them, because I have eaten 

 them for years just before going to bed. In fact, 

 when I am away from home, and am obliged to 

 go without the apples, I do not sleep as well. 

 There seems to be a turmoil in my digestive ap- 

 paratus because the apples did not come along at 

 just the accustomed time. I told you that I 

 had lost my taste for sugar. I do not care for it, 

 and feel unpleasant after eating it. When I be- 

 gin to feel hungry for any sweets I find a little 

 honey is better than sugar; but at my age, and 

 with the present condition of my system, I feel 

 bettej" without sweets of any kind. Perhaps if I 

 were a growing boy it would be different. 



I have almost taken it for granted that, with 

 the great light and teachings now before us, every 

 invalid is staying outdoors as much as possible, 

 and especially sleeping outdoors, or as near it as 

 can be. Not many days ago I found two people, 

 right in the middle of July, sleeping in a room 

 with all the windows closed. They said they 

 could not open them on account of flies and 

 mosquitoes, and they had not yet got around to 

 having screens. One of them owned up that he 

 was threatened with consumption, and had been 

 for some years. May God help us in our efforts 

 to "spread the gospel " of pure air as well as pure 

 water (and wholesome food), such as God intended 

 we should use. 



As this matter of eating fruit is one of the most 

 important things in regard to getting well and 

 keeping well, I hope you will excuse me for going 

 to some length on the subject, and using some 

 very plain talk. A good many say they can not 

 use fruit; but you can if you commence by tak- 

 ing a little at a time, and take it at just such an 

 hour each day. About 7 o'clock in the evening 

 seems to be about the best time for me. Com- 

 mence with one very ripe mellow apple — one that 

 is rather tart. After a few days you can take 

 two; then take three. It is something like getting 

 used to eating lemons; and you want finally to 

 become sufficiently accustomed to them so that 

 you can eat enough good mellow apples to cause 

 the bowels to move freely the next morning. 

 Eat apples enough or use fruit enough of some 

 kind to have the bowels move surely once a day, 

 and if they move twice I think it is still better.* 

 Fruit, especially the apple, such as I have men- 

 tioned, seems to have a cleansing power, and also 

 power to neutralize any tendency toward bilious- 

 ness, such as many people have in warm weather. 

 You can soon determine how much fruit is needed 

 to produce the desired effect. Strawberries, and 

 berries of other kinds, will answer the same pur- 

 pose, but they are likely to be rather expensive — 

 rather more so than the apples. Now, do not be 

 troubled if this fruit does cost you a little more 

 than you have been paying for your meals. It 

 need not cost you more than beefsteak, and not 

 nearly as much as going to a doctor or buying 

 medicine at a drugstore to cure constipation. 

 Besides the fruit, you will need to drink plenty 



* If this fruit diet should answer better than any alarm clock in 

 getting you up very early in the morning, do not be worried. 

 Getting up early will be a good thing for your health, I am sure, 

 besides the thorough moving of the bowels before taking up the 

 tasks of the day. 



