Feb. 1, 1912 



93 



(il'IUM, MDKl'HINE, COCAINE, ETC.; A WARNING. 



I have been a reader of Gleanings for about 

 twenty years, and T do not remember seeing in A. 

 I. Root's department any warning in regard to the 

 use of powerful drues such as opium and its prod- 

 ucts (morphine being the most common>, chloral, 

 and cocaine. As the use of such comforting drugs 

 has grown to great proportions, both by evil per- 

 sons and also by well-to-do and well-meaning per- 

 sons who do not exercise enough care, 1 thought a 

 little warning and perhaps help to some who have 

 come under their binding power would be good. 



The subject has been brought to my niind again 

 strongly, because a very good woman of a little 

 over fifty has just been taken to an asylum becavise 

 of insanity caused by the use of morphine given by 

 her husband who is a doctor; another is much used 

 up by the excessive use of a nerve medicine which 

 Included chloral given by her doctor. She was tak- 

 ing six different kinds in two doses. T happened to 

 see the jjrescriptions. Another whom 1 know has 

 spent a irliole farm for help since the doctor caused 

 her to get the morphine habit. The doctor has the 

 farm and she has the habit. 



£ am fifty years old, and took opium (in the form 

 of laudanum) fifteen years. I took it for chronic 

 looseness of the bowels. I was careful not to use 

 much, and thought I would not acquire the habit; 

 but after years of use I found I was almost a com- 

 plete wreck. I could not digest any thing but two 

 tablespoonfuls of the very mildest food, and could 

 not sit xip. My doctor was not to blame for my 

 commenrinn, but said I could not stop. P^inally, 

 when T was so weak, we consulted another -doctor. 

 He said, "Take five drops less: then in five days 

 take five less again, and so on till you are down to 

 none." 1 took about sixty drops at two o'clock at 

 night, aud there was about two drops in a teaspoon- 

 ful of nerve tonic that the doctor made for me. It 

 was hard work cutting it down, but it could be 

 done, and ?(■«.« done, and it is ten years now since 

 I did it. I am not over the eflfects yet. but can 

 now eat any thing in moderation; bowels are In 

 perfect condition. 



Opium is a terrible master. Don't take it. Use 

 other means. I could have done without It and 

 saved myself a lot of terrible suffering. And don't 

 permit any doctor to give you cocaine. It is far 

 worse than opium, and it Is, as I said, a terrible 

 master. One of the brightest and most skillful den- 

 tists we had in Pottstown became addicted to its 

 use. and died in the very prime of life, unable to 

 free himself of it. 



I think coffee and the medicines having caffeine 

 in them prepare the nerves for neuralgia. That is 

 my plague now, and I think it is a result of migrain 

 tablets for the relief of headache. Water has been 

 a great help, drinking it night and day. 



Pottstown, Pa. W. W. Kulp. 



I heartily endorse all friend Kulp says in 

 the above. In fact, I mentioned some time 

 ago an experience with morphine, taken in 

 a "cholera cure" medicine for chronic dys- 

 entery. Since usinp; nothing but apples 

 for my supper I have been entirely free from 

 all troubles with digestion. — A. I. R. 



ries" from a bush owned by William Merritt, of 

 that village, who recently died under mysterious 

 circumstances. 



The old couple, both nearly 70, ate the berries fur- 

 nished by a neighbor, and this morning both were 

 found unconscious on their bedroom floor, where 

 they had lain all night. They are still in a state of 

 coma, and not likely to recover. 



It is now believed that Merritt, who died while on 

 his way to a Marshall doctor to have his case diag- 

 nosed, died from the same cause. 



Battle Creek, Mich., August 16. 



THE " WONDERFUL DISCOVERY." 



Mr. A. I. i?oo<.- —" Another wonderful discovery 

 in the chicken business," in Oct. 15th Gleanings, 

 interests me. I like to read your poultry depart- 

 ment, and value it more than any poultry paper I 

 take, although I do not take much stock in some of 

 your wonderful discoveries. " There is more in the 

 feed than in the breed of the hog." 1 find that, 

 when I forget to feed my hens at night, the egg- 

 basket is not so full the next night; also when 1 

 change from soft mash to dry feed there will be a 

 falling-off in eggs. My hens are moulting now: 

 and the same hens that laid nearly every day a 

 few weeks ago are now laying one or two eggs a 

 week. I have learned a few things. One is, you 

 can not make a hen lay if she does not want to; an- 

 other is, there is no use in trying to make a chick- 

 en live when it wants to die. 



Factoryville, Pa., Oct. 25. Earl Seaman.s. 



"forecasting" the layers; two eggs in one 



DAY, ETC. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — The following is an egg-laying 

 report; 



Last winter our one pen of 24 Silver Comb 

 White Leghorn pullets started laying during No- 

 vember. I trap-nested them during the months of 

 December, January, February, March, and April, 

 so as to be able to hatch eggs from our best layers 

 during the spring. I found no regularity as to their 

 laying; in tact, one pullet laid two eggs in one day 

 on two different days (that is, four eggs in two 

 days), and another pullet laid two eggs in one day. 

 Our hens were well fed. well housed, and well taken 

 care of. They averaged, for the months mentioned, 

 19.5 eggs per bird per month. 



Red Wing, Minn., Nov. 13. E. A. Lindell. 



HENS THAT LAY TWO EGGS IN ONE DAY. 



I have known hens that lay two eggs in one day 

 — that is, one very early in the morning and an- 

 other late in the afternoon, then another the next 

 day about noon. 



I have had Indian Runner ducks several years. 

 They are great frog-eaters, and great layers in the 

 spring and summer: but they do not lay in the fall 

 or winter. Mine make nests in the brush about 

 my pond, or near it. At onetime one made a nest 

 and hatched some ducks under a hive of bees. I 

 find that these ducks very rarely drop egss pro- 

 miscuously, lor they practically always lay eggs in 

 a nest. 



Carlton, Colo. . Jas. H. Wing. 



THE WONDBRBERRY UP TO DATE. 



When the Rural Netv -Yorker made such 

 a stir about offering the wonderberry as a 

 "new creation," some scientific man, either 

 in Washington or over in England, decided 

 quite positively that it would be likely to 

 send out sports that would produce poison- 

 ous berries. In replv to this, some of the 

 defenders of the berries made fun of this 

 assertion. The following clipping from the 

 Detroit Free Press, sent us by one of our 

 subscribers, would seem to show that it was 

 not such a joking matter after all: 



" WONDERBERRIES " MAY CAUSE DEATH; THREE 



MYSTERIOUS CASES OF I'OISONING AT 



LEONIDAS ATTRIBUTED TO FRUIT. 



Mr. and Mrs. Michael Stealman, of Leonidas. are 

 in a critical condition from eating " wonderber- 



Kind Words From Our Customers. 



our OF DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT. 



Mr. Root: — I wish I could meet you once, for you 

 have saved me from a drunkard's life and from 

 many other bad things. You have also taught me 

 a lot about poultry, gardening, and health ; and I 

 have thanked the Lord, too, that 1 have learned to 

 do right. I also thank you very much for writing 

 so many good things in Gleanings. I will let you 

 know of my experience, and how you helped me to 

 be a different man in life. 



This spring I was married to a nice bright farmer 

 girl, 19 years old, I am 23. 1 took your advice to 

 get married and start young. Of course it cost me 

 something, for I am doing big farming: but with 

 the help of the Lord I shall get out of debt. Then I 

 am going to work to find a little place of my own, 

 so I can raise fruit and poultry. 1 have a few colo- 

 nies of bees for health and pleasure, besides run- 

 ning a IfiO-acre farm. I read many farm and poul- 



