670 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



best thing that the Almighty could do with us 

 would be to sweep us from the face of the 

 earth, and give us all up as a sad and hopeless 

 blunder. A man who once worked for me ob- 

 jected to purchasing a horse because it was 

 Frklny, and he was honest and sincere about 

 it. What an idea — that some superstitious 

 tradition should Teach that it is right to start 

 work on one day of the week rather than on 

 another! or, in the same line, .that there is a 

 particular virtue in numbers; as, "There is 

 luck in odd numbers." Come to think of it, 

 there may be luck, after all. But the whole 

 matter of luck is being very rapidly relegated 

 to the past. Somebody, out of pity for the 

 superstition about setting hens, has suggested 

 that thirteen eggs make a circle in the nest 

 better than fourteen. If you put in fourteen, 

 owing to the size and shape of the nest one of 

 them gets pushed out and does not hatch; and 

 that an even dozen or a little more is just about 

 what an ordinary hen can cover. This reminds 

 me that a good lady friend, who is both a neigh- 

 bor and a relative, has 21 White Leghorn 

 chickens, all hatched by one White Leghorn 

 mother. It would seem from this that a dozen 

 or a little more is not all that even a vioderate- 

 sized hen can cover. Now. will some of my good 

 friends pardon me if I suggest right here, that, 

 with all the wisdom that God has given me— 

 yes, and in answer to most earnest prayer, too, 

 for wisdom. I am inclined to think that the 

 good brothers and sisters who think the world 

 would be greatly benefited by having Sunday 

 on Saturday are but little better off than one 

 who can not eveji set a hen on Friday because 

 it is an unlucky day. 



It is in regard to this matter of sickness, dis^ 

 ease, and death that I propose to talk to-day. 

 People say they know that Friday is an un- 

 lucky diiy, because they have tried it again 

 and again. In the same way of reasoning they 

 buy bottles of medicine, and stoutly insist that 

 they fee! better after taking it. It may occur 

 to you that I am getting a little wiser on some 

 things than I was a year ago when I said so 

 much in defense of doctors and medicine. 

 Well. I trust I aril a little wiser, for I have been 

 watching and praying over the matter. In 

 striving to separate superstition from real 

 science and scientific research, we come on to 

 many things that seem to stand about midway. 

 One of the most familiar illustrations is this 

 matter of the moon. Day before yesterday a 

 very intelligent and skillful farmer told me he 

 was very busy cutting down all the bushes on 

 his farm; for he had noticed, for many years, 

 that, when cut down during the last full moon 

 in August, they were sure to die. May be I am 

 mistaken about its being full moon. It was 

 some kind of moon, any way, and it does not 

 matter whether I have got it right or wrong. 

 Now, so far as cutting bushes in the latter part 

 of August Is concerned, that part is all right 

 and sound. At about this time of the year they 

 have so nearly perfected their growth, they are 

 not as apt to start out and grow up again, as if 

 cut earlier; neither are they so likely to pre- 

 serve vitality till another season, and start up 

 in the spring, as if they were cut later. About 

 the last of August is the time to clean out the 

 fence- corners, etc. You may say, " Mr. Root, 

 why should you presume to teach all the world, 

 and go against the experience of old farmers'?" 

 I will tell you. Our agricultural experiment 

 stations have been, for some years back, doing 

 a wonderful work in this line. They have 

 tested this matter in regard to the moon, and 

 its influence on vegetation, in a way that settles 

 it beyond question. If I am correct, tables 

 noting the changes of weather, and the changes 

 of the moon, have been kept up by our govern- 



ment for years; in fact, they have been com- 

 pared, until the times that the weather changes 

 and when the moon changes run up into many 

 thousands. This work has been done by the 

 wisest and most careful men we have; and 

 their decision has invariably been that the 

 moon has no influence whatever on the weath- 

 er, vegetation, nor diseases of the human fami- 

 ly. This latter point was settled by keeping 

 some tables and statistics in our public hos- 

 pitals. The question ought to be settled for 

 ever. It is laid down in our books on astron- 

 omy, and in the text-books in our schools. But 

 when you explain the whole thing to the 

 average farmer, especially if he is fifty or sixty 

 years old, although he may assent for the 

 time being, he will go on planning his work by 

 the moon, just the same as ever, for it has 

 bec6me a sort of second nature to him. The 

 moon does have an influence on the tides. This 

 is fully explained and understood in our scien- 

 tific books; and therefore there is more reason 

 in thinking it may affect the planting and dig- 

 ging of potatoes, etc., than in the old humbug 

 about commencing work on Friday. And now 

 here comes something that I wish to illustrate: 



There are people, and vei'y likely a good 

 many among my readers, who insist that Fri- 

 day is an unlucky day. Would these people 

 dai'e to suggest to our great institutions of 

 learning that they keep tables, such as I have 

 mentioned, to see whether business ventures, 

 etc., turn out more badly on Friday than on 

 some other day? This, you see. brings the 

 utter stupidity of the whole thing to light. A 

 college or place of learning that would even 

 undertake to demonstrate a thing so silly should 

 have all its managers and pupils sent to an 

 asylum for idiots. 



We now come to this matter of sickness, dis- 

 ease, and death. I suppose that our readers 

 are well aware that, among savage and heathen 

 nations, they doctor disease almost entirely in 

 a line with the wisdom (?) of the woman who 

 would not set her hen on Friday. Their doc- 

 tors have their whole heads filled with just 

 such senseless jargon. One of our surgical 

 missionary institutes worked a long time in a 

 certain part of China, and failed to convert a 

 single heathen to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 They could not do a thing. The heathen in- 

 sisted that their idolatrous rites were just as 

 good as our religion. Finally an old man had 

 a fall that injured him in such a way that a 

 severe stricture of the bladder resulted, render- 

 ing it entirely inoperative. Of course, the 

 heathen doctors went through their incanta- 

 tions, and prayed to their idols — consulted the 

 birds and snakes, and I suppose you know just 

 about what else they would do. Finally they 

 went to the missionary doctor, and he at once 

 relieved the man by a simple mechanical ap- 

 pliance — a catheter — and saved his life. A 

 crowd of people followed the poor suffering 

 brother, and saw the way in which he was 

 cured. It was such simple, plain common 

 sense that even the dullest savage intellect 

 could understand it. It was a big thing for the 

 missionary. Right on the spot, fathers and 

 mothers accepted the Christian faith, and a 

 school was formed to teach them sense. Now, 

 we surely ought to have as much sense as these 

 heathen; but when we quote such senseless 

 jargon as, that a person who is better on Sun- 

 day will never get well, and stuff of that sort, 

 we deserve to be sent away from th<» company 

 of enlightened people. 



Of late I have prayed more earnestly on this 

 matter of disease and the remedy than on any 

 thing else in the world. I have begged for wis- 

 dom—not only that I might get well, but that I 

 might help in this work of eliminating blunders 



