170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mas. 1. 



do a bit of good. The doctor suggested a mild 

 physic; but I told him physic would not work 

 with me as It did with some people. When I 

 told him how it distressed me he said I was 

 right. By the way, I do not believe God in- 

 tended we should take physic;* and yet I knew 

 by sad experience that it would not do to neg- 

 lect a matter of this kind day after day for 

 almost or quite a week. I made this thing a 

 subject of prayer, always adding. "Not for 

 myself, but that I may safely advise others 

 who have like troubles." The answer to this 

 came also almost immediately. While talking 

 with my mother and sister, I happened to men- 

 tion the matter. My sister went at once to a 

 bookcase and pulled down some sort of medical 

 book. An old physician said that for eighteen 

 years he had prescribed and used ground 

 wheat, with scarcely a failure. 1 hau that 

 same feeling that her suggestion was in answer 

 to my -prayer. It was something I knew al- 

 ready; in fact, it has been several times print- 

 ed in these pages. My sister happened to have 

 some in the nouse. I took it right home, com- 

 menced using it at every meal instead of bread 

 and butter, and in three or four days the trou- 

 ble was gone. While Mrs. Root was preparing 

 It her eye chanced to alight on something in 

 one of the health journals. It covers the 

 ground so thoroughly that I give it to our 

 readers. We extract as follows from What to 

 Eat, published at Minneapolis, Minn.: 



At this ])articular p3riod,when the times are so 

 hard, any thing' whicti will aid us to economize is 

 grasped very eag'erly. 



The first step is to go to the miller and buy a bush- 

 el of his best wheat, and direct that it he recleaned 

 before delivery. At the present price this ought 

 not to cost over 75c for the wheat, and 10c or so for 

 the cleaning. The next article to purchase may be 

 a small-sized grinder, but it is not entirely neces- 

 sary. After using the ordinary coffee-mill, I found 

 a machine better suited to the purpose. It is a re- 

 duced size of the large spice-mills which one sees in 

 every well-regulated grocer's shop. I presume there 

 are others as good, but mine cost $3.00. and was 

 made by the Enterprise Mfg. Co., of Philad^ Iphia. 

 Every kitchen is supplied with the ordinary double- 

 bottomed tin boiler. You are now ready for busi- 

 ness. Time, and three hours of it, for cooking, is 

 one of the essences of this dish. Another impor- 

 tant feature to be observed is that the wheat should 

 not be broken until you are ready to start cooking 

 the same. Since three hours are necessary, a part 

 of the time during the preparation of the evening 

 meal will have to he used, and the rest in the morn- 

 ing; but. above all means cook it at least three 

 hours, and you have a dish fit lor every American 

 sovereign. 



I came near omitting one point, which every one 

 will want to know, and that is, that each grain of 

 wheat should not be broken into more than four 

 equal parts (two make it splendid) before cooking. 



About this time 1 happened to notice' Dr. 

 Miller's little tract, " Food Value of Honey." 

 I read it, and here seemed to be another sug- 

 gestion. I found that, while fruit and vege- 

 tables did not seem to agree with me at all, the 

 wheat with, say, a teaspoonful of thick nicely 



* I have tried a great many kinds of physic in 

 years past, especiaHy the little pills that have been 

 recommended as being so " mild," and that work 

 along in harmony with nature's course. But my 

 conviction is that they are in one sense p'dsniis, all 

 of them. Of course, one may accustom himself to 

 take poison daily, i" moderate quantities: l)ut the 

 result, as your family physician will tell you, is 

 that the poison must be gradually increased in 

 quantity to produce the desired result. I have been 

 told there is an epitaph on a certain tomb.stone, 

 somewhere, that reads, 



"I was sick, but would be better; took physic, 

 and died." 



This epitaph was intended, I presume, as a warn- 

 ing to future generations. 



ripened honey, would be digested without a bit 

 of trouble. Once more: :_: 



Several friends have written me at different 

 times that, if I could not use milk as an article 

 of food, I would find by trial that a small quan- 

 tity of cream would be digested easily. I spoke 

 to our milkman, and he said he would bring me 

 five cents' worth of cream every morning, if I 

 wanted it. Some of you may think that half a 

 pint of cream every day is rather extravagant. 

 Look here, my friend: It costs a dollar or more 

 to have a doctor call. With this same dollar 

 you can get twenty rations of creatn; and for 

 my part I should very much prefer to take the 

 cream rather than the doctor's medicines (no 

 disrespect to the doctor; for if he is a good one 

 he is as anxious that you should keep well as 

 you are). If you buy cream instead of medicine, 

 you help the farmer Instead of the druggist, 

 and I think he needs help the most, just note, 

 at least. 



I get a great many bulletins from the differ- 

 ent experiment stations. There are so many of 

 them that it is impossible for me to read them 

 all through; but I am rejoiced to note that 

 they almost always have a summary, and I 

 very much enjoy reading it. Now, suppose we 

 have a summary to the little talk on health 

 that I have been giving you to-day: r — 



1. God does not always tell us which doctor 

 to employ, nor what medicine to take. 



2. He does, however, teach us in many ways 

 to be careful of sudden exposures, and to keep 

 these bodies of ours well protected during 

 severe weather. 



3. He also enjoins us to use both pure air and 

 pure water, and take as much outdoor exercise 

 as possible. 



4. He tells us in different ways to be careful 

 about overdoing; to rest our bodies; to take 

 proper rest before partaking of our accustomed 

 daily food. 



5. While both God and nature (which is per- 

 haps another name for God) do not seem to 

 recommend physic, he has provided in great 

 abundance food that will, at least to a great 

 extent, render physic unnecessary. 



6. While God has not seen tit to tell us exact- 

 ly what kind of food we should use to nourish 

 our bodies, he has, in his holy word, specially 

 mentioned both milk and honey as things to be 

 sought for and considered wholesome. Perhaps 

 wheat has not been mentioned so specifically 

 as milk and honey; but I think every careful 

 reader of the Bible may gather that God's pur- 

 pose and intention was that he should use both 

 the flesh of domestic animals and the different 

 grains that are recognized the world over as 

 the obvious food, at least to a great extent, for 

 mankind. 



The modern way of grinding and preparing 

 grains for food, 1 think, must be to a great 

 extent a mistake. The method of grinding 

 that has been outlined in this article is almost 

 exactly, in the results attained, like the ancient 

 methods of grinding grain.* All through the 

 Territory of Arizona I found scattered almost 

 everywhere stones hollowed out, somewhat 

 trough-shaped, in which they ground or bruis- 

 ed the grain they used for food. The smaller 

 stones, used to push back and forth inside the 

 larger ones, are also found everywhere. Many 

 of these are worn down to a thin edge at each 

 of the ends. When we get back to outdoor life 

 and broken or crushed whole grain, instead of 

 fine white flour, we may expect to enjoy such 

 health as God's children did in olden time. 



* The ground grain is then cooked by slow heat a 

 long time; and the cakes called "tortillas" are a 

 staple article of food even now among many Indian 

 tribes. 



