1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



53 



Health Notes 



By A. I. Root 



TAKING YOUR MEALS IX THE OPEN AIR. 



Sleeping outdoors is right in fashion just 

 now, and thousands of people are getting 

 health and strength and manly vigor by 

 doing so. Now, I have not heard anybody 

 say verj^ much about having our meals in 

 the open air; but I believe that children 

 sometimes in their play have a little repast 

 out under the apple-tree. Well, it just oc- 

 curs to me that perhaps I am ''breaking the 

 record " by not only having my su])per un- 

 der the apple-tree, but getting it from the 

 apple-tree. For five or six weeks, at just 

 five in the afternoon I gO out to an apple- 

 tree in our dooryard where there are beauti- 

 ful luscious apjiles just getting ripe; and I 

 have a supper of fruit, and nothing else, 

 and it agrees with me to a dot. I do not 

 think I ever enjoyed any supper so much 

 in my life as I do these fruit suppers.* By 

 the way, my good friend, have you got a 

 nice apple-tree right close by your home, 

 where the children can have plenty of fruit 

 without any assistance from the middleman 

 or middlewoman? Just think of it — instead 

 of paying a dime for three apples on a fruit- 

 stand, I simply reach up, while standing on 

 the ground, and pluck the luscious fruit. 

 Is it not a "short cut" in very truth, from 

 "producer to consumer "? Let us do a lit- 

 tle figuring. A lot of you think it not ex- 

 travagant to pay 25 cents for a supper. 

 Well, this apple-tree we call the Mannt ap- 

 ple; and it has the peculiarity of ripening 

 its fruit gradually. From first to last there 

 are nice apples on this tree for nearly sixty 

 days. Well, this tree would usually give 

 me sixty suppers. At 25 cts. each this 

 would be $15.00; and as Mrs. Root and all 

 the children and grandchildren help them- 

 selves to these apples whenever they feel in- 

 clined, we will say that what they consume 

 is worth $10.00 more, or $25.00 from one ap- 

 ple-tree in one summer (or fall) of apples. 

 Can't you afford to have an apple-tree? 



And while I am about it, why don't you 

 stop paying rent and get a little piece of 



* It occurs to me that a caution should be put in 

 right here If you undertake to make a full meal 

 of apples at five o'clock as I do. it will not work at 

 all if you eat apples or other fruit between meals 

 during the day: and where you have one fruit meal, 

 as a rule you had better abstain from fruit, sauces. 

 and pie, etc., at your two other meals. There is 

 such a thing as getting too much fruit, as you have 

 doubtless often found out. Children especially 

 have to be looked after in regard to this matter. 

 This excellent health I am enjoying now is obtain- 

 ed, and kept, by carefully abstaining from i^utting 

 any thing in my mouth whatever except pure water 

 between meals, and having breakfast and dinner 

 with little or no fruit. When nature gets accus- 

 tomed to such a program, and knows what to calcu- 

 late on (if I may use the expression) every thing 

 works nicely. 



tProf. W. J. Green, of our Ohio Experiment Sta- 

 tion, has just been here, and says the tree is not the 

 Mann, which is a late winter apple. He took spec- 

 imens, and will try to name our tree later on. 



land that you can call your own? A quar- 

 ter of an :icre or less would do for some sort 

 of little home, and yet give room for an ap- 

 ple-tree. Suppose you get right about it 

 now. The good wife and the children will 

 join in with you, I am sure, and will con- 

 tribute the nickels they have been in the 

 habit of paying out for gum and candy at 

 the soda-fountains. 



TWO MEALS A DAY. 



Some of you may feel inclined to joke me 

 after reading the above, in view of what I 

 Lave said about two meals a day; but T. B. 

 Terry says a few nice mellow apples are so 

 easily digested, and so quickly out of the 

 way, they can scarcely be called a meal. A 

 few times I have b« en ]jersuaded to have a 

 few crackers and a little cheese with my ap- 

 ples; but I rest during the night very much 

 better without any thing but the fruit I 

 have mentioned. Now, here is something 

 which I clip from the Piain Dealer in re- 

 gard to two meals a day instead of three. 

 It comes from one of the great addresses de- 

 livered before the Mississippi Valley Medi- 

 cal Association: 



Detroit, Sept. 16.— Well-cooked vegetables, rice, 

 and meat, as opposed to New England mince pie 

 and Boston baked beans, has made " the graceful, 

 self-controlled Turk the superior of the nervous, 

 lank New Englander." 



This was the contention laid down before the 

 Mississippi Valley Medical Association yesterday 

 by Dr. Fenton B. Turck, of Chicago. 



" Diet has more to do with the making of great 

 men or the deteriorating of the human race to the 

 level of the brute than any thing else," declared 

 Dr. Turck. "Compare that armor-plate mince pie 

 diet indulged in by all America with the t%vo sane 

 meals a day that are enabling Turkey to produce 

 the finest specimens of physical manhood in the 

 world." 



Later. — I shall have to explain to our 

 readers that the above article has been in 

 type for some time, waiting for a place in 

 our pages; and just now, Nov. 1, as I am 

 starting out for my southern home, I have 

 received a tremendous backing to my little 

 plea for at least one meal a day on apples 

 alone. It comes about in this way: Once 

 in my life I had the pleasure of seeing Pres- 

 ident Taft, and of hearing him speak; and, 

 more than that, I have a very good friend 

 w^ho has had several personal interviews 

 with our President; and on a quite recent 

 occasion he had an appointment for a short 

 conference with President Taft. He reach- 

 ed the place of meeting about one o'clock, 

 and was informed by the attendant that 

 the President was eating his dinner; but 

 when the President learned who he was that 

 was waiting for him he said, " Bring Mr. B. 

 right in. Tell him it is my request." W^ell, 

 when Mr. B. commenced to apologize for 

 intruding during the dinner hour he found 

 the President's dinner consisted of — what 

 do you suppose? Why, it was just nice mel- 

 low apples and not/ting else. When my 

 good friend uttered an exclamation and 

 said, "W'hat! is that your idea of what a 

 dinner should be?" the President leaned 

 back in his chair, threw back his head, and 

 laughed heartily, declaring that his idea of 



