192 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 15 



posing it to be to start the gasoline, let it 

 spring back in place while cranking. I give 

 place to this, for cranking automobiles has 

 now become fatiguing task to many peo- 

 ple. 



BEDBUGS, JIGGERS, ETC. 



I get away with redbugs with five to ten drops of 

 carbolic acid in a tumbler of water — more or less 

 acid as you wish. One needn't send a dollar for the 

 secret. But such bugs are not peculiar to Florida 

 at all. Except six years at school in New England 

 I have lived my whole life in Kentucky and Tennes- 

 see. Though I traveled in nearly all the States. I 

 have never yet found a place where they could not 

 be found. I am in the real-estate business and 

 mortgage loan agent for the Union Central Life Ins. 

 Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, and do much inspecting of 

 farm and timber lands; and at the right season for 

 them, when I go to inspect woodlands I always car- 

 ry with me a small bottle of the above, and apply 

 it at once the first night after being out, and have 

 no more serious trouble from them; whereas with- 

 out it they will make life miserable for two to four 

 days after being in the woods. The country people 

 are seldom bothered with them. The bugs seem to 

 like fresh blood just from town. In Florida, no 

 doubt, they are worse on account of greater damp- 

 ness making more decaying wood, though I have 

 no doubt that in Ohio, if you try at proper places 

 you wlil find more than you wish to come in con- 

 tact with. The timber being so much scarcer there, 

 and the rotten parts kept cleaned up for use so much 

 closer, I guess is the reason you don't find them at 

 all common. Country folks here call them "chig- 

 gers." I don't know how the dictionary spells it. 

 I consider it a joke on a city fellow to lead him un- 

 wittingly around through places infested with them, 

 and get him well covered by them. 



Paducah, Ky., Sept. 6. W. M. Janes. 



Friend J., I am glad to know that redbugs 

 are not confined particularly to Florida 

 ("misery loves company," you know), al- 

 though 1 can not remember having been 

 troubled by them anywhere else. Any thing 

 will stop the itching that makes the fever- 

 ish eruptions smart; and we have rather set- 

 tled down on sal soda moistened just a lit- 

 tle. Rub it briskly where you have been 

 bitten, and the itching sensation will give 

 place to a smarting from the strength of the 

 alkali. When the smarting is gone, the 

 itching will be over for the present. I have 

 not yet found an entomologist who could 

 tell me whether these insects penetrate the 

 skin. I know they are often called chiggers 

 or jiggers, but this is certainly a mistake, 

 for the real jiggers are what I have describ- 

 ed as the stick-light flea, sometimes found 

 in great numbers on the combs and wattles 

 of common fowls; and in Florida during a dry 

 time they get on people. These produce no 

 swelling; but when they crawl down under 

 the skin and get to sucking blood they pro- 

 duce a very unpleasant sensation. These 

 rarely or never trouble when there are steady 

 rains. They are large enough to be plainly 

 visible; and when they are pulled out of the 

 flesh with a pair of watchmaker's tweezers 

 the trouble is all ended, and no eruption 

 nor itching follows. 



DRUGS FOR BABIES. 



It is"a cruer thing to give poor innocent 

 chickens drugs and poisonous medicines, 

 especially if we neither know what the trou- 

 ble is„nor ,what the medicine is; but it is a 



thousand times more shameful and cruel to 

 give to babies these dangerous and baneful 

 drugs. Read the following, which we clip 

 from the Union Signal: 



BABY-KILLERS. 



It is good to see that the leading daily papers are 

 beginning to speak plainly about harmful medi- 

 cines. Back of the general awakening is the atten- 

 tion chemists are giving to this matter, and the fact 

 that the government itself is moving in the right 

 direction. Perhaps, after awhile, we will take as 

 good care of the health and lives of babies as stock- 

 raisers have long taken of calves and lambs. 



Just now Dr. L. B. Kebler, of the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry, in the Agricultural Department at Washing- 

 ton, D. C, is saying, "Babies doped with soothing- 

 syrups containing harmful drugs are particularly 

 liable to infantile paralysis and kindred diseases." 

 He has made public a list of thirteen soothing-syr- 

 ups which he calls "baby-killers," and against 

 which he warns the public. 



Dr. Kebler has suggested that druggists enter in- 

 to an agreement not to sell these harmful drugs ex- 

 cept upon prescription from a physician. He also 

 classes Jaynes' carminative balsam as a "killer." 



Some of Dr. Kebler's "baby-killers" have been 

 printed on these pages before, but they can not be 

 held up to the public eye too frequently, so here 

 they are: 



Mrs. Winslow's soothing syrup (morphine sul- 

 phate). 



Children's comfort (morphine sulphate). 



Dr. P"'ahey's pepsin anodyne compound (morphine 

 sulphate). 



Dr. Fahrney's teething syrup (morphine and chlo- 

 roform). 



Dr. Fowler's strawberry and peppermint mixture 

 (morphine). 



Dr. Groves' anodyne for infants (morphine sul- 

 phate). 



Hooper's anodyne, the infant's friend (morphine 

 hydrochloride). 



Jadway's elixir for infants (codeine). 



Dr. James" soothing syrup cordial (heroin). 



Koepp's baby's friend (morphine sulphate). 



Dr. Miller's anodyne for babies (morphine sul- 

 phate and choral hydrate). 



Dr. Moffett's teething powders (powdered opium). 



Victor infant relief (chloroform and cannabis in- 

 die:/). 



Now, if you have any of the above medi- 

 cines in your home we hope you will destroy 

 them at once before there is a possibility of 

 their harming innocent children. 



My subscription to Gleanings may be extended 

 for another year. I feel sure that my boys and I 

 shall find "Camping and Woodcraft " very enter- 

 taining as well as profitable. My continued sub- 

 scription to Gleanings is for the great pleasure I 

 find in "Our Homes" department, by grandfather 

 Root. May he live yet many years to continue his 

 good work. 



Delamar, Idaho, Dec. 10. H. J. Stuart. 



I want Gleanings as long as I live. It's all right, 

 and I don't know how it could be improved. I am 

 much interested in the "Home" articles and A. I. 

 Root. May he long live to give us cheering and 

 helpful articles. 



The illustrations are perfect, and I am much pleas- 

 ed with the moving-picture department, and. In 

 fact, with every thing from the index to the last ad- 

 vertisement. 



Abilene, Kan., Dec. 15. Dr. Frank Parker. 



I received Gleanings, which, for the last thirteen 

 years, has been a welcome visitor, and has never 

 failed a single time that 1 can remember. 



I certainly would have remembered if my friend 

 had failed to come. It Is more and more interest- 

 ing every year if not every month. I have " The A 

 B C of Bee Culture " and some other bee literature. 

 I should like to have more; but if any one bee pa- 

 per will answer the purpose of all other bee papers, 

 I think that Gleanings will. It certainly is a good 

 paper from cover to cover, and even the cover is 

 interesting. Miss Sarah A. Austin. 



Prowers, Colo., Dec. 13. 



