October, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



807 



ixged. Enough water is added so that wlieu 

 it if; cold the cooked wheat can be readily 

 cut in slices, to be warmed up in the oven 

 at mealtime. I alwaj^s want with it some 

 good butter, cream, and a teacupful of milk 

 right by my plate. Now, if there is any 

 ])lace where good honey just "hits the sjiot," 

 it is with butter and cream on this cracked 

 wheat with some cold milk to drink. ]f 

 you are still so fortunate as to have some 

 maple sugar or thick maj^le molasses, many 

 (if you will prefer it to the honey uidess 

 the honey is verj- thick and of extra-tine 

 quality. I do not know of any better or 

 more sensible remedy for constipation than 

 the above cracked wheat. For this purposs 

 the bran sliould be left in. If you wash to 

 make hot biscuit to go with your honey, 

 perhaps it would be well to sift out the 

 coarser particles. 



By the waj', we have been urged repeat- 

 edly to use corn instead of wheat, on the 

 ground of economy; and you can, it is 

 tiTie, use corn in the same way. Popcorn 

 makes a delightful dish ground and treated 

 as above. But just now our daily papers 

 are telling us that corn and wheat are very 

 nearly the same price — $2.00 a bushel. 

 When this is the case I am sure the wheat 

 furnishes more nutriment. 



Now for the drink i^art of my talk. I 

 have already suggested milk; and I use 

 this in place of either tea or cotfee, and have 

 done so for years. Of course, I drink water 

 between meals, or whenever I am thirsty 

 outside of mealtime. What suggested to me 

 the matter of the water we drink is a sad 

 letter that has just come to hand. One of 

 Mrs. Root's nearest friends, and I think I 

 might say one of the dearest ones, has just 

 lost her life. She had been in feeble health 

 for some time ; but recently her husband, 

 like thousands of other people wanting a 

 home, moved on to a place out in the 

 woods. I think the good woman told Mrs. 

 Root there was a beautiful spring on the 

 l)lace. Now, I am not sure that after 

 moving out in the Avoods they got their 

 water from this spring, but it would seem 

 so. In a letter written to Mrs. Root b}' 

 one of the neighbors occurs this sentence : 



"The doctor said it was the water they 

 drank that caused their sickness. All the 

 children were sick, but are better now." 



This reminds me that for almost all my 

 life I have been troubled more or less with 

 what thej' used to call "summer complaint ;'' 

 and it does not always occur in summer 

 either. If I happen to go away from home 

 and drink freely of some Avater I am un- 

 used to, this old chronic trouble gets started, 

 and sometimes it takes a Aveek and may be 

 a month to get straightened out again. 



Hard Avater from a Avell is almost sure to 

 start the trouble; and therefore I have in- 

 sisted on getting rain Avater Avhen I hap- 

 pened to be Avhere I could not get dis- 

 tilled Avater, or water, say, from soft- 

 Avater springs that has been abund- 

 antly tested. People used to think that 

 Avater from a running spring is ahvays 

 the best in the world. Well, this is, 

 perhaps, generally true, altho sometimes 

 spiing Avater as aa'cII as well Avater contains 

 minerals that are very harmful to many 

 people. If you have a slate roof to -catch 

 the rain Avater, and it floAvs thru a filter 

 into a clean cistern, you are probably all 

 right. But I haA'e for years found it safer 

 to have tlie cistern Avater boiled, both here 

 in Medina and in my Florida home. Here 

 in Medina Ave have a slate roof, and about 

 as good a cistern as can be made. But coal 

 smoke from our factory and from the loco- 

 motives near by, besides dust from the 

 Avell-traA-eled road right in front of our 

 house getting on the roof, renders the Avater 

 more or less impure. Boiling kills all the 

 germs, and precipitates considerable of 

 the mineral matter. I think it is best 

 freslily boiled, and then keep it in a glass 

 fruit-jar or in some other covered recep- 

 tacle. Altho Ave have a refrigerator, I have 

 f-^und by repeated tests that ice-cold water 

 does not w^ork Avell with my digestive ap- 

 paratus. AVhen AA'e have cool nights the 

 water is ahvays sufficiently cool for my taste 

 and health. 



Now, friends, please do not get the im.- 

 pression that the Avater from springs or any 

 other source is Avorse in Florida than in 

 other places. I believe the health depart- 

 ments, not only of Ohio but of other states 

 and the large cities, decide almost to a 

 unit that the Avater that has been passed 

 upon and pronounced good in our large 

 toAvns and cities is safer than the water 

 from Avells or even springs, as a rule. 



Where large numbers of people have 

 been getting their Avater for years past at a 

 particular spring, and found it wholesome, 

 it is probably all right, and the sam.e Avith 

 Avells; but everybody should be careful 

 about drinking Avater fiiom old umisecl 

 Avells. Where Avater is draAvn every day 

 (tlie larger the quantity the better) the 

 Avell is almost the same as a running siiring; 

 and running Avater is ahvays better th.an 

 standing Avater. 



In going into a ncAv locality people should 

 be especially careful about drinking Avater 

 from either well or spring until it lias been 

 examined and jironounced good, or has been 

 liroven to contain no deleterious matter. 

 Most Avells or springs are, of course, liable 

 to contamination from surface water, espe- 



