236 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



two^^months I not only find them conducive 

 to excellent health, but I think I never en- 

 joyed any fruit more than I do my oranges 

 and grape fruit every evening. We get or- 

 anges here, with some little blemish on 

 them, for from 50 to 75 cts. per hundred, 

 and^these are just as good for present use 

 as those packed and shipped. You know 

 how much I have said about a simple break- 

 fast costing only a few cents, saving the 

 good wife a lot of work. etc. ; well, T. B. 

 Terry, in the Practical Farmer, has lately 

 got on to the same line with a vengeance. 

 I clip the following from the issue of Jan. 6. 

 The stars indicate where I have skipped, 

 and I have changed one sentence to italics. 



The experiences of those who were living on raw food 

 were so decidedly in favor of that plan that I felt there 

 must be something in it more than a mere fad, * * * 

 and good health is far from being a general condition 

 now. Look at the vast number of doctors and drug- 

 stores * It is an interesting study to try to find to 

 what extent the eating of cooked food, and the hun- 

 dreds of mixtures that have resulted, has caused the ill 

 health of the people and brought death practically 

 always before it resulted naturally from old age. * * 



The change was made very gradually and carefully. 

 It took much less time to get used to the change in my 

 own case than I at first expected. Now I will tell 

 you just what I do eat. For breakfast, after about 

 one and one-half hours of light exercise, two ounces of 

 rolled wheat, dry and uncooked, with butter and olive 

 oil, and then what raw fruit I care for. We eat only 

 twice a day. For supper I have about two ounces of 

 raw nut meats, and raw fruit. For a month at a time 

 I have eaten nothing else whatever. At other times I 

 have taken a little plain cooked food, so my stomach 

 would remain somewhat used to it. as I must be away 

 from home occasionally. But practically I have lived 

 on the raw foods named. * * » j never got more 

 enjoyment out of eating. I have never once been hun- 

 gry between meals. But remember there is long chew- 

 ing, and I eat all the fruit I like. It .'^eems as if I never 

 had such perfect health before, and I have waited to re- 

 port until the newness has long since passed away. The 

 cost of rolled wheat is one cent a day. I use Pettijohn's 

 breakfast food, which is nice and clean. The nuts cost, 

 at wholesale, about four cents a day. We have various 

 kinds, but I do not seem to care for any change. Wal- 

 nuts have been eaten mainly, because I like them, and 

 they are easy to crack and pick out. I eat apples freely 

 in the winter season, with dried fruits, bananas, etc., 

 mixed in. We have had, of course, strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, blackberries, peaches, pears, melons grapes, 

 etc., in their season, with dried fruits always on hand to 

 fall back on, or eat with the fresh. The dried fruit is 

 soaked, not cooked. I never eat a meal at home without 

 fruit. Sometimes I get tired of one kind of fruit, show- 

 ing that my system has enough of that particular acid. 

 Then I let it rest. We have a variety always. The roll- 

 ed wheat tastes delicious to me. As a rule I take a little 

 choice butter on a spoon and then fill the spoon with 

 dry wheat and put in my mouth, and chew a long time. 

 1 prefer it to the best bread. A tablespoonful of olive 

 oil is eaten for breakfast, with a little lemon juice mix- 

 ed in it, along with the wheat. * * • All the trou- 

 ble I have had with the system so far is that it makes one 

 an odd sheep. After they get used to the change, both 

 stomach and bowel digestion become practically perfect, 

 with no possibility of any constipation. I tell you it is 

 a great big matter to have perfect digestion and assim- 

 ilation. * * * Notice the extremely small amount 

 of food eaten, deducting the water in fruit, always less 

 than a pound a day, actually. And still I have held my 

 own quite steadily in weight; fully plump enough; no 

 surplus fat anywhere; 5 ft. 10, and weigh 176; perfectly 

 nourished, beyond question. I used to eat three times 

 the substance and do no more work- * * » I tell you 

 it was fine during the hot weather to put some wheat or 

 nuts and fruit on the table and have the meal ready. It 

 is a wonderful saving in work. 



Terry says when he is obliged to be away 

 at hotels he always feels glad to get back to 

 his simple home life; and Mrs. Root and I, 

 after paying $14.00 a week at a hotel, were 

 happy to get back to our home fashion, with 

 just a few simple things that cost little mon- 

 ey and little work, but were just exactly 

 what we wanted, and nothing else. Of 

 course, tve are not yet ready to go with Ter- 

 ry and dispense with cooking entirely. Mrs. 

 Root is anxious to know if Mrs. Terry also 

 lives on uncooked "grains, fruits, and nuts." 



*Some might criticise the simple ways of living here 

 in Florida; but our neighbors, the Shumards. have raised 

 a family of eight children, and haven't employed a doc- 

 tor in eight years. Some people would think a doctor 

 is needed about every eight days with such a family.— 

 A. I. R. 



Is not this the carpenter?— Mark 6 : 3. 

 THE bee-keeper's WORKSHOP. 



The average honey-producer must have a 

 workshop of some kind; and in California, 

 and sometimes in Florida, I have found just 

 a workbench in the open air; but here, where 

 rains are frequent at almost every season of 

 the year, at least a roof overhead of some 

 kind is needed. I have told you that ours 

 was only 10 feet square, and open under the 

 eaves, on the west, and also on the south. 

 I soon found, however, this did not suit my 

 notions. A big rain storm not only wet my 

 stuff, but the spray blew over on my bright 

 new saws hung up on the north wall. An- 

 other thing, neighbor Shumard's 150 Buff 

 Leghorns decided my neat little shop was 

 just the place for nests; they tipped over 

 and mixed my cans of small nails, came near 

 tipping over my high-priced paint, and I 

 finally decided both weather and chickens 

 must be fenced out. I thought of cloth and 

 building paper, but they are likely to get 

 "punctured," and look untidy any way, so 

 I bought some more planed lumber (dressed 

 on both sides and edges) at $24.00 per lOOO, 

 and did it up right. I have visited bee- 

 keepers' shops and extracting-rooms all over 

 the United States, and, while I have seen a 

 few very pleasant and tidy ones, I have seen 

 more that— seemed to require an apology 

 from the owner. 



If you want a nice pleasant shop, where 

 you will always like to go in bad weather, I 

 would not think of having honey, wax, and 

 the extractor in the same room. Have a 

 honey-house somewhere else, or divided off 

 from the shop. There are many obvious 

 reasons. One is that we want both light 

 and outdoor air when we are are at work. 

 Whenever the weather will possibly admit, 

 "outdoors" is the place to work. With 

 this in view, our workbench is 16 feet long, 

 so that 8 feet of it is always outdoors, and 

 on this outdoor part most of my work is 



