674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



fruit right from the tree. I was ' ' out of 

 sorts" when I visited friend Terry in fact, 

 I had been having distress in the region of 

 digestion for two or three days. I made a 

 very good dinner as above, and nothing more 

 that day except at the usual supper hour, 5 

 P.M., when I ate a little rolled wheat in the 

 way I have described. That night I slept 

 soundly from ten o'clock till daylight— some- 

 thing I had not done before for months. 

 To tell the truth, I have been working toward 

 this sort of diet for some time back— that is, 

 when I was at home so I could do it conven- 

 iently. 



I wish you could have heard all the ques- 

 tions I asked friend Terry, and his ans- 

 wers. I will go over some of them. You 

 can use olive oil, if you hke, in the place of 

 butter. Terry uses it considerably. I sup- 

 pose a little good cream would answer. You 

 do not want milk nor any other liquid that 

 will dissolve the rolled wheat; for if you do, 

 the chewing will not be necessary; in fact, 

 without the long chewing you do not get the 

 secretion of saliva, and this is the great se- 

 cret of good digestion. This saliva must 

 not be washed down your throat with tea, 

 coffee, nor even milk nor pure water. 



So many people are accustomed to drink 

 something at their meals it may be a hard 

 matter to get them over it; but just try it 

 and see if your digestion is not better with 

 no liquids until two hours after your meal. * 



When I first arrived I greatly enjoyed a 

 brimming glass of rain water kept in a big 

 stone crock since the last heavy rain. When 

 I suggested that it was some trouble to be 

 on hand to catch this nice rain water Mr. 

 Terry said he usually caught enough to last 

 three or four weeks. Mrs. Root thinks even 

 rain water would become flat and insipid by 

 being kept that length of time. Well, it is 

 not a bit flat for me- just what I like. Like 

 myself, friend Terry prefers his drinking- 

 water at pretty nearly ordinary tempera- 

 tures—neither hot nor cold. I think some 

 times that a drink of hot water is very 

 beneficial; but I seldom care for it nowa- 

 days. . , , 



Now about the plants in those rooms and 

 the secret of it. Mr. Terry has been just as 

 hard at work to secure pure air, comforta- 

 bly warm, as he has to secure the best food 

 in just the right condition when he wants it 

 to eat. The air comes from outdoors under 



* Perhaps I should mention here, that, like Dr. Salis- 

 bury, he recommends that no liquid be taken — not even 

 a drink of water, within half an hour of the meal ahead 

 of you. Drink all you want, and as often as you want, 

 and the more the better, within the bounds of reason, 

 from two hours after eating until half an hour before 

 eating again. In order to do this, be very careful not to 

 sit down to any meal when you are very thirsty; and to 

 avoid this, do rot forget to drink all you want at least 

 half an hour before each meal. Several times lately 1 

 have found it hard to go without a drink at mealtimes 

 because I had forgotten to quench my thirst half an 

 hour before. If you have fruit or very juicy oranges at 

 the close of your meal, this in a measure takes the place 

 of water; but do not take any thing that would prevent 

 nature from furnishing that life-givmg saliva that 

 comes by working the jaws, and which is the proper 

 and natural moistening of the food. For the same rea- 

 son do not eat your uncooked sauce, or fruit with your 

 wheat. 



the pjrch. In order that the wind (and 

 sometimes snow) may not blow in he has it 

 turned at an angle and then it goes into a 

 cold room. From this cold room it is admit- 

 ted according to the weather into the flues 

 in the furnace. When it is perfectly warm 

 it goes into the rooms above, and is made to 

 pass over a series of shallow pans of water. 

 This air, before it is used by the plants or 

 people, takes up all the water it needs— 

 about 20 quarts a day; and these shallow 

 pans have to be filled up almost daily. When 

 I suggested it was considerable trouble, 

 friend Terry said, ' ' So are doctors and drug- 

 stores trouble. Which will you take?" 



In our little greenhouse at home I have 

 what we call a hygrometer. Well, ever 

 since I got it I have been surprised to see 

 how the quantity of moisture changes in 

 my greenhouse. No wonder my plants suf- 

 fer sometimes from over- dampness, and 

 then, worse still, from an atmosphere that 

 the instrument records dry or vei-y drjr. 

 While admiring the plants and their beauti- 

 ful growth, without a sickly-looking leaf, 

 friend Terry remarked: "The conditions that 

 are needed to make those beautiful plants 

 are also just what is needed to make a beau- 

 tiful woman;" and, if I remember correctly, 

 he laid his hand playfully on his wife's 

 shoulder, or may be he just pointed to her; 

 and there is no mistaking it— Mrs. Terry is 

 just as much a picture of health as the 

 plants she lovingly cares for. 



Perhaps you are tempted again to say, 

 "Oh! we can not fuss with the air in order 

 to keep it always just so— neither too dry nor 

 too damp. But, my friend, you do "fuss" 

 when you go to sanitariums or consult ex- 

 pensive doctors; and a good many times you 

 do not get the health either. Now, Terry 

 has got these three most precious of God's 

 gifts up to a point of perfection and scientif- 

 ic accuracy that I never dreamed of before 

 —food, air, and water. Furthermore, in 

 his experiments and investigations he has 

 succeeded perfectly in cutting off the fear- 

 ful waste of fuel that goes on in the ordinary 

 home. Why, my dear friend, I am pretty 

 sure I could cook your dinner with the heat 

 that comes out of the top of your chimney 

 every day of your life. With some of the 

 arrangements for warming the home the 

 dinner would be burned up and spoiled if set 

 over the chimney before it would even cook 

 on top of the stove. Seventy-five per cent 

 of the real benefit of your fuel often goes 

 out of the chimney. 



Well, I went down into the basement (in 

 fact, I went all over the house from garret 

 to cellar) ; and while there was quite a little 

 fire in the furnace, the sheet-iron pipe that 

 goes into the chimney was not even warm. 



' ' Why, friend Terry, your chimney is of 

 no use. The gases from the consuming coal 

 can not rise unless this pipe is warmed a 

 little." 



' ' Not so, Mr. Root. The gases from hard 

 coal are lighter than common air, and will 

 go up when perfectly cold. I have worked 

 at this thing a long while to make the coal 



