1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



89 



get the greatest amount of speed from a 

 very small amount of gasoline by adjusting 

 the flow of it just right. Every one who 

 runs an automobile has discovered that too 

 much gasoline clogs the motor. It puffs out 

 black smoke, fills the cylinder and carburet- 

 er with soot, and soils and clogs the spark- 

 plug. With just enough gasoline, and no 

 more, there is no black smoke at all— no 

 clogging of the machinery with soot ; but 

 when you come to climb a hill or take an 

 extra passenger you have got to increase 

 the flow of fuel a little. With practice, 

 however, you can give this gasoline-valve a 

 touch whenever you come to an up grade, 

 and keep just enough running, and no more, 

 to do the work. Well, on long stretches of 

 level road through some of the western 

 counties I discovered I could turn on not 

 quite enough to do the work— at least, it 

 seemed when I set the valve that there was 

 hardly sufficient to keep the motor up to full 

 power. But I found by running it this way 

 a little while the machine seemed to get 

 used to the scant supply— I do not know any 

 better way to express it ; and the speed 

 would keep gradually increasing without 

 any additional fuel, and in this way I made 

 the machine give the very best results. In 

 going down hill, where the incline was suf- 

 ficient I could shut off the fuel entirely. 

 Well, when I managed so as to make the 

 machine do its work with the least amount 

 of fuel I found it was an easy matter to 

 keep the engine in perfect order ; and I was 

 finally obliged to decide, like many other 

 users of gasoline-engines, that the greater 

 part of the trouble with these machines 

 comes from using more fuel than is really 

 necessary. 



When making these experiments it occur- 

 red to me that it was a good illustration of 

 this matter of sickness and health in the 

 human family. T. B. Terry, in his health 

 notes, in the Practical Farmer, is contin- 

 ually repeating over and over that not only 

 nearly all our sickness but the greater part 

 of our chronic diseases, are the result of 

 overeating. If people would eat only just 

 enough to keep the machinery of the human 

 form in good trim, these new-fangled mal- 

 adies that are developing and killing us off 

 would mostly disappear. I believe Terry is 

 right. We pay out great sums of money 

 for our daily food. "Daily bread," as we 

 have it in the Lord's prayer, is not the right 

 name for it. We take into our stomachs 

 a great lot that only does us harm instead 

 of good, and then throw away a lot more 

 that might make other people well and hap- 

 py if they only had it. Children are brought 

 up and trained in this way, and they seem 

 to think there is no other way. I was one 

 of seven children. Our parents were com- 



faratively poor. I come pretty near saying 

 thanked God they were poor; and I do not 

 know but it is right to say it. One of the 

 earliest lessons this father of seven taught 

 us was, to take no more on our plates than 

 we needed, and to leave our plates clean 

 when we left the table. I think one of my 



older sisters also taught us to put our knife, 

 fork, and spoon in the most convenient place 

 for those who cleared off the table to pick 

 up. Father said we could have all the food 

 we wanted or needed; but in order to wind up 

 with clean plates all around we had better 

 take a little to begin with, and then ask to 

 be served a second time if need be. I guess 

 it was a little bit hard for each one of the 

 Root youngsters to manage to leave his 

 plate clean until he had had some practice 

 and experience; but when the older ones set 

 the example the youngest very soon began 

 to feel a little proud in leaving his plate 

 clean also. In helping ourselves to the 

 bread in a similar way, we managed not to 

 have broken bread lying around the plate. I 

 think my good mother once or twice saved 

 up the broken pieces for certain ones until 

 the next meal. You may think this was a 

 little too close, some of you; but it taught 

 us a wholesome lesson, and started us in 

 proper habits; and even now when I see 

 children leaving broken-up bread and other 

 things scattered about their plates it makes 

 me feel uneasy. Of course, it is not my 

 province to interfere or even advise the 

 parents in such things; but I can tell you 

 about it here on the pages of this journal, 

 and I think no one will feel hurt. I am 

 exceedingly glad that it was my good for- 

 tune to have a father and mother who 

 taught me in early childhood to "gather up 

 the fragments that nothing be lost. ' ' 



Before I was ten years old I was embarked 

 in the poultry business, and it was quite a 

 task for me to scrape up the pennies to buy 

 feed for my biddies. I commenced by sav- 

 ing every thing that chickens would eat; and 

 this taught me more useful lessons in gath- 

 ering up the fragments. 



Remonstrance has been made to Mrs. Root 

 and me many times by the younger ones— of 

 course, in a pleasant way— because we spend 

 more time in picking up stuff than it is really 

 worth; and sometimes we are obliged to ad- 

 mit this is true, especially if we were work- 

 ing for wages as most people are. But she 

 says, and I agree with her, that she can not 

 bear to live where things are scattered all 

 about without being picked up. The door- 

 yard, and the rooms in the house, can not be 

 neat and tidy unless things are picked up 

 and put away. Then if these things we 

 gather up and throw away are worth some- 

 thing at some future time we have a double 

 reward for gathering up the fragments. 

 Then, again, do you know how nice it is to 

 have people come to visit you who leave 

 things when they go away just as they 

 found them ? Perhaps it is not all appreci- 

 ated ; but when we go to a restaurant or a 

 hotel, or to a summer resort, or to visit rel- 

 atives, we try to leave every thing where 

 we have been in just as good shape as it was 

 found. I remember once, years ago, a rela- 

 tive with two or three small children paid 

 us a visit. I believe they stayed only one 

 night ; but during that brief time those 

 youngsters climbed from cellar to garret, 

 overturned pretty nearly every thing that 



