1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



375 



nothing ever freezes there in winter. One 

 very cold day I ran the engine inside of the 

 building, a Uttle while, to make some adjust- 

 ments. We had been warned in automobile 

 journals to be careful about the effects of 

 the burned gas when allowed to accumulate 

 in a close room. Just as I had finished my 

 adjustments I began to feel dizzy, with a 

 little headache ; but after I got out into the 

 open air it passed away. Toward night I 

 had a pain in my bowels. I asked Mrs. Root 

 again what I had eaten that should bring 

 back these old troubles. She was sure that 

 our food had been as before — only that 

 which agreed with us. But I questioned. 

 Didn't we have some pickled onions, Wor- 

 cestershire sauce, or something of that 

 sort ? She replied in the negative. But I 

 insisted that the bad breath was exactly 

 as if I had been eating leeks from the woods 

 around our cabin up north. Then I began 

 to laugh. It just occurred to me that the 

 disagreeable gases smelled more like gaso- 

 line than leeks after all. Gasoline fumes 

 that I took in through my lungs in the auto- 

 mobile-house had gotten into my bowels, 

 and there was a disturbance until nature 

 could get rid of the poison by belching it up 

 with my breath. From that time on I 

 declared I would not put up any more with 

 air from any bad source, especially this bad 

 air that is a cause or the cause of pain and 

 distress in the digestive apparatus. 



Just one more fact in this line. For years, 

 as you may know, I have been having an 

 after-dinner nap. To be out of everybody's 

 way, when I am at at home I take it in a 

 nice dry basement. This basement is warm- 

 ed by steam-pipes. When the weather is 

 not too severe I sleep right before a west 

 window with the breeze blowing right across 

 my face. When it is zero weather, with a 

 heavy wind, this window is partially or en- 

 tirely closed. Sometimes when I awake 

 from a nap I notice there is a very bad 

 taste in my mouth, and I have wondered 

 why it should be. After a little reflection I 

 have found it was always after I had closed 

 the window. When the window was opened 

 so a good breeze would blow the air away 

 from my face as fast as it was expelled from 

 my lungs, my mouth did not have any bad 

 taste. When the window was closed, the 

 bad taste was back again. A bad taste in 

 the mouth, say an acrid or metallic taste, is 

 an almost sure indication of disordered di- 

 gestion or bad stomach, as we call it. Now, 

 it seemed then almost incredible that plenty 

 of pure cold air should be a remedy for a 

 "sour stomach." But I think it is true, at 

 least in my case. A good many say, "I 

 have tried it, but I can never stand it to 

 sleep in a breeze or draft," You may re- 

 member that I have mentioned that Huber 

 can not "stand" bee-stings. It is very de- 

 sirable that he should work with the bees 

 out in the apiary. But on one or two occa- 

 sions the effects of a single sting was so 

 severe and lasting we feared it might en- 

 danger his life. Well, within the past two 

 months he has been getting bees out of the 



cellar, and getting a sting every day or 

 every two or three days, in order to get his 

 system inoculated, and he is coming out all 

 right. Most of the stings he gets have very 

 little effect. Occasionally a severe one 

 brings back some of the old symptoms. My 

 friends, you can get hardened to drafts of 

 outdoor air just as easily as we bee-keepers 

 become (gradually) immune to bee-stings. 

 Of course, you want to be bundled up. 

 Sleeping outdoors in zero weather you will 

 probably need to cover up all but your nose 

 and mouth. 



When Wilbur Wright was working with 

 the flying-machine last fall, in his shirt 

 sleeves, during a pretty cool day, I declared 

 he would take a severe cold and be laid up. 

 He replied, "Mr. Root, I shall never take 

 cold in working in the open air, even if I do 

 get pretty well chilled. I have been having 

 the grip, but I do not fear that working out 

 here will make it any worse. The thing 

 that gives me a cold is sitting in a room that 

 is unpleasantly warm." And I think Mr. 

 Wright is right (?), and his experience will 

 apply to a great lot of us. We take cold 

 when sitting in rooms that are too warm; 

 but very rarely by getting cold— at least 

 where we are at work at something. 



I am taking two floral journals, and I read 

 them with great interest. One of our bright- 

 est teachers, Mr. William Scott, was speak- 

 ing of how much plants were benefitted by 

 being close to the glass. He said he did not 

 accept the usual explanation, that it was be- 

 cause, the closer to the glass they got, the 

 more light they got; for in a large house 

 there is just as much light ten feet from the 

 glass as close to it. His suggestion is this: 

 Plants as well as animals require fresh air 

 They will not thrive without it. Our green- 

 houses are warmed by means of iron pipes, 

 and we make our houses as tight as we can 

 to keep out the frost; but in spite of our 

 putty and nice workmanship there is more 

 or less air getting around the edges of the 

 glass. The plants get this fresh air when 

 close up to the glass; and it is this and not 

 the light that makes them thrive. You 

 people who are growing stuff under glass 

 have found out that insects, fungus, rot, 

 and other diseases will always thrive in 

 stagnant air; but good ventilation, especial- 

 ly spraying with water at the same time, 

 not only in every corner of your greenhouse 

 but on the under side of the leaves of the 

 plants where they stand close together, is 

 the very best remedy for any kind of "sick- 

 ness " or lack of vitality in growing green- 

 house stuff. Fresh pure air and water are 

 better remedies than all the poisons and 

 fumigations. It is God's remedy. He made 

 us of the dust of the earth, and this dust 

 ivill cling to us more or less if we do not 

 look out. From the dust of the earth he 

 raised us up, and we became living souls by 

 the breath of life through our nostrils. The 

 same breath that gave mankind life at its 

 birth will help us to keep and prolong that 

 life, not only for the personal benefit but 

 for the benefit of those round about us. 



