The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I
:
July, 192: The Health Bulletin 21
water young plants near our tank.
From the last of June until July 24
we had no rain at all. We still had
plenty of vegetables to eat and some
to sell, but we had trouble in getting
young plants to come up. Everything
I planted during this drought, I would
cover with bags or boards. The bags
were kept moist until the seed showed
the first signs of coming through ; then
the bags were gradually lifted above
them as a shade from the hot sun. In
this way we hardened plants to the
sun as we had formerly hardened the
early plants to the cold."
Mrs. Middleton believes that her
tomato record can hardly be beaten.
The family ate its first tomatoes from
the garden on June 12. They were
served fresh each day until February
4, 1927. In addition, Mrs. Middleton
canned 48 quarts and sold $51.25
worth. Tlie tomatoes were planted for
an early and late crop, and each plant
was kept tied, pruned and staked. The
ripe fruits were gathered each day,
when the inferior ones were fed to
chickens.
In addition to vegetables, the garden
was made to furnish all the sage,
thyme and hot pepper used for seasoning
and for the sausage and pudding
sold on the curb market. All the popcorn
that the children enjoyed dui'ing
the winter evenings was also raised in
this garden. The profits paid for groceries
purchased and for the few simple
clothes that had to be bought for the
children.
"By having this garden," says Mrs.
Middleton, "we have learned to live at
home on our vegetables and fruits,
together with our poultry and eggs,
milk and butter, home-raised meat,
home-made meal, nuts and honey. We
have cut down our living expenses,
our tonics, and our doctor's bills. The
result has been a happier home and
good health. While I have worked to
make the vegetables to feed our bodies,
to keep them well and strong, there
has been left a place in the garden for
flowers. Three times, 365 days, a little
vase of fresh flowers was placed on
the table with the vegetables. Did not
Mahomet wisely say, 'He that hath two
loaves of bread, let him sell one of
them for flowers of the Narcissus ; for
bread is food for the body, but the
Narcissus is food for the soul.'
—The
"
Sampson Independent.
A friend sends in an item recently
published in the Morgantou News-
Herald, purporting to be a cure for
smallpox. Our correspondent states
that this so-called "cure" was given to
the editor of the Morganton paper by
the wife of a former Harvard graduate.
We mention this in order to
make it plain that in the warfare
against quackery the educated person
is often just as dense in his or her
ignorance as the Negro voodoo artist
in the middle of Africa, when dealing
with matters out of their realm, and
of which they know nothing about.
This so-called "cure" was given as
sulphate of zinc, digitalis, and sugar.
The concluding statement in the article
is as follows
"This remedy is said to be perfectly
harmless, and Mrs has known
people who tried it with quick results."
The foregoing mixture, recommended
to be taken internally and as "perfectly
harmless," is a fair sample of
A **CURE" FOR SMALLPOX
the ignorant statements frequently disseminated
about smallpox. Every physician
and druggist is familiar with the
fact that digitalis is one of the most
poisonous and dangerous drugs in the
whole pharmacopeia, and yet such dangerous
trash frequently finds its way
into the news columns of the best newspapers
in North Carolina. The whole
business is discouraging, to say the
least.
Why have smallpox, anyhow The
one disease having a sure preventive
for more than one hundred years. Get
vaccinated, and let the Sairy Gamps
who write the remedies for smallpox
to be published in the personal columns
of the newspapers take the digitalis.
Most infections are transmitted
through contact ; contact of hands, contact
of skin with objects, contact of
objects with the mouth, infection of
food through contact are some of the
means of transmission.