HE-STING LONG AT NOON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3653, 30 March 1883, Page 4

HE-STING LONG AT NOON.

Farmers, mechanics, and those who labor out of doors iv warm weather should take long rests at noon. AYe believe that people of no other coimtry do more work iv the sun than do those of North New Zealand, except, perhaps, America. Among the Spaniards the practice of sleeping at noon is almost as common as that of sleeping at night. In Northern Europe a shorter time is given to rest at noon, because the temperature is lower, and the rays of the sun-lij-dit-full so as to produce a less injurious effect upon laborers. Still, the time for rest is longer in this part of Europe than here or iv the United States. With us there is no stopi-ing work for the sake of taking rest at noon. Labor is suspended only to allow men and animals to take food and water. As soon as eating and drinking are finished, work in the open sun is resumed. Without doubt we should be gainers, both in the matter of health and wealth, if we gave a considerable time during the middle of the day to rest. More sickness occurs among- farmers immediately after haying and harvesting than at any other season of the year, and the cause of it may be attributed, in a great majority of of cases, to exposure to the heat of the sun when it is almost directly over the heads of workmen engaged in the fields. The number of cases of sunstroke increases every year. Many who are not prostrated by the heat are greatly iujurcd by it. What is true of men iv this respect is also true of animals. A good long rest at noon would prevent exposure to tho sun at the time when injurious effects are most likely to follow. It would also put both men and animals in a condition to do more work during the cooler portions of the afternoon. -North N.Z. Settler.