378 



Put the Tools in their proper places. — Yellows. Vol. XI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Put the Tools in their proper places. 



There are probably very few, if any, men 

 who have had the charge of farms, with men 

 and boys under their direction, who have not 

 frequently experienced vexatious interrup- 

 tions in their business for want of a tool, 

 which at the moment it was needed, could 

 not be found. It had probably been used by 

 some one of the family, left where it was 

 used, and forgotten. Those farmers who 

 require their domestics to deposit the tools 

 which they use, in some definite place, 

 whenever they have done with them, and 

 exact invariable attention to this rule, may 

 be deemed punctilious and rigid, but they 

 often save themselves and others no trifling 

 share of perplexity. A simple instance will 

 illustrate the case — at one time, when I had 

 a large family about me, some vegetables, 

 perhaps turnips, which were buried in the 

 garden, and then covered with a hard frozen 

 crust, were wanted for dinner: to break this 

 crust a grubbing-hoe was required. It was 

 known there was one about the premises; 

 but nobody could tell where it was. After 

 an extended search, the attempt to find the 

 grubbing-hoe was abandoned as hopeless, 

 and other means of supplying the dinner 

 were adopted. Some time, probably several 

 weeks afterwards, in walking over one of 

 the fields, the hoe was found lying on the 

 ground, and it was discovered, that a hired 

 man who had been directed to spread some 

 lime there, had taken it with him to reduce 

 the lime into smaller fragments ; and when 

 he was done with it, thrown it down, and 

 forgotten it. 



An old man once told me, that when he 

 was a boy, he was engaged on one occasion, 

 in company with a hired man in chopping 

 wood; and in the evening, they concluded 

 that as they expected to be similarly em- 

 ployed on the next day, they might save 

 themselves the trouble of carrying their 

 axes home with them. They therotbre hid 

 them in the woods and walked home. His 

 grandfather, with whom he lived, saw them 

 returning, but made no observation till they 

 were just about retiring to bed; he then in- 

 quired whether they had brought the axes 

 home; and upon receiving an answer in the 

 negative, told them they must go and bring 

 them. They asked if they were not to re- 

 turn to their former employment in the 

 morning 1 but he told them they did not 

 know that they would live til! morning, and 

 if they should die during the night, nobody 

 would know where to lonk for the axes, ilis 

 orders were therefore peremptory, and they 

 were obliged to repair in the night to the 



woods and bring the axes home. This taught 

 the boy a lesson which he did not quickly 

 forget; and very probably saved him more 

 trouble in after life, than this nocturnal jour- 

 ney to the woods. 



It is said, that Dean Swift was very par- 

 ticular to have the doors shut by those who 

 entered or left the room. A favourite maid 

 on one occasion, asking permission to attend 

 a marriage at a distance, he not only granted 

 her request, but offered to send a man to 

 wait on her. Pleased with this kindness, 

 she hastily withdrew and forgot to close the 

 door afler her. When she and her waiter 

 had been some time gone, a servant was 

 despatched in haste to demand their return. 

 When he overtook them they were several 

 miles on the way, but the order being pe- 

 remptory, they reluctantly returned home : 

 when the maid presented herself before the 

 Dean and inquired his pleasure, he told her, 

 he wished her to shut the door after her. 

 This piece of instruction we may readily 

 conceive, required no repetition. L. 



Remedy for the YelloM^s. 



It may seem to many persons a difficult 

 task to rid ourselves of so wide spread a 

 malady as this, yet we are confident that a 

 little perseverance and care will certainly 

 accomplish it. In the present uncertainty 

 with regard to its contagious nature, it is 

 much the wisest course to reject "the bene- 

 fit of the doubt," and act upon the principle 

 t'lat it is so. We know at the present mo- 

 ment several gardens, where the trees are 

 maintained in good health by immediately 

 rooting out and destroying every tree as 

 soon as it shows marked symptoms of the 

 malady. 



1. We would therefore commence by ex- 

 terminating, root and branch, every tree 

 which has the yellows. And another tree 

 should not be planted in the same spot with- 

 out a lapse of several years, or a thorough 

 removal of the soil. 



2. The utmost care should be taken to 

 select seeds for planting from perfectly 

 healthy trees. Nurserymen to secure this 

 should gather them from the latest rij^ening 

 varieties, or procure them from districts of 

 the country where the disease is not known. 



3. So far we have aimed only at procuring 

 a healthy stock of trees. 'J'he most import- 

 ant matter remains to be stated — lioio to 

 pi-cxerve them in a healthy stale. 



The answer to this is emphatically as fol- 

 lows : pvrsi/e steadily, from the first bear- 

 ing year, the shortening-in system of 'prun- 

 ing. This will at once secure your trees 

 agamst the possibility of over-bearing, and 



