1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



S19 



blessing to iiour><elf and a blessing to those 

 around you : and, if I am correct, most of 

 our troubles come from letting self rale, in- 

 stead of Christ's si)irit. Sometimes it seems 

 very, very hard to i)ut down self and exalt 

 the Master ; but it can be done, and must be 

 done. In business matters, also, it is hard, 

 many times, to succeed in making your bus- 

 iness pay expenses, especially with the 

 sharp, keen competition that is round about 

 you. 



And now I want to point out one more 

 difficulty in making business a success. 

 You will have to strive and work hard, just 

 as you strive and work hard to liave a clear 

 conscience, and to be at all times pure in 

 heart. You must not let expenses exceed 

 your income ; that is, you must not pay out 

 more money than you take in. You may 

 feel like complaining that your lot in life is 

 hard. Satan will tempt you to feel that 

 you are working like a slave, and he may 

 tempt you to revolt, and declare you won't 

 do it, and that you are going to take things 

 easy, as others do. Beware of such thoughts. 

 The ea.se that he holds up to you temptingly 

 is not ease— it is bondage. Very likely other 

 folks around you seem to succeed without 

 half the exertion you are making. That 

 has nothing to do with it. I do not mean 

 that you must overtask your strength, for 

 that would be folly. Take such strength 

 as God gives you, and make the most of it 

 you can. But have your wits about you, 

 and keep watch of things. Suppose, for 

 instance, you are obliged to hire a man to 

 plow your ground. Be sure that, when he 

 makes his appearance at 7 o'clock in the 

 morning, every thing is in peil'ect readiness 

 for him. And, by the way, before hiring a 

 man with a team I would have an under- 

 standing as to how many hours he is to 

 work for you ; in fact, the better plan is to 

 have him w^ork by the hour. If he comes at 7 

 and works till noon, call it five hours. A 

 man with a good team should be worth 80 

 cts. an hour, or may be 8.5. If he is half an 

 hour late, 15 cts. or more is out of his pocket 

 and not i/ours; and if there has been an 

 agreement beforehand, there need be no dif- 

 ferences in regard to the matter. If he is 

 going to plow, l)e sure that the plow is in 

 good order, and see to it the night before- 

 hand if possible. You can not afford to pay 

 a man three or four dollars a day to work 

 with poor tools, nor can you afford to have 

 the team stand still while you have him fuss 

 with the tools. Have a good sharp point 

 on the plow, before 7 o'clock. If you are to 



furnish him his breakfast, be sure that is 

 disposed of before the time to commence. 

 (I believe the women-folks usually do see to 

 that part.) Have the plow on the spot also ; 

 have the doubletrees attached ; see that the 

 clevises are stout ; that the pins that go 

 through them are fastened by leathers, or in 

 some other way. I have seen two men and 

 a team stand still a good many times while 

 they hunted and fretted, may be, for a pin 

 that came out of a clevis. If there are any 

 bolts on the plow, see that the nuts are 

 turned up tight. The plow should also be 

 bright. Perhaps the quickest way to brighten 

 it, if it is not kept bright, is to run it through 

 a bed of gravel ; and when it is once nice 

 and bright I would give it a thorough greas- 

 ing with the good cheap lubricating oils we 

 have nowadays. A good big jugful or a 

 canful should be always near at hand. A^ery 

 often the 1 ime of a team can be saved by a 

 little forethought. If you are going to plow, 

 and then draw manure awhile, push the 

 wagon up to the manure-heap by hand, if 

 you can not do any better, and load it while 

 the team is plowing. Keep in mind, that, 

 while a man and team is worth 30 cts. or 

 more an hour, the time of one man is worth 

 only from 10 to 1-5 cts. an hour; and this one 

 man can very often save the time of two 

 horses and two men. For the same reason, 

 a boy and a man work profitably together. 

 It always makes me feel guilty when I man- 

 age in such a way that an expensive man 

 is seen going across the lots after a jug of 

 water. After it happened once or twice, I 

 provided three or four water-jugs. Each 

 jug had a cork in it to keep out insects. I 

 prefer corks to corncobs or any such like 

 substitutes. I also want smooth clean jugs. 

 The hands are carefully instructed to take 

 a jug of water along when they are going 

 some distance away to work. A boy at 

 work witli a man will do such errands, and, 

 a great deal of the time, find work that he 

 can do as fast a man could do it. When the 

 boy is not wanted for any thing else, he can 

 busy himself in picking up stones and roots 

 on almost any piece of ground. Whoever 

 manages the work needs to be constantly 

 looking foiward to the next job, and to 

 make it his business to see that every thing 

 is in readiness for it. The boy can bring the 

 necessary implements, and have them in 

 place. If manure is to be hauled, the ma- 

 nure-forks can be right at the spot when 

 wanted. Sometimes a teamster will be all 

 hitched up, ready to start, and then have to 

 cluise about to find liis whip. I find it 



