1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



821 



team can draw of boxes. We draw ours to 

 the tool-lions?, and place them overhead on 

 boards, separated so the air can pass freely 

 up between the boxes. The boxes, as you 

 know, have openings in the sides and bot- 

 tom, so that the potatoes are thoroughly 

 aired, while they are kept out of the sun. 

 There they are to remain until the weather 

 is so cold there will be danger of freezing, 

 then they go into the cellar, with the boxes 

 placed far enough apart so they still have 

 air. Last year, our potatoes were put into 

 barrels and taken into the cellar at once ; 

 but I soon found they were rotting in the 

 middle cf the barrels, while they were all 

 right near the outside and near the top and 

 bottom. Think of the amount of slow, ex- 

 pensive, back-breaking work that can be 

 saved in picking up potatoes by using boxes ! 

 Well, the saving of labor is not all. Think 

 of the injury that is done to fruit — yes, and 



to potatoes too — by pouring them out so 

 many times, and picking them up. Some 

 farmers use scoop - shovels, and there is a 

 scoop-shovel made on purpose to use for po- 

 tatoes ; but isn't it a great deal better to 

 pick them up just once, and not have them 

 handled any more until they are in the hands 

 of the consumer? I would do the same 

 thing with fruits and vegetables of every 

 kind, as far as possible— have them handled 

 only once. I would put strawberries and 

 raspberries into fruit-boxes, and have those 

 boxes put right into the hands- of the con- 

 sumer, without any pouring or scooping up. 

 Now, then, in concluding my chapter, 

 which started out with a text enjoining per- 

 fection, I exhort you never to stop short of 

 the betit way of doing things. Don't toler- 

 ate imperfect and slipshod ways. Try to do 

 in the best possible way, every tiling that is 

 to be done. 



CHAPTER XXril. 



A false balance is an abomination to the Lord: but a just Weigtit is his delight.— Phov. 11: 1. 



The men who go with our market-wagon 

 are Christians, and I do not know but that 

 I might say they are young Christians. And 

 let me tell you, my friends, if you have never 

 tried it, there are few better places to test 

 Christian endurance than in going from 

 house to house to sell stulT. Sometimes the 

 best of them complain that it. is a wearying 

 and trying business to one's patience. My 

 reply is, " Vevy likely, boys ; but did you 

 never think it is a grand place to show forth 

 the spirit of Christ, and to work for liim V '' 

 One who can go from place to place, and 

 meet people at all hours of the day, some- 

 times, as a matter of course, when he is un- 

 welcome, needs to lie fortified with a Chris- 

 tian spirit, it seems to me, if any one does. 

 The tradesman who stands behind the coun- 

 ter, needs Christ's spirit too ; but he is, in a 

 sense, more independent, because people 

 come to him ; but in selling garden-produce, 

 on account of the perishable nature of the 

 commodity you are almost obliged to go 

 after your customers. 



There are, perhaps, few things in this 

 world that stir up more ill feeling than mis- 

 imderstandings or dissatisfaction arising 

 from short weights and measures. Our 

 text strikes right at the root of the matter; 



therefore it behooves the one who sells gar- 

 den-stuff, to be Just in his weights and 

 measures. And this calls to mind what 1 

 have spoken of before— the very uncertain 

 way in which stuff is sold. Perhaps the 

 most common way with the greater part of 

 the stuff is to sell it by the quart, peck, or 

 bushel ; but if you set about it you will lind 

 that it is a very hard matter indeed to de- 

 termine what is a quart, peck, or bushel. 

 When friend Terry started his potato-boxes, 

 column after column was occupied in the 

 Ohio Fanner in telling just how large the 

 box should be to hold an exact bushel. If I 

 am correct, it was not settled even then to 

 the satisfaction of all parties. Of course, 

 we know how much a bushel of potatoes 

 weighs, for the law fixes the weight, and so 

 it does that of almost all other produce. 

 But it is not always convenient to take the 

 weight. Potatoes, corn, and apples, are usu- 

 ally heaped up on the half-bushel. Some, 

 in fact, go so far as to say you must put on 

 all you can make stay on. This will do for 

 apples ; but when it comes to peaches worth 

 two or three dollars a bushel, most dealers 

 claim that the measure shoul^l be only fairly 

 rounded ; so you see the quantity purchased 

 or sold is very uncertain indeed. If you buy 



