478 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



when circumstances render it advisable. It is 

 interesting to note that Dadant & Son say tliat 

 ■'cutting out queen-cells will do no good; " and 

 J. A. Green indorses their view by saying, "Cut- 

 ting out queen-cells is a very poor way." There 

 is one other way of reducing the number of 

 your colonies when you have more than you 

 want. I am a little surprised that Dr. Miller 

 did not touch on it. He can not claim, how- 

 ever, to be the inventor of the idea, foi' it is 

 very old. It is very simple and easy. It is, 

 briefly, letting them starve during winter. 

 Some think it is better to let them starve in the 

 cellar than outdoors. It certainly would be a 

 little more trouble, but it might have its ad- 

 vantages.] A. I. R. 



SPECIAL DEPARTMENT FOR A. I. ROOT, AND HIS 

 FRIENDS WHO LOVE TO RAISE CROPS. 



TOOLS FOR MARKET-GAKDENING. 



The incident mentioned in the Home Papers 

 of this issue has suggested that our trouble in 

 regard to tools may be somewhat obviated by 

 a better system. We have now about 20 acres 

 devoted to market-gardening, and the weather 

 and other circumstances often render it impor- 

 tant to drop one job and take up another very 

 suddenly. Every little while an ax or a spade 

 or a hoe is wanted badly. We have a regular 

 tool-house, such as Terry planned: but it is a 

 great nuisance to carry the tools back to the 

 tool -house every time we are done using them. 

 Last Saturday we wei'e making some improve- 

 ments in our swamp garden, and a lot of men 

 and boys were at woi'k there with at least a 

 dozen different tools. Now, during weather 

 such as we were having then, there is no need 

 at all of bringing the tools home at night: in 

 fact, we did not want them returned to the tool- 

 house until the job was finished. But the boys 

 and other hands annoyed me constantly by 

 bringing home the tools nights. The result was, 

 the next morning several men would go up to 

 the swamp, without sufficient tools to work 

 with. Then some one would remember that a 

 lot of tools were used in setting out basswood- 

 trees down by the carp-pond, and so he started 

 out, a quarter of a mile away, after them. When 

 he got there he found these tools had also been 

 carried up: and as it was a new hand that did 

 it. he put them in a new place. Then a gener- 

 al hunt ensued. While " a place forevei-y thing 

 and every thing in its place ''is an excellent 

 motto generally, if carried out literally it fre- 

 quently makes a lot of trouble. If I am on 

 hand when they stop work I can decide wheth- 

 er the tools are to be left where they are until 

 morning, or carried to the tool-house. Now. if 

 we have this kind of trouble with hoes, spades, 

 and shovels, it is a worse ti'ouble still when it 

 come'* to wheelbarrows, plows, harrows, and 

 cultivators. You may say that each workman 

 should have his own tools, and make it his bus- 

 iness to take care of them. Well, even this 

 makes trouble if you undertake to follow it lit- 

 erally. Very few workmen will take care of a 

 tool, or kee]j it in order, unless he oivns it. We 

 have a few men who have tried owning their 

 tools : but this very thing very often makes 

 trouble. This workman can not always work 

 with OJie tool, therefore he must put away ev- 

 ery tool a,s soon as he changes to some other 

 one, or somebody will get hold of it. If a spade 

 happens to be w;inted for use a few minutes, 

 and one is seen standing up by the fence, it 

 seems rather hard to think it can not be used 

 because it is the property of Mr. so and so. Pe- 

 ter Henderson says that, with their high-press- 



ure gardening, with soil manured up to its 

 highest notch, it needs pretty nearly a man to 

 the acre during the busy season. Well, to pro- 

 vide 20 men with suitable tools at every step 

 and every stage is quite a complicated prob- 

 lem. We can not afford to have experienced 

 men traveling here and there after tools: neith- 

 er can we afford to have twice as many tools as 

 are really needed, just to save this traveling. 



Another thing about traveling around after 

 tools is, that thoughtless hands will walk over 

 the ground when it is too wet to be stepped on, 

 and thus do considerable injury. A good many 

 boys (and some men), in going for a tool will 

 step on valuable plants, and do them injury. 

 One of my greatest trials is to educate our boys 

 so that they will not tramp on one kind of veg- 

 etables while they are gathering or caring for 

 another kind. You may say you would start 

 such boys for home in double-quick time. Hold 

 on, my friend. Suppose this boy has a widow- 

 ed mother, and the only opening to keep her 

 from suffering and want is through this boy's 

 labor and skill. In that case, would you not 

 take time and pains to teach him? To be sure, 

 you would. Besides, the boy who steps on 

 every thing before him and behind him the flrst 

 week he comes to work will soon be a valuable 

 hand if you teach him kindly: and as years 

 pass on, if you and he hang together he may 

 turn out to be one of those expei't. /JJiJs^ed m,e- 

 ehanlcs I have alluded to in the piesent Home 

 Paper. I have seen it done several times, right 

 under my ovvn eyes; and the sight of such a 

 boy. or man. if "you choose, trained to work 

 with care and accuracy, and to be master of his 

 calling, is worth more to me than to look on 

 the most splendid crops, or to see the cash 

 handed over from a willing purchaser. Well, 

 then, what about the tools? I will get to that 

 presently. Perhaps no other one thing is so 

 often called for all over the grounds as cheap 

 market-baskets — peck and half-bushel. The 

 men are out in the field somewhere, and there 

 is a sudden call for spinach. If they had a bas- 

 ket I could call their attention with a whistle, 

 and then tell them to send up a bushel of spin- 

 ach by one of the boys at woi'k with them. 

 Again, when they are coming up to dinner they 

 could bring a basket of onions or rhubarb just 

 as well as not, if baskets were in readiness; and 

 they are so constantly needed, that, during the 

 summer season, we keep baskets scattered all 

 through the grounds. A boy takes as many as 

 he can carry, and scattei'S them around. It is 

 true, the sun and rain spoil them somewhat; 

 but they cost only three or four cents, so the 

 basket is worth less than the time of going to 

 the market- house for one.* It is a great deal 

 the same way with a hoe. A man finishes a 

 job pretty near to dinner time. If he had a hoe 

 he could put in the time profitably in a good 

 many xjlaces: but the hoes are away off in the 

 tool-house: therefore we have cheap hoes, or 

 hoes partly worn out, hung on the fence in dif- 

 ferent places, and these are there all summer; 

 and the same way with spades. And we have 

 some old manure-forks put around in different 

 places, to be used on a pinch for short jobs. 

 Some good workmen object to these partly 

 used-up tools, I know. But we scatter them 

 about so they often do excellent service in an 

 emergency. I remember one man stood still for 

 quite a while because he hadn't a suitable tool 

 for shaking up the manure in a hot-bed. I 

 pointed out to him a four-tined manui'e-fork 

 with one of the tines broken out. I told him 



*Every little while some well-meaning- new boy 

 makes mischief by gathering up all the baskets 

 (witliout orders) and carrying tliem to tlie niarket- 

 liouse. 



