1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



479 



he could go on with tliat until I could send him 

 a better one. He either refused to use it, or 

 took it with a very bad grace. Now. even if he 

 could not have made very good time he could 

 have made half or^ three-quarters of the time 

 that he could with a good fork, and this would 

 have been better than standing still. On an- 

 other occasion, some more sand was needed 

 over our sweet-potato plants. After he had 

 wasted some time in hunting for a shovel, I 

 showed him a scoop in plain sight. He object- 

 ed to using it. because it was slightly split in 

 the middle. Now, this scoop would have han- 

 dled sand almost if not quite as well as a per- 

 fect one. You may say that you would have 

 started such a raanin double-quick time. All 

 right, if he refused to be corrected in his notions 

 about tools: but as the man in question was 

 one of our most e>vp<'rt gardeners, I decided to 

 let it pass and talk with him about it some 

 time when we felt pleasant. You see from the 

 above that I recommend, at least to some ex- 

 tent, leaving tools, spades, hoes, and forks, out- 

 doors — a practice that has been strongly con- 

 demned by our agricultural writers. Well. I 

 have just" been thinking that we might have 

 a compi'omise — have some little tool-houses or 

 tool-boxes, if you choose, just large enough to 

 shelter a hoe. spade, shovel, etc. While these 

 tools are sheltered from the weather they 

 should be so arranged that one can see quite a 

 distance off what tools are in their places in the 

 tool-box. These tool-boxes should be located 

 over the grounds wliere thei'e is much travel. 

 One good point for us will be at the bridge near 

 the carp-pond: two others will be at the wind- 

 mills, for this is where the men go to get a 

 drink. Trowels for taking up strawberry- 

 plants should also be near these tool-houses. 

 How often I have felt that I would give a nick- 

 el for a trowel, rathei- than to send a boy after 

 one. with the chance of having him come back 

 and inform me that it was not there I Then all 

 hands should coopei'ate in storing the tools in 

 the nearest tool-box that happens to have a 

 vacant place for said tool. Each tool should 

 have a nice convenient place to hang it up, so 

 that there may be no excuse for throwing it 

 down or standing it on end because somebody 

 was tired. Then over its appropriate hanging- 

 place should be the name of the tool. I think I 

 would have some sort of old ax in every tool- 

 box, and a cheap hammer and a few nails. A 

 five-cent hammer will often do a great amount 

 of good. Yes, we want some wrenches too. 

 How often have our men gone clear to the fac- 

 tory for a wrench, and, may be, because they 

 were in a hurry they got one out of the machine- 

 shop! Then the machinists would finally com- 

 plain that a certain convenient wrench was 

 gone, and hadn't been seen for three or four 

 weeks. Now, these troubles about tools are not 

 alone confined to our establishment. I have 

 seen farmers, right during the rush of work, let 

 one of their most valuable men waste more 

 time in a single day than a good tool would cost, 

 just for the lack of what I have been trying to 

 Indicate. Now. my good friend, the next time 

 you make us a visit, you look out for our little 

 tool-houses. Of course, it is possible to have 

 too many tools instead of too few. But a much 

 smaller number can be made to answer, with- 

 out question, if there is some systematic plan- 

 ning instituted, such as I have tried to figure 

 out in the above. Oh, yes! about having a 

 man to the acre, where one has a market-gar- 

 den of one or twenty acres. We have never yet 

 used a fourth of that amount of help — that is, 

 right along. But we have not yet got Jive acres 

 of our twenty up to Peter Henderson's standard 

 of fertility. With an acre underdrained, ma- 

 nured, and worked up fine and soft, down to a 



good depth (and all up to the highest notch). I 

 do believe we can profitably keep one man busy 

 on it during the greater part of the summer 

 months. And when we are raising plants for 

 sale we want two or three boys besides the one 

 man. ^ 



MULCH FOP. STKAWBEKRIES DURING FHUITIXCt 

 TIME. 



I have just removed the outer packing of 

 planer shavings from bee-hives, and expect to 

 use it in mulching strawberries. I have never 

 heard this material recommended for the pur- 

 pose. Do vou know of any objection to it? 



Dayton. 111.. May 22. ' J. A. Gheex. 



[Friend G.. planer shavings have been used a 

 good deal for the purposes you mention: but it 

 is not generally considered satisfactory. It 

 keeps the fruit" clean very well, and mulches 

 the ground so as to be of "considerable protec- 

 tion during a drouth: but the shavings are a 

 long time in rotting, and thus cumber the 

 ground with useless trash. They also after- 

 ward, when worked into the soil, make it dry 

 out worse during a drouth than if they were 

 not present: and when they decay, a kind of 

 fungoid or toadstool growth fi-equently infests 

 them that is not conducive to healthy vegeta- 

 tion. We are using manure now where they 

 were used for bedding under the horses. Where 

 they are more than half horse manure they do 

 much better. But there is no mulch that I 

 know of for the stra icberries like straw. Straw 

 rots quickly, and seems to furnish a valuable 

 vegetable constituent for the soil. If we could 

 have cut straw mixed in with horse manure, 

 without any grass or weed seeds in it, we should 

 have the ideal mulch. Sawdust as a mulch 

 has, of course, many of the objectionable fea- 

 tures of planer shavings: but being finer it is 

 not so much of an objection. Hard-wood saw- 

 dust or planer shavings are less objectionable 

 than pine, for they will rot in time, and form 

 rotten wood: and we all know that rotten wood 

 is a very good fertilizer. Pine, however, is a 

 very long while in rotting: and even when it 

 does rot. the rotten pine sawdust does not seem 

 to be of any such value as that which comes 

 from hard wood.] A. I. R. 



JllYgELF WD MY |^EI6pB0f^^. 



Looking unto Jesus, the authoi- and fliiislier of our 

 faith.— Heb. 12:2. 



We have a good many nice workmen, skilled 

 mechanics, and really intelligent artists, in our 

 working force here at the Home of the Honey- 

 bees. At the head of almost every department 

 you will find a skillful artisan — not only men. 

 but women too. who may be intrusted with 

 complicated pieces of work that require great 

 care and painstaking. Every little while we 

 have expensive men sent here from a distance 

 to superintend the construction and putting up 

 of complicated machinery. I like to get ac- 

 quainted with these men, and find out all I can 

 about them. A good many times I ascertain 

 what pay they get. The man who put up our 

 electric-light plant was hardly a man grown. 

 He seemed to be. in fact, a mere boy: but yet 

 he was fully equal to the responsible place in 

 which he had been put. He was pleasant, 

 quiet, and good-natured, but, at the same time, 

 he was decided, and insisted on every step being 

 made just right. Within the past few days we 

 have been locating hydrants out on the grounds, 

 perhaps a hundred feet away, at the different 



