GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1S21. 



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OUR FOOD PAGE 



CONSTANCE ROOT BOVDEN 



iStancy Puerden 



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SOMETIMES I 

 wonder if 

 there is any 

 other food writ- 

 er in the country 

 situated just as 

 I am. You who 

 have been sub- 

 scribers for 

 many years 



know that Gleanings has always catered to 

 beekeepers only, and as the majority of bee- 

 keepers are men, in spite of a few capable 

 exceptions, the majority of Gleanings read- 

 ers are men, and the editors expect me to 

 conduct a food page that will please them 

 as well as their wives. Now, I have just one 

 way of judging whether what I write is ac- 

 ceptable or not, and that is by the letters I 

 receive, and it has been noticeable that 

 when I write of some household convenience 

 I receive many letters from nice men who 

 are interested and wish to duplicate it for 

 their wives. 



How often does your wife sweep her 

 kitchen, Mr. Beekeeper? You may not know, 

 and of course it is none of my business, but 

 I know that if she is an average house- 

 keeper she does it at least 365 times a year. 

 If she is exceptionally neat she may do it 

 oftener, say twdce that. If she is exception- 

 ally untidy, or put it unfortunate, in drop- 

 ping crumbs, etc., on the floor, she probably 

 has to do it oftener or have the litter 

 tracked all over the dining room and living 

 room. And each and every time that kitchen 

 is swept the dustpan and perhaps a whisk 

 broom are brought from their hooks, closet, 

 or shelf, the sweeper must stoop, brush up 

 the dust, empty the dustpan in a trash bas- 

 ket on the back porch or out of doors, and 

 return tlie dustpan and whisk broom to their 

 appointed place. Theoretically I don 't 

 mind stooping frequently, for it probably 

 helps keep one slender, but actually when I 

 am tired and in a hurry I have noticed that 

 I would rather walk a great many steps 

 than stoop. 



T''en, too, I have found myself trying to 

 estimate how much time would be saved if 

 the floor would open up and swallow that dust 

 wlien I had it swept into a neat pile. Only 

 a minute, someone may argue; but when 

 you multiply that minute by 365 or 730 or 

 maybe 1,000 you have a number of hours 

 saved in a year, hours that could be spent 

 so much more pleasantly and profitably. 



To come to the point in my story, when 

 I sweep my kitchen now I sweep toward 

 the gas range, and when the sweepings are 

 collected in a heap just below the front of 

 the range, which is the high variety with 

 plenty of room under it, I pull a strong 

 cord, attached at a convenient height to the 

 near-by wall, the floor opens up, I joyfully 

 sweop the dust into the opening, with a 

 turn of tlie wrist close it, hang up the broom 

 in the stairway to the basement, the door 



1 



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of which is close 

 by, and depart 

 from the kitch- 

 en with that 

 feeling of satis- 

 faction impart- 

 ed by a task 

 easily and 

 quickly accom- 

 plished. 

 It is even more convenient than I anti- 

 cipated. You know how often a few crumbs, 

 nutshells, and the like are scattered on the 

 floor when a member of the family is hun- 

 gry and helps himself to something between 

 meals. (That masculine pronoun was used 

 in place of the singular, common, personal 

 pronoun which English lacks. No personal 

 reflections were intended.) Also when flour 

 or other supplies are put in the cabinet a 

 little is liable to be spilled on the floor. With 

 the dust chute it is a simple matter to have 

 the floor tidy again in a moment. 



Another thing, if you men know anything 

 about sweeping a bare floor you know how 

 hard it is to corral all the ' ' fluff "in a dust- 

 pan. Also the fine dust has a most irritating 

 fashion of slipjjing under the edge of the 

 dustpan instead of into it. I find it much 

 easier to coax them both down the chute. 



But the best part of this little conveni- 

 ence is that there is no reason why every 

 housekeeper should not have one similar. 

 Ours was made in a few hours by our seven- 

 teen-year-old son during his holiday vaca- 

 tion from college. He sawed thru the 

 double floor and the inlaid linoleum, which 

 is firmly cemented to the floor, cutting out 

 a section 10 by 12 inches. Hinges on the 

 back of this, a stop below the front edge, 

 and a flat, iron bar firmly fastened down, 

 with a loop in the end thru which to pass 

 the strong cord which lifts it, complete an 

 easily raised trap door which is so incon- 

 spicuous that it is hardly noticed. In the 

 basement a light drygoods box is fitted be- 

 tween the floor joists just under the open- 

 ing into the kitchen and fastened in place 

 by an easily turned button. I imagine once 

 a month will be quite often enough to empty 

 the box. 



Just at this point my New England con- 

 science, er Western Reserve conscience, 

 which is the same thing, forces me to ex- 

 plain that an ingenious brother had this 

 sort of a dust chute in his kitchen years 

 before we did. Since ours has been in opera- 

 tion my only regret is that we did not have 

 it years ago, and I cannot understand why 

 so many kitchens are without them. Prac- 

 tically all modern houses are built with 

 clothes chutes, but the dust chute, which I 

 consider even more of a convenience than 

 the clothes chute, is so rare that I never 

 saw more than one before we had our own. 

 If you wish your wife to have kind thoughts 

 of you at least once a day, Mr. Subscriber, 

 just try making her a dust chute. If she is 



