GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1906 



do" I spoke of making an "eggshell'' 

 landing. An expert boatman is expected 

 to run up to the dock so quietly that his 

 boat would not break the shell of an egg as 

 it struck. Bumping injures the dock and 

 injures the boat. A nice boat should never 

 "bump" anything. When the wind rises, 

 our boys untie their boats and anchor them 

 so far away from the dock the wind can not 

 possibly pound them against it. Besides 

 this, about once in 90 days a boat should be 

 turned over on dry ground, dried out, calk- 

 ed, and then painted. 



I have mentioned that the three girls go a 

 mile and a half to school in a little row-boat. 

 A few days ago their fifteen- year- old cousm, 

 Ernest Shumard (by the way, he was named 

 after Ernest Root about fifteen years ago), 

 told his mother he was not well enough to 

 go to school, and got permission to stay at 

 home. While at home, however, he rigged 

 up a little mast for this row-boat, got his 

 mother to help make a sail, and the girls 

 come home without touching an oar. Ot 

 course, they can not tack very well without 

 a center- board; but much of the time their 

 little sail saves them a deal of hard work. 



SAILING ON DRY LAND. 



A few days ago our mail-boat left a pretty 

 heavy box of oranges, lemons, and grape 

 fruit at our landing, sent by our neighbor 

 Drumright. I knew I should have quite a 

 task wheeling them almost a mile along the 

 beach, because the sand in some places is 

 rather soft. This is what I did after I had 

 considered that a hard wind was blowing our 

 way. I fastened a four- foot- stick on the 

 back board of a wheelbarrow just over the 

 wheel Then I drove two stakes into the 

 staples that hold the side-boards. These 

 stakes reached about as high as my head, and 

 across and top of them 1 fastened another 

 four-foot stick. A piece of burlap or bag- 

 ging about four feet square made the sail. 

 One edge was tacked to each four- foot stick, 

 and a stout cord ran from the top end of the 

 handles of the barrow to the ends of the 

 stick near my head. I loaded on my oranges, 

 let the wind fill my sail, and it was easy 

 work carrying the load. When a big gust 

 of wind came I had to run to keep up. 

 Another thing, my sail was disposed so it 

 was something like a kite; and while it pull- 

 ed, it also lifted up on the load so much that 

 in soft sand, when there was a good puff of 

 wind, the wheel sank in the sand very little. 

 When a horse pulls a vehicle through the 

 mud he lifts up on it as well as pulls it ahead. 

 The power applied to an automobile does not 

 pull tip at all, and this is why it takes a four 

 or five horse-power engine to propel a load 

 that two horses would pull easily. My de- 

 vice pulls like the horse, or better still. We 

 need no guiding mechanism with a wheel- 

 barrow, for it is guided already. Whenever 

 heavy loads are to be moved with a wheel- 

 barrow any distance of any account the wind 

 can easily be made to help. When going 

 the other way your sticks and cloth tied up 

 take but little room, and their weight is 

 trifling. 



525 



Just a word more about sail-boats. With 

 a fair wind your boat handles better and 

 sails faster with a good load than when 

 empty. In fact, the boys carry all the time 

 on their fishing-boats a bag of sand for bal- 

 last, weighing over 100 lbs. When the wind 

 blows across the path of the boat so as to 

 tip it over badly this sand-bag is placed clear 

 upon or across the gunwale, so as to straight- 

 en the boat up, as it were. Larger boats 

 carry tons of scrap iron as ballast. Some- 

 times heavy freight can be transported at a 

 very low rate by letting it take the place of 

 ballast. Isi^Sk 



No good thing will he withhold from them that walk 

 uprightly. -Psalm 84 : 11. 



GOD'S gifts; the water we drink. 

 I believe the general decision is that, as a 

 rule pure soft water is safest to drink, and 

 disti'Ued water is probably the purest water 

 that we can readily procure. Rain water 

 taken right as it falls from the clouds 

 (God's precious gift) is, however, so nearly 

 identical with distilled water that wherever 

 rainfalls are frequent it is. perhaps the 

 water for the average individual. I. a. 

 Terry secures his drinking-water from a 

 slate roof after there has been sufficient 

 rain to wash the dust, smoke, etc., from 

 the slates; and, if I am correct, he preserves 

 it in covered stoneware jars. Perhaps there 

 is no better way than this; but I have been 

 using an automatic device we hke very much 

 for accomplishing nearly the same result. 1 

 have told vou of our painted wooden eave- 

 trough Well, before I got around to mak- 

 ing a wooden conductor to bring the water 

 straight down at the end of the spouting 

 into the rain-barrel. I noticed that, during a 

 hard rain, the water would spout away be- 

 yond the barrel, and that it was only when 

 a great quantity of water was commg down 

 that the stream shot over the ram- barrel. A 

 pail was placed beyond the barrel, and as 1 

 expected, the water in this pail was of the 

 very best. This is an important matter 

 here, as our shingles are cedar; and unless 

 it is raining very hard these shingles give us 

 a little more cedar flavor than is desired. 

 Well when it first begins to rain, the water 

 for a time drops straight down from the end 

 of the trough. We set a big pail or tub tor 

 this strong dusty water, and use it for wash- 

 ing the hands. The large barrel gets the 

 mlin part of the water from the shower; 

 but the pail or tub that catches all that 

 shoots over the barrel is always the best for 

 rfriTikirifir 



An ideal way would be to have a box or 

 trough divided into three compartments; 

 and if you wish to avoid " cultivating mos- 

 quitoes, have a hinged cover over all, to be 



