3375. 1 
THE GARDEN BROOM, AND HOW TO USE IT. 
213 
in these advanced days. It seems to me, that some men go muddling on in the 
mediaeval way in which they were first taught, clinging to their original 
ideas, wasting their strength and time, without giving one moment’s thought 
to any improvement, and without considering that the labour involved in using a 
broom, may be turned to good or bad account. I have seen very recently three 
men at work in company occupied in sweeping one single walk of no more than 
7 ft. width : two of them side by side with brooms, and the third wheeling the 
barrow on a little way, and waiting to take up the refuse that the other two had 
swept up to him, and which he then scraped up and placed in the barrow, the 
other two, the sweepers, waiting while he performed his part, and then going on 
for another spell, while the barrow-man again waited at a short distance—and 
so on. The sweepers handled their brooms in the most unscientific, cross¬ 
handed manner possible, like thoughtless awkward boys. I have been quite 
ashamed to see such things still practised. In the first place, of those three 
men there were two too many for the job ; they were in each, other’s way, and 
could not have displayed the least science in handling the broom, even if they 
had been possessed of it. 
The fact is, that walks which for some time have been under this unscientific 
mode of treatment, become entirely spoiled, the stones being dragged towards 
the sides until they are nearly buried, the walks becoming sloped to the middle 
and also worn into a gully, which fills with water and mud after every shower 
that falls, making them most uncomfortable for any one to pass along with¬ 
out being furnished with mud-boots or a boat! It is really astonishing that 
such practices should still continue in vogue. One man (or lad) who had been 
taught the science of sweeping, and who made proper use of the broom on either 
walks, roads, or grass, would perform his work better and more expeditiously 
than three such men as I have above described. As I find various absurdi¬ 
ties still in practice, not only as regards the use of the broom, but of other 
garden-tools, I intend to discuss these matters in the hope of working some 
reformation. 
For a man’s own comfort, as well as with the view to the economy of time and 
labour, he should always be instructed to make use of the broom (or any other 
tool) in a manly, scientific, and proper manner, changing quickly from right to 
left, or left to right, as occasion requires, and not working, as we so constantly 
see, back-handed or cross-handed, the lower hand put to the tool-handle the 
w T rong way, and the man himself sidling along like a crab, or in some awkward, 
unnatural posture. 
The broom-handle should be made of a proper size for the hand, and of some 
light, soft, tough wood, and should be of a convenient length and set at a proper 
angle. The workman should always practise its use from left to right, and from right 
to left, since this change rests the body, and wears the tool evenly. It is astonish¬ 
ing how the workman saves his strength and his time, and rests his frame, by the 
practice of performing both ways ; also, what an amount of extra work can be 
