July 15: "How to Lessen the Labor of Women"

I stumbled upon this hilarious article in the 1892 issue (page 457) of Gleanings in Bee Culture when I was reading up on L. L. Langstroth (for the article I wanted to write but just discovered may have already been written as a play).

"How to Lessen the Labor of Women
Who Have Swarming Bees to Care For

If the dishes are washed and immediately replaced upon the table it saves much time, for, when dish-washing time comes, one generally has more time than just before the meal...Leave the sugar, butter, salt, pepper, honey, spoons, and such things as are needed each meal, always upon the table. Do not go to the cellar for potatoes each meal, but bring up a large panful at some leisure time, and wash all at once...

The washings may be done on rainy or dark days, when the bees choose to stay at home. The underclothes, sheets, and towels may be used without ironing, rather than overwork, or rather than let the bees go to the woods or swarm when there is no one to care for them; for if one keeps bees it pays to take care of them in the proper time...

The bread may be set in the evening, so that it may be baked before swarming time next day. Many prefer setting bread at night, thinking it makes better bread...

When much extra work is expected, as swarming or harvesting, it pays to be liberal with the pennies for the children, to induce them to save steps for their parents, and thus tide them over the hard places...Leave as little to be done in the mornings as possible. If there is time in the evening, pick the berries. Take the children along, and, if they can't be induced in any other way, reward them a little for work done...

Sweeping and dusting spare rooms, scrubbing porches and walks, may be done in the evenings, if there is spare time; if not, they had better be left undone than to overwork...Such work can better be neglected than cooking, for it helps one to be good-natured to have appetizing food; and of all times when I appreciate good dinners, it is when I have been wearied and worried catching swarms...[swarming happens] at most for three weeks once in a year, unless it be a year like 1882, when we had one or more swarms every day from the first of June to the middle of September, except about a week in the first of August."

Mrs. L. C. Axtell, Roseville, Illinois