Chapter LI: Appendix: On Forestry Schools and Courses (4)

As its name implies, this department obtains customers who consume electrical energy. Such light and small appliance business as does not come unsolicited is secured by solicitors. Each solicitor is ordinarily assigned a certain district. To be a success at selling, a man must first of all be competent to meet tactfully people of all types. Furthermore, he should be familiar with electric lighting requirements and rates, so that he can discuss these with prospective customers and advise them authoritatively. Experience, however, has shown that men with no previous electrical training can, provided they have the “selling instinct,” be trained in a few weeks so that they can strike out for themselves and procure lighting contracts. Probably selling pays better, considering the relatively small amount of technical training that it requires, than does any other branch of public-utility work. Solicitors are frequently paid on a salary and commission basis. Their incomes may range from $60 to $150 or more a month. The field is an attractive one for men whose disabilities will permit of their entering it. Such technical training for solicitors as is absolutely necessary is usually furnished by the company which proposes to employ them, but all of the electrical education that a man can acquire will be of material value. By all means take a theoretical electrical course if you can.

The job of the power-sales engineer is to solicit contracts for power loads for the central station. Considerable engineering training is necessary for effective work. The man should be familiar with steam and gasoline power-plant installations. He should know how to apply effectively electric motors in the different branches of industry. Furthermore, he must meet people easily and be able to express his ideas accurately. In other words, he also should have the selling temperament. A man who has had considerable electrical experience and possesses the other qualifications can easily prepare for this vocation. The company which engages him will, usually, train him for it. Ordinarily, a salary and commission are paid. The income may range from $80 to $250 per month or more.

While solicitors and salesmen are supposed to work about 8 hours a day their time is, in one sense, their own. Little attention is given to the number of hours the man puts in, provided he obtains a reasonable amount of business. Some of the visits to prospective customers must be made in the evening, or possibly on Sundays. On the other hand, it occurs not infrequently that a salesman may go to a ball game on a Tuesday afternoon, his salary continuing meanwhile.

PLAN No. 1208. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

This department of an electric company is responsible for the design and construction of the system as a whole. A chief engineer is the executive head. To assist him there are assistant engineers, inspectors, and draftsmen. The chief engineer and his principal assistants are, ordinarily, men of mature years and much experience. Hence, there is little possibility of a returned soldier qualifying for one of these positions unless he has previously done similar work. But there are opportunities to start in the engineering department as inspectors or draftsmen. The inspectors are “outside” men. Much of their work is in the open. They compile information and reports on engineering projects, on work which is under way, or which has been completed. These notes are utilized in the office in the preparation of drawings and specifications which show the construction departments what to do and how to do it. The draftsmen make the drawings from which the blueprints for construction jobs are reproduced. Any man who has had previous electrical construction experience and who can get around outside and see, hear, and write, should be able to qualify for an engineering inspector’s position. The future offers him the possibility of becoming an assistant engineer.

Engineering drafting offers inviting opportunities for disabled men because much of the work can be done by a person who can sit at a drawing table and use his hands and eyes. Lack of speech and hearing are not insurmountable handicaps because directions can be given and questions asked in writing. There are some one-handed draftsmen. Frequently a draftsman has a job assigned to him and is then left to himself to work it out. He may not speak to or be spoken to by any one for half a day at a time.

Another feature of drafting work which in this connection is important, is that it is possible to utilize men of all grades of ability, provided they have some knowledge of mechanical drawing. If a man can make a fairly good tracing, even if he knows nothing whatever of design, he can be very useful. He can gradually acquire that knowledge of the principles which is necessary to develop him into a draftsman-designer or an engineer. It is, however, essential that, at the start, the candidate know a little about mechanical drawing. Concerns do not usually care to break in a man who has no knowledge whatever of this subject.

Such elementary knowledge as is required may be obtained by taking a Federal Board short course. Men in the engineering department work about eight or nine hours a day. A tracer beginning at the work may earn from $30 to $60 per month. After a man can do some designing he may earn from $60 to $125 per month, depending upon his experience and ability. If a draftsman develops into a designer or assistant engineer he may expect from $125 to $200 per month or more.

PLAN No. 1209. ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT

This department is responsible for the meter reading, billing, collections, and similar commercial features of the business. The work is clerical and statistical in character.

PLAN No. 1210. ELECTRIC-RAILWAY SYSTEMS

The departmental organization of electric-railway systems varies. Large companies have more departments than small ones and probably no two companies are organized on precisely the same plan. However, there are certain functions which must be performed by every company and a typical arrangement for a comparatively large system is the following:

Power department.

Mechanical department.

Transportation department.

Maintenance of way department.

Line department.

Engineering department.

Building department.

Each of these departments has its executive head, its subordinate officers, and its workmen and mechanics.

POWER DEPARTMENT

The power department is responsible for production of electrical energy required for operation. It is directed by an engineer of power. The duties of the department and of the men employed in it are practically identical with those of the power department of an electric-light and power company, which have been already discussed.

MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT

A master mechanic directs the mechanical department of a street-railway company. This department repairs and may build cars used on the system of which there may be a number of types, including passenger cars of several designs, mail cars, baggage cars, and work cars used by the maintenance department. For the repair and construction of this equipment there are required, in addition to the electricians, woodworkers, sheet metal men, machinists, pipe fitters, welders, pattern makers, blacksmiths, and painters.

A street railway electrical shop has duties rather different from those of the usual repair shop. Most of the repairs are on motors of a very few sizes. Furthermore, nearly all are series wound and are for operation on direct current of 600 volts. Much of the work comprises the rewinding of armatures. Burned out copper coils are stripped from the core, and the slots are prepared for new coils. These are placed in a proper sequence and the free ends are soldered to the commutator bars. Next, band wires which maintain the coils in position are wound on. Then the armature is mounted in a lathe where the commutator is turned down and finished ready for operation.

PLAN No. 1211. ARMATURE REPAIRING--MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT

Armature repairing is done with the armature held in a rack about the height of an ordinary workbench. Thus the armature winder is required to stand while working, sometimes for considerable periods. It is essential that he have good feet and legs. It is also necessary that he have the use of most of his fingers. Repairing an armature requires only a few new coils in skilled work. On the other hand, much of the work in armature repairing is of a routine character. Hence a man of little experience can do the work under direction of a journeyman. It will always pay a person who contemplates following armature winding as a vocation, to take a short electrical course before he engages in the actual work. A beginner at armature winding will receive from $50 to $80, an expert may expect $75 to $150, and a foreman or chief $125 to $200 per month. The work is all indoors with an 8 or 9 hour day.

The coils used in rewinding the armature may be purchased complete from an electrical manufacturing company, but the larger concerns make their own coils. The preparation and insulating of these coils is often benchwork. A man who does not have the use of his feet can do some of it. Deft fingers are required, but there are now many blind workers who are insulating armature coils successfully. This work may pay from $40 to $90 a month. Some preliminary manual training is required, which can usually be obtained in the shop where the worker is to be employed.

PLAN No. 1212. SHOP WIRING--MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT

The shop wiremen of an electric-railway company do the wiring around the plant, as well as that on the cars. A journeyman wire man should be able to interpret correctly wiring diagrams for ordinary jobs. These may include the installation of motors, heaters, lights, rheostats, and similar equipment. Also, he should be competent to route economically his circuits through inaccessible places and should be familiar with the National Electrical Code. He may have to install headlights, signal lights, pump-governor relays, and other devices now forming a part of car equipments. The wireman must have had considerable experience, but each wireman usually has a helper to assist him. A man with little or no experience can start in as a helper, and develop into a good wireman. The length of time required to do this will be determined almost wholly by the man’s knowledge of electricity and his efforts at self improvement. It may require six months or a year or two years. The work is done usually in a car shop which is inclosed and heated. An 8-hour day is common, but in some companies the men work 9 or 10 hours. The pay is about $75 to $125 for a wireman, and $50 to $90 for a helper.

PLAN No. 1213. CAR INSPECTING--MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT

The car inspector’s duties involve a knowledge of numerous occupations, and he must be familiar with various sorts of equipment. His position in the company’s organization is an important one, because the expense of car repairs is often materially minimized by his foresight and alertness. He judges which repairs should be made in the general shop and which in the car barn. He must know the function and operation of every working part of the car. In detail, his duties consist of a systematic inspection of all components of the car equipment. These include the motors, controllers, brakes, lights, signs, heaters, and other devices on the cars which may require attention. Usually the work is done during daylight hours. Cars are held periodically in the barn for inspection. Work of this type is well adapted to a man who is unqualified physically for heavy tasks. A man of good judgment who was formerly employed in a car barn in some other capacity and who is, in general, familiar with cars and their repairs, might be trained readily for this occupation. An inspector works eight or ten hours a day and receives a salary varying from $75 to $150 per month.

PLAN No. 1214. TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT

This department handles the traffic, operates the cars, plans their schedules, and revises their routings to meet the requirements of the traveling public. A superintendent of transportation is the executive head. His assistants are the division superintendents, inspectors, instructors, station foremen, motormen, conductors, and the car shifters in the barns. Each division superintendent has charge of the traffic in a certain part of the system. The inspector has charge of the cars and crews while on the road. It is his duty to enforce the rules of the company to insure that cars and equipment are handled efficiently and that the cars maintain their schedules. Men holding the positions of division superintendent and traffic inspector generally qualify for them from the rank and file of the train service. They should have a thorough knowledge of car operation. The inspector’s position is one which an ambitious man, who has the requisite ability, may obtain. Salary ranges from $80 to $160 monthly.

PLAN No. 1215. INSTRUCTING--TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT

Instructors have charge of the training of prospective motormen and conductors. The instructor assigns students to an experienced motorman or conductor who teaches them the essentials of their jobs. Then the instructor informs the new men in detail as to rules and, if necessary, makes trial trips with them. The instructor in many companies also conducts classes wherein the new men are given some schooling as to the theory and practice of the electrical air brake and similar equipment which will come under their charge. A returned soldier who has had prior street-railway experience, who is physically disqualified for work involving physical strain or considerable manual effort, should, after some study, be able to qualify for the position of instructor. For one who is fitted temperamentally for work of this character the position would be a very good one. It will pay about $100 to $175 per month.

PLAN No. 1216. FOREMAN--TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT

A station foreman has charge of the station, and supervises the dispatching of cars on their runs. He keeps the list of extra men and provides crews for extra and special cars. These foremen should be familiar with the operation of street cars. In nearly every case they are promoted from the ranks. They must be tactful in handling men. This position is one to which an individual, who accepts a minor job in the transportation department, may look forward.

MOTORMEN AND CONDUCTORS--TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT

Motormen and conductors have duties with which all are familiar. These occupations have their advantages and also their disadvantages. Some men follow them for almost a lifetime while others soon become dissatisfied and seek other fields. The positions are permanent and frequently carry with them attractive features, such as free medical attention, insurance, and club-room privileges. Pay is ordinarily based on a sliding scale. So the wage which a man receives for his day’s work depends upon the number of years that he has been in the service of the company. Motormen may now receive from $3 to $5 per day, and conductors about the same. Returned soldiers with no previous experience, who are in good shape physically but who must have out-of-door work, may find this work desirable. They will be trained by the company which employs them.

MAINTENANCE-OF-WAY DEPARTMENTS

The maintenance of way, or “track department,” constructs new tracks, bridges, and other structures, and maintains track structures and right of way after construction. Frequently it is under the jurisdiction of a chief engineer who works through a superintendent and a division foreman. A foreman of the machine and tool division directs the shop repairs of the various tools, track grinders, steam shovels, and hoisting engines. He has to qualify as a first-class steam engineer. The paving foreman is responsible for the tearing up and replacing of pavement which the company is required to maintain at each side of and between rails. The supervisor of construction has charge of building new track and of making the repairs to existing lines. Most of the manual work in this department is done by unskilled labor directed by foremen. A disabled man who has had previous experience in construction work might, with some additional training, be able to qualify for a foremanship. Such a position requires executive ability and sufficient education to read blue prints and make out reports. It will pay from $80 to $150 per month. Practically all of the work is out of doors.

PLAN No. 1217. LINE DEPARTMENT

A wire or line department installs and maintains the trolley wires and feeders both underground and overhead. A man with no previous electrical experience may start in as a ground man or helper, and advance himself to the position of lineman and foreman. Electric railway line work is somewhat similar to that necessary for electric lighting companies. One requirement is a good physique, but minor disablements might not handicap. Practically all of the work is done out of doors. The ground men will receive from $2 to $4 and a lineman from $3 to $5 per day; a foreman from $100 to $175 per month.

PLAN No. 1218. TELEPHONE COMPANIES

Telephone systems have grown phenomenally. A few years ago the telephone was a luxury. To-day it is a necessity. It has been predicted that the time will come when there will be at least one telephone in every house, just as practically every city building is now piped for water, so that it appears probable that there will be in the future a steadily increasing demand for trained telephone men.

The type of equipment used in a telephone system is determined to some extent by the size of the town or city in which the system operates. Systems serving small towns are relatively simple. The small community telephone system usually has for its lines individual wires strung on poles. There is a pair of wires for each subscriber. To call central, a hand crank on the sides of the telephone is turned which causes a shutter or drop on the switchboard to fall and expose the line number. Each line has its own drop. Thus the operator’s attention is attracted. She answers the call and by means of cords with plugs on their ends she connects the calling with the called subscriber. Such a system is called “magneto” system, because a magneto generator turned by hand crank is used for calling. Dry cells located at each subscriber’s station supply the electrical energy for talking. While a magneto system like that just described is the most desirable and economical for a small town, its application in a city would be both impractical and prohibitively expensive to operate.

Modern city telephone exchanges operate on the central-energy system. With it there are no dry cells or magnetos at the subscriber’s stations. Electrical energy for both signaling and talking is supplied by a storage battery located in the central office. For this reason an arrangement of this type is called a “central energy” or “common-battery” system. Instead of the switchboard having a drop for each subscriber’s line, it has a small incandescent lamp which is associated with the line. This lights when the subscriber removes his telephone receiver from its hook. For city telephone lines it would be infeasible to use open wires on insulators because there could not be placed on the poles a sufficient number of cross arms to support even a small proportion of the telephone lines which radiate from an exchange. Furthermore, open-line construction for city conditions would be very expensive and difficult to maintain. Hence, in the city exchanges, lead-covered cables, each containing from 20 to 1,200 pairs of conductors, are employed. Where a number of these cables are routed parallel to one another, they are carried in ducts in underground subways. In the residence sections they are supported on poles. It follows that the circuits and connections in a large city telephone exchange are exceedingly complicated. There are thousands of small wires, each of which serves a different purpose. Considered as a whole telephony involves careful work and attention to detail. Much of it is of the same order as fine instrument making.

Departments of telephone companies include: Engineering department, commercial department, auditing department, plant department, traffic department.

PLAN No. 1219. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

This department plans and supervises the development and construction of the property as a whole. In it plans and specifications are prepared for buildings, exchange layouts, subways, and other components. To obtain a position of responsibility in the engineering department one must have had theoretical training and a number of years of telephone experience, but there are usually engineering-department positions in which men of little experience but with some theoretical training can start as draftsmen or clerks, advancing as they acquire experience. In this respect, the engineering department of a telephone company offers somewhat the same possibilities for disabled men as do similar departments in street railways or electric-power companies. Hours of work and compensation will be about the same. However, for a man who has had telephone experience, it is desirable usually to continue in that line. Telephony is probably more exacting and involves greater detail than does power work and may on that account be preferred by some.

PLAN No. 1220. COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT

Contracts for telephone service are obtained by the commercial department. It is the sales organization of a telephone company selling telephone service to the public. In this work there should be opportunities for soldiers with minor disablements who have had prior telephone experience, and who possess the “selling instinct.” The salary will probably range from $60 to $160 per month.

PLAN No. 1221. AUDITING DEPARTMENT

The qualifications for men in this department are about the same as those required of men in any accounting organization. These are treated in detail in one of the other Federal Board monographs.

PLAN No. 1222. PLANT DEPARTMENT

Much of the telephone plant is built and all of it is maintained by this department. It is often segregated into two general divisions, (1) construction division and (2) maintenance division. To administer these there are a construction superintendent and a maintenance superintendent. Then each division may be further subdivided in sections as follows: (_a_) Aerial-line section, (_b_) cable section, (_c_) repair section, (_d_) wire chief’s section, (_e_) installation section, (_f_) cable-report section, and (_g_) clerical section.

Men employed regularly in the construction division may be assigned temporarily to the maintenance division when up-keep work is particularly heavy, and vice versa.

PLAN No. 1223. AERIAL LINE AND CABLE SECTIONS--PLANT DEPARTMENT

By the aerial line and aerial cable sections the overhead lines are built and maintained. The work is somewhat similar to that performed by the corresponding division of an electric light and power company. It is necessary to set and guy poles, place cross arms on them, and string wire. In modern city construction, however, few cross arms are required, because cable and twisted pair “block” wire has almost wholly superseded open wire. The handling of telephone cable is an occupation peculiar to telephone work. Where placed overhead, the lead-covered cable is suspended on steel messenger wire supported on poles. Great care must be exercised in installing cable. It is damaged easily and may then be a source of expensive and provoking trouble. Most of the work in the construction department involves considerable physical exertion, but there are often foremanships and inspectorships which men incapable of great physical exertion and indoor work could fill. General working conditions, qualifications, hours, rates of pay, and the like are about the same as those detailed for the distribution department of an electric-power company.

PLAN No. 1224. UNDERGROUND CABLE SECTION--PLANT DEPARTMENT

This section has to do with installing, joining, and connecting telephone cables. Much of the work is splicing. Telephone cable consists of from 100 to 600 or more pairs of copper wire. Each wire is separated from its neighbors with a wrapping of paper or other insulating material. Then the bunch of conductors is covered by a protective sheath, usually of lead. In splicing, the lead sheath is first stripped from the end of the cable. Then the different corresponding pairs in the cables to be connected are joined together. Each joint is insulated with a paper sleeve slipped over it. When all of the pairs have been connected, a lead sleeve is slipped over the splice and “wiped” with hot solder to the lead sheath of the cables which have been joined. This work requires much skill and experience. Not only does the cableman splice the cables, but he must also connect them to the distributing frames in the central office and to the terminal boxes on the poles. A terminal box on the end of a cable is one whereby the aerial circuits are connected to the underground cable conductors. About the only way to become a proficient cable splicer is through experience as a cable splicer’s helper. This vocation should offer opportunities for men who have only minor disablements, and who should work out of doors nearly all of the time. The use of the hands and fingers is necessary. Cable splicers must sometimes climb poles. In very bad weather the cablemen are given indoor tasks. A cable splicer will ordinarily receive from $60 to $110 per month, and a helper from $40 to $85.

PLAN No. 1225. REPAIR SECTION--PLANT DEPARTMENT

This section assembles the frames, racks, cables, and other minor central-office accessories, and clears the troubles in the subscribers’ instruments, private branch exchanges, and the central offices. Workers in this division may be classified into four groups: (1) Equipment installers, (2) line and instrument repairmen, (3) switchboard repairmen, and (4) wire chief and testers.

PLAN No. 1226. EQUIPMENT INSTALLERS--REPAIR SECTION

Equipment installers include the apprentices of the industry. New men are frequently placed in these positions for training. They cut and form switchboard cable, and do other equipment-installation work around the exchange. Practically no experience is required of a beginner. But an equipment-installation foreman should be a well-informed, thoroughly trained man. He usually advances to this position from the ranks. The work on the whole is light and should afford opportunities for men with minor disablements of little technical training who have full use of their hands and fingers.

PLAN No. 1227. LINE AND INSTRUMENT REPAIRMEN--REPAIR SECTION

Line and instrument repairmen are the “trouble shooters.” They locate troubles and faults which occur on lines or in subscribers’ instruments. After some experience a repairman usually knows from the symptoms of a fault just what the difficulty is and where it may be located. Ability to climb poles is usually essential for this work. A knowledge of principal telephone circuits, cable and line layouts is also requisite. A repairman is usually promoted to this work from some other position with the company. For proficiency it requires experience on the job. Hours are eight or nine a day, and compensation may be from $60 to $110 per month.

PLAN No. 1228. SWITCHBOARD REPAIRMEN--REPAIR SECTION

Switchboard repairmen are men of ability and a number of years’ experience. Their functions are to maintain and repair local and toll switchboards, private branch exchanges, and sometimes the auxiliary equipment in offices, such as ringing machines, charging generators, and storage batteries. As already noted, switchboard equipment is quite intricate and requires the attention of a competent repairman to maintain it in efficient operating condition. The switchboard repairman’s job may be considered as a possibility for a man who enters the telephone industry in a minor position. The work is practically all inside, in the telephone-exchange buildings. While it requires manipulative skill, and full use of the hands, little physical effort is necessary. The salary will range from $75 to $125.

PLAN No. 1229. WIRE CHIEF’S SECTION--PLANT DEPARTMENT

This section tests lines, switchboards, cables, and instruments, and locates troubles which may occur in these. Some of the men who are employed are switchboard inspector, testers, wire chief, night wire chief. The work is done almost wholly indoors. It requires some knowledge of the elementary principle of electrical practice and the functions of the switchboard and its accessories. The testing is done from a central testing desk, or testing switchboard, which is located in the terminal room of a telephone exchange. At this desk the wire chief or his assistant operates the keys and switches whereby the tests are made. To be a good wire chief in a city telephone system usually requires from six to 10 years’ experience. Duties of subordinate positions may be mastered in shorter periods. All of these jobs require experience, which can be obtained by a man who starts with the telephone company as an untrained beginner. A wire chief may receive from $75 to $175 per month.

PLAN No. 1230. INSTALLATION SECTION--PLANT DEPARTMENT

Installation and removal of telephones and private-branch exchanges is the work of this section. There is constant demand for new stations and for shifting about old ones, which provides work for a large number of men. For this work little experience is necessary. A helper may become proficient in a few days and may soon be competent to install instruments without supervision. The work may be graded in such a way that an ambitious man may advance to more responsible and remunerative positions, such as switchboard installing and testing.

One possibility for those who like installation work is the position of private-branch exchange installer. His work consists in the installation of complete private-branch exchanges in factories, stores, public buildings, and elsewhere. He must supervise the running of all necessary wires and cables in buildings, setting of switchboards, connecting instruments, and making final tests to insure correctness of installation. Much time is spent out of doors traveling between jobs. The remainder is spent in buildings in which installations are made. A beginner may receive from $40 to $70, and a foreman from $75 to $110 per month. This work can be handled by a man who has only minor disablements and who has full use of his hands. Such training as is necessary will usually be given to him by the company which employs him. However, as with other electrical vocations, a short preliminary theoretical course will be of considerable value.

PLAN No. 1231. CABLE REPORT SECTION--PLANT DEPARTMENT

Making definite records of every circuit in the telephone system is the task of the cable report section. Such records are essential to enable the wire chief to locate definitely any telephone fault, even though the circuit involved an exceedingly devious rout. The work is clerical. A general familiarity with the complete telephone layout is desirable, but a beginner with little experience may be employed. The qualifications, possibilities, rates of pay, hours, and the like are about the same as those for accounting or auditing clerical work. However, a man who has had some previous telephone experience will be able to utilize it in this department.

PLAN No. 1232. TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT

This department has charge of the telephone traffic. The operators, practically always young women, make connections on calls by subscribers. There are usually no men on the floor of a telephone exchange except the switchboard and maintenance men. A large telephone exchange may have a male traffic manager. Large companies may have a traffic-engineering department which plans and directs the arrangement of switchboard sections, and the division of lines between operators in order to insure efficient service. Men with some prior telephone experience who can not do heavy physical work, might qualify for minor positions under direction of the traffic engineer. These would be of the same general character as those with the engineering department, except that they deal only with traffic. Rates of pay, working hours, and future possibilities are practically the same as in an engineering department.

PLAN No. 1233. STEAM RAILROADS

Practically all steam railroads now have electrical departments. The men in such departments install and maintain the electric train lighting equipment and do such electrical construction--installation of generators, motors, wiring, and the like--as may be required on the system. Each steam road may have an electrical superintendent to whom electricians and their helpers report.

The railroad electrician’s work includes maintenance of electric train lighting generators, storage batteries, and electric wiring of cars and buildings; it includes armature winding and rewinding, and installation of generators and motors. Obviously, years of experience and training are necessary, but at the bottom of the ladder there are opportunities for inexperienced men to start in as helpers. The work is interesting and steady. Usually full use of hands and good sight and hearing are required. While there is some lifting and heavy work, on the whole the duties are not arduous. About half of the work is out of doors and half inside. The rates of pay for a beginner will vary from $40 to $75, for a journeyman from $75 to $150, and for a superintendent from $125 to $300. Men are furnished free with a certain amount of railroad transportation for themselves and families, the amount of transportation thus allowed increasing with the man’s responsibilities and with the length of his service.

PLAN No. 1234. BEEKEEPING AS A VOCATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Acknowledgment is due Dr. E. F. Phillips, Apiculturist of the Bureau
of Entomology. United States Department of Agriculture; to F. C.
Pellett and C. P. Dadant, editors of the American Bee Journal,
Hamilton, Ill., and A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio, for suggestions,
data, and illustrations; also to Dr. John Cummings, of the Research
Division, for editorial assistance.

The increased use of honey during the war and the possession of some previous knowledge of bees may have directed the attention of a large number of you, who are disabled, to the possibility of making beekeeping your life work. During the war the shortage of sugar made the larger use of other sweets imperative, and it was essential that the use of these substitutes be augmented to the greatest possible extent. The necessary introduction of honey has made its deliciousness, palatability, and healthfulness widely known and will lead to its continuous and increased general domestic use. The export demand for American honey has recently increased beyond any former record and the price has doubled. Beekeeping and honey production present an opportunity to you for profitable livelihood with small investment. It is to your personal advantage to consider it carefully.

BEE CULTURE LIGHT WORK, INTERESTING, AND PROFITABLE

Beekeeping differs from most other branches of agriculture, in that the beekeeper handles an animal which has never been domesticated. He must therefore study the habits of this animal and know them intimately before he may hope to succeed with this work. The feeding habits, breeding, and even the housing of bees has not been materially changed in all the centuries that man has handled them. If their habits are well understood, the beekeeper may cause them to accomplish results which will lead to the greatest profit to himself. The work is light, without routine duties at fixed times, with no drudgery. Beekeeping is interesting, in fact enthusing and strengthening to the mind and the body. It is a profitable business which may be made very lucrative with devotion and experience. A western man sold his crop of one season to a well-known company dealing in honey for $30,000.

WHAT IS HONEY?

Honey is made from the nectar secreted by thousands of varieties of flowers. This nectar is gathered by bees and modified by them chemically. Water is evaporated out of it and it is ripened into a delicious and wholesome food.

Before cane sugar was manufactured in quantities for commercial use honey was the most common sweet in human food. In pioneering days it was hunted systematically in hollow trees and crevices in rocks. Wild honey so secured was considered well worth the time spent in seeking it.

There is another form of honey designated as abnormal, since it does not come from the nectar of flowers, but is, nevertheless, gathered by bees. It is developed from a sweet substance known as honey dew, deposited on the leaves of plants by certain insects such as plant lice. In some regions honey dew is not found at all. Where found, the amount that bees gather is negligible in comparison with the amount of nectar gathered from blossoms. Nectar is so changed chemically and modified by ripening and evaporating after being gathered by bees, that in the form of honey it is readily digested and assimilated.

HEALTHFULNESS OF HONEY

Before the manufacture of great quantities of sugar a larger amount of honey was used per capita than is used now. The necessary introduction of honey as a substitute for sugar has just recently again called general attention to its healthfulness and the lesson is not likely soon to be forgotten. Because it is predigested and readily assimilable, physicians recommend it as a food for persons with delicate stomachs, for those troubled with kidney complaint, and for those subject to constipation, since honey is laxative in effect.

The average amount of sugar consumed annually for every man, woman, and child is about 80 pounds, and this sugar can not be assimilated without change in the stomach, an action not necessary with honey. It can readily be understood that the population might be benefited by substituting honey for some of the sugar consumed. When the stomach fails to do its work in modifying the sugar, the eliminating organs, the kidneys especially, are severely taxed. A noted physician, now 84 years old, eats honey instead of sugar, believing it will prolong his life and give him better health while living. He says that it is well authenticated that, as our natural craving indicates, sweets are a real need of the system, but that the excessive use of sugar brings in its train a long list of ills. He asserts also that the health of the present generation, if honey could be at least partially restored to its former place, would be greatly improved.

Prof. Cook, of California, says: “Physicians may be correct in asserting that the large consumption of sugar is a menace to health and long life, and that by eating honey our digestive machinery saves work that it would have to perform if we ate sugar and in case it is overtaxed and feeble, this may be just the respite that will save it from a breakdown.” Switzerland produces large quantities of honey, but the demand for it is so great that the price has advanced and the Government has been compelled to fix it. Although we may infer that the Swiss themselves are a great honey-eating people, Dr. Emfeld, of Geneva, seems to think that they might well eat more of this sweet. “If people would eat more honey,” he says, “we doctors would starve.”

Honey has many medicinal qualities, and is used in nearly all cough sirups, cold preparations, and compounded in many other medicines where delicate flavor, absolute purity, and sweetness insure results not to be obtained by the use of any substitute.

While commonly used in its natural state as a spread on hot bread and cakes, honey may be employed in cooking wherever sugar may be used. The same beneficial effect upon health will follow as a result from its use in the natural state. Foods prepared with it are better and will remain in fresh condition longer than if prepared with sugar or sirup. Bread and cakes prepared with honey will not dry out as with sugar, because honey attracts moisture. It has long been employed in the household in general cooking, as well as in canning and in the baking of many desirable kinds of bread, and numerous varieties of cakes, gems, snaps, and cookies. When used in sweetening tea and coffee it does not cause any loss of aroma. Its recent substitution for sugar is causing it again to be employed in making pies, puddings, and sauces. Confectioners use honey freely, and might well use it more freely than they do in making honey nuts, candies, creams, butter scotch, and popcorn balls.

In Turkey, a great honey-producing country, where bee culture is scientifically followed with the noted oriental strains of bees, a popular sweet, known as rose honey marmalade, is manufactured. It is made from the leaves of roses and honey and combines the exquisite perfume of the former with the delightful flavor of the latter in an unusual product of the nature and texture of a marmalade due to incorporating the rose petals with the honey.

BEEKEEPING PERMITS SERIOUS HANDICAPS

Beekeeping, like many other lines of agriculture, presents an exceptionally attractive and profitable vocation to the disabled men of the war. The handling of bees is interesting and encourages the most valuable exercise, but the muscular effort is small. It probably requires less constant devotion, except during the main honey-flow, than any other country pursuit. Therefore it is especially attractive to the convalescing or others who have recovered from wounds, even if they have lost one or more limbs.

Though handicapped in various ways you may confidently hope to become as near 100 per cent efficient in bee culture as in any other work. A beekeeper should, however, have one good hand and arm.

Uncle Sam offers you every possible assistance in the way of artificial limbs, interchangeable devices, and vocational training for the greatest possible success in bee culture. Such opportunity was not offered the disabled veterans of the Civil War, Mr. John Donnegan, of Seguin, Tex., whose photograph shows him using a special strap which he devised to serve in place of his missing hand in moving honey supers, hives, and frames of comb. He has made a wonderful success and spent the greater part of his life as a beekeeper. The ingenious use of a strap around his shoulders with a snap that can easily be attached to a screweye placed in the various articles to be handled, but poorly takes the place of appliances and an artificial hand and arm, which are now furnished free of expense to our disabled soldiers.

The American Bee Journal and Gleanings in Bee Culture find many successful apiarists who are partially incapacitated and who would be poorly fitted for most other lines of work. One of these, Mr. Harvey E. Nicholls, of Iowa, when 21 years old lost both legs--one below the thigh, the other below the knee. He did not give up to live on charity, but grew ambitious to make his life a success. He selected beekeeping, purchased a colony of bees and a good book on beekeeping that he might study them and neighboring apiaries together. He realized for the season from the one hive 80 pounds of surplus honey and enough for the bees, which, properly packed, wintered so well that they were strong in the spring for gathering nectar and starting an apiary.

He secured three old hives and two 2-pound packages of bees, also two colonies which he handled on the shares for half. He transferred the bees from the old boxes to standard 10-framed hives. The season’s results were 12 colonies and 400 pounds of honey. He also represented the Honey Producers’ Supply Co., making something on the side. The next spring, 1918, two more colonies were purchased, added to the dozen, and moved 5 miles into the country, where 45 colonies more were handled for half of the surplus honey. The supply factory work was almost entirely dropped that the bees might have undivided attention. A second-hand Ford was purchased on time, which an artificial leg enabled him to drive as well as anyone.

The results of the season from May 1 to September 9 were his own 14 colonies increased to 20, the 45 colonies on the shares increased to 85, and cash returns over $800. By adopting the slogan suggested by the Bureau of Entomology, “Keep more bees; keep bees better,” he can doubtless greatly increase his income.

He may be appropriately called a self-made man. In addition to a successful start as a beekeeper he is studying to complete a course in high school. He has helped support his grandmother and sister, and, believing in tithing, has given one-tenth of his earnings to charities.

The story of Mr. Nicholls but expresses in part what any disabled man may accomplish with vocational training and devotion to beekeeping or some other occupation that will insure useful and respected citizenship.

Your disability need not interfere with your engaging in this work, but it may take grit and determination to pull you through the early stages. You may be sure when in the ranks of the good beekeepers you will be associated with admirable people who will gladly aid you in any way possible in making good.

THE BEE FAMILY

This interesting family called in bee culture a colony, lives in a house known as a hive many of which aggregate form a bee city--an apiary. The family consists of three types of bees, the queen, Fig. 7-a, the mother of the family and naturally the only one of her nature in the colony. She is a fully developed female bee whose sole duty is that of laying eggs and increasing her family--the population of the colony--which reaches large numbers. The worker, Fig. 7-b, is an undeveloped female, and this type represents the largest number of the colony’s population, which may run from several thousand to eighty-five or one hundred thousand in one hive or family. As the name indicates the workers gather all the honey and food, care for the young bees and perform other duties in the hive. The drone, Fig. 7-c, is the male bee. He, as his name indicates, contributes nothing to the upkeep of the family, a family in which truly “everybody works but father.” The queen is able to control the strength of the colony. The workers by construction of a queen cell about an egg and by giving different food may develop a queen from what would otherwise have been developed into a worker.

EXTENT OF BEEKEEPING IN THE UNITED STATES

There are in the United States about 800,000 persons who own bees, although not all of them can be classed as regular beekeepers. Perhaps the average bee owner has about 10 colonies. Since there are many owning bees by the hundreds of colonies, it is obvious that the majority have only two or three colonies. This side line of a few hives on the farm does not really pay, but is just a little luxury. The type of beekeeping presented to you here is for a vocation, and is the practical kind employed by the best beekeepers of the country--by men who make a good living by keeping bees.

The retail price of honey has gradually advanced to 40 cents or more per pound, and beeswax to 42 cents wholesale, notwithstanding the fact that there was produced in 1918 about 250,000,000 pounds of honey. This probably does not cover the entire honey crop of the United States, since a large amount is marketed locally. In fact this product is so greatly in demand that a large percentage is sold at the home of the apiarist. Apiarists can, if attentive to the attractiveness of their product and considerate of their customers, hold them and make of each an advertisement for additional business. The honey crop of the United States is estimated annually at $20,000,000, and yet there has never been a time when any country on the globe could produce enough to make this delicious food a common article of diet.

Not all parts of the United States are equally good for beekeeping, and it is advisable for one who contemplates making it his life work carefully to consider the selection of a location. As a rule, it is not advisable to go too far from the country with which you are familiar. Bees may be kept with profit almost anywhere where agriculture is practiced, the returns depending largely on the care given to the bees.

The most widely known region for beekeeping is that of the northeastern quarter of the country, where white and alsike clovers yield nectar. Although these plants reach their highest yield in the northern tier of States, they are also productive farther south. In the northern region bees get considerable quantities of nectar from basswood, tulip poplar, buckwheat, sweet clover, and locust, and in some localities from other plants of decided honey value. The buckwheat region of southern New York and northern Pennsylvania is included in the clover region.

The second region in importance is that in which the bees get their nectar from alfalfa. This plant, which is now grown in all parts of the country, does not yield much nectar except in the irrigated portions of the West and is therefore practically valueless for the beekeeper east of the Missouri River. The honey from this source is white in the higher altitudes of Colorado and Utah, and amber in Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

The southeastern part of the country offers many opportunities to the beekeeper, but the business has not been so well developed there. The nectar comes from numerous plants which are influenced by various soils, temperature, and other factors. The honey usually does not come in very rapidly and is often darker than other honeys, but since the plants yield for a longer period, the beekeeper is able to get good returns for his labor.

The semiarid region of the southwest produces many plants which secrete nectar in abundance. This region is subject to drought and there are years when the beekeeper has to feed his bees to keep them alive. However, taking a series of years into account, this region pays as well as any other.

The sage region of southern California offers great opportunities to the beekeeper. The honeys are chiefly white and secretion is abundant when there is sufficient rainfall. In this region also honey is obtained from blossoms of citrus fruits, which being irrigated are not so liable to failure as the plants growing in the desert. The chief problem in this part of the country is to strengthen the colonies in time for the nectar flow from citrus fruit blossoms. This may be done by application of proper care at the right time. In choosing the location for an apiary in the sage region, great care should be exercised to select one where the average rainfall is about 20 inches. Information regarding rainfall may be obtained from the Weather Bureau offices or from forest supervisors. Many of the best locations are in the national forests, where a location may be obtained at a small rental and other beekeepers will not be permitted to encroach.

In addition to these chief regions, there are many localities where other plants are of sufficient value to make a good crop of honey. Such regions are the buckwheat region, already mentioned; the Spanish needle region of the Kankakee swamps of northern Indiana and Illinois and the Delaware River Valley; the willow herb regions of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, Maine, Washington, and Oregon; the sweet clover regions of Alabama and Kentucky; the blue thistle region of the Shenandoah Valley; the raspberry region of northern Michigan; the smartweed region of the Middle West (corn belt); and the bean region of Southern California. There are many other restricted regions as valuable as those mentioned.

VARIATION IN SEASONS

All years are not equally good for nectar secretion, and some years the flow is so poor that feeding is necessary to keep the bees alive. Such years are of common occurrence to the poor beekeeper, while they are rather a rarity to the good, highly skilled beekeeper. By this is meant that the good beekeeper is able to keep his bees in such condition that they are able to take advantage of every hour of nectar secretion, while the poor beekeeper does not do this. In the best years every person owning bees will get some honey, but it is the person who studies the business who can make it pay almost every year.

DISTRIBUTION OF BEES IN THE UNITED STATES

The accompanying map shows where the bees in the country are mainly located. It indicates also the extent of the business in different sections and gives some idea, by the number of dots on the map, of the most successful territory for beekeeping. Care must be taken in drawing conclusions of this kind, for a field or territory may be overpastured, as it were, by bees as well as by cattle. Bees, however, travel many miles. Large apiaries should not be too close together, at least 3 or 4 miles apart. Although the honey flows of the South do not equal those of the North in intensity, yet, as will be observed from the map, there are more bees in the Southern States than in any other part of the country. Bees in the South can be purchased at small cost, for they are not appreciated and are poorly equipped, being hived largely in boxes and “gums” which are of course unprofitable. They may be transferred to modern hives, after which they may be managed for extracted honey, which is the most profitable manner of handling bees in that section and the most effective way of avoiding swarming. The convenience of the modern hive and frame enables the increase of colonies by division.

BEEKEEPING SHOULD BE A SPECIALTY