Norwich bulletin., 1913-12-06
WHAT APPEARS TO BE WASTEFULNESS IS
 NOT ALWAYS SO

Cwrittea Specially for The Bulletin)
 Some years ago the men working on a new barn got into a discussion. as men working together at any job are art tD do. There were quite few naiiS ten and eight Venniess scattered pa the ground around the building where they had been accidentally dropped. one here and one there, as the men went about their work The question discussed was whether it was more wastEful to let them lie or te pick them up. Some thought one thing and some another, and finally it was agreed tO leave the matter to a prom inent technical journal So the ques- was put te this same technical journal: Does tt pay Co pick up nails ?? And the said technical journal seeing a point which the non-technical person might not have observed, took up the question very seriously, and spent d good deal of time solving it. both the oretically and eNPerimentally,
 la other words, 1t worked out an an sEsr to the question on paper, with saAsulations of probable costs and r%1eahle values, etc. after which It hired an actual carpenter to pick up actual nails actually dropped around an actual building in actual cOnstruc- tion- This was to see if work-a-day facts agreed with pencil calculations Ia seems that they did, for the tech nioal journal. after reporting in it's next Issue IS processes of investigation decided that at present prices or nails and at present carpenters wages. 1t Aoes not pay 10 pick up nails.
 lt does not pay because il costs more in wages To the carpenter who takes time to pick up pound of scattered nails than it would cost to bay a pound of new ones at the store.
 This whole question of waste Is one about which much may be said on several sides
 What Is waste anyhow?
 
 Some years ago apples were very plentiful in my neighborhood and prices ran extremely low Fifty cents a barrel, delivered at the railroad, was the best offered And they had to be extra fancy fruit 10 bring that much. l kept mine till February, that winter, and then sold 'em at twelve cents bushel to a sheep farmer for sheep fodder Lots of my neighbors never pick theirs at au,-let them drop off the trees and rot on the ground, after picking up the few that were needed for making the family supply of cider vinegar ] remember one big orchard under whose IT ees the apples lay al- most in heaps as they had been blown or The owner estimated that over
 
 that one orchard He couldn't pick them himself. having other work that engrossed his entire time, and it would have cost him more to hire them picked than he could have sold them for.
 Now, was this waste?
 A whole lot of people especially city people. who drive or motor out into the country occasionally. wall over the -wastefulness' Of farmers How many poor people in the city would be glad to get some of those apples" they say when they see the fruit going to rot on the ground Well, it's a question how glad some of those city sufferers would be.-Quite a question l re- member. more than twenty years ago, a creamery in the city where l was then living had a lot of skim-milk to dispose Of IL was regularly poured into the sewers by the thousand gal Ions Then a hard winter came on- Work EzsD't plenty and there was a good deal Of need reported To exist. Now this skim milk was fresh, all of 1t- fresh and sweet as it left the sep arators- The creamery people, desirous Of doing something 10 help those who couldn't afford certified milk, offered it to anyone who would come and get it, free gratis. for nothing All they had 10 do was to bring a pail or a jug or a keg and they were welcome to all they would take The offer was widely made in the city papers, so that ev- e<ybody knew Of ft- Yet the creamery wasn't able tO give away ten gallons a Gayi
 The people who were supposed 10 be fn sore need of the bare necessities of life wouldn't even set out pails at their doors to have them filled by the cTeamery's carts. They didn't want akim-milk- they wanted whole milk; and seemed 10 take it as an insult when they were offered anything else. So the creamery returned to its prac- tfos of turning the stuff down the sewers
 Was this waste2 f
 There are some poor people even in this rural town in which ] now live people 90 poor they can't buy fireWoad and have to depend on c66r supplied 1 by the Poormsster. It happens that l have about sixty acres of woods in which there are great many dead or fallen trees. l use them. myself to supply my own winter needs, but I caES begin To keep the woods, | .AUOid I1ol