DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



4 to 8 cents a pound — small Ribstone Pippins 

 4 cents each, small nectarines, (very poor,) 4 

 cents each. Yours. O. Southside. Staten- 

 Island, Jan., 1851. 



Construction of Vineries. — The increase 

 of glass structures for growing the foreign 

 grape, has been very great within the last three 

 years — especially in the suburbs of our three 

 largest cities. Now that it is prettey well set- 

 tied that the fbreign grape cannot be relied on 

 out of doors, and that it will always ripen per- 

 fectly with the mere shelter of glass, unaided 

 by fire heat, almost every amateur who can af- 

 ford it, is attempting the production of this de- 

 licious fruit under glass. The market garden- 

 ers are not behind-hand in the matter, and the 

 markets of New-York, Boston and Philadel- 

 phia, are now supplied with Black Hamburghs 

 and Muscats of as fine quality, and at lower 

 prices than in London; and it is not impossible 

 that they may soon become as cheap as in Pa- 

 ris. If some of our manufacturers, who use 

 steam power, knew how to apply their waste 

 steam to the warming of forcing houses, we 

 might have an abundance of grapes in our mar- 

 ket two or three months earlier than they 

 usually ripen in cold vineries. 



TYe shall soon give, perhaps in our next No., 

 some further plans and details for the construc- 

 tion of vineries of moderate size. 



Bees — Queries. ^-There is a subject connec- 

 ted with Horticulture that you do not treat of — 

 the Honey Bee. The directions in the Treati- 

 ses on Bee Culture, for making artificial swarms, 

 I have not as yet been able to carry out in prac- 

 tice. 



First. Can you or any of your correspon- 

 dents, say from experience, whether a Queen 

 can be raised from a worker egg or larva? 



Second. Will merely closing the passage fi-om 

 one part of the hive to another, at the proper 

 season, cause them to raise a queen in that 

 portion which has none, (as some assert,) or is 

 it necessary that the part containing the queen 

 should be removed? 



Third. If it is necessary to remove that part 

 of the hive, how can it be ascertained, (for here 

 practical difficulty,) which part contains 

 queen? 



I have kept bees for several years, and have 

 watched them at their labors with much inte- 

 rest, both by day and by night. I have seen 

 them making comb at mid-night, and even later, 

 but have never yet been able to increase my 

 stock, as it is not easy to hive a swarm in a 

 city. 



One thing is certain, they pertinaciously ad- 

 here to their old plan of working, and cannot 

 be made to comprehend the value of any improve- 

 ment in a hive, that interferes with tlieir ancient 

 usages, however much it may be lauded by the 

 inventor. 



In your last number is an article on grape- 

 vines, in which grafting is mentioned. In what 

 way can thnt be done? 



The bleeding of the vine in the spring is such 

 an obstacle as to prevent its success with me. 

 On one occasion a piece of India-rubber was 

 tied around a cut, and seemed eflJcctual at first, 

 but the sap after a time stretched it to the size 

 of a hen's egg, and then burst it. 



Verbenas. — Last fiill I planted a number of 

 newly rooted plants in a glass-house without 

 any fire heat. The plants are well sheltered 

 from the heat of the sun and from cold, by dead 

 stalks cut from tlie garden. It has frozen very 

 hard in the house a number of times, yet the 

 Verbenas look well, and are in a growing state. 



Sicily Sumac is an article largely used, and 

 worth double the price of American Siimac. 

 Would it not be worth raising as a crop on poor 

 or rocky land, that is worth but little for other 

 purposes? A Subscriber. Philidelphia, Jan. 

 6, 1851. 



Answers — As we know very little of the 

 treatment of bees, we must beg some of our 

 correspondents to reply to that portion of our 

 correspondent's inquiries. 



Grafting the vine is easily performed in the 

 usual cleft manner, (i. e., by splitting the stock 

 and inserting the bottom of the scion as a 

 wedge) — but the scions should be cut in winter 

 or early spring, and kept in the cellar, in damp 

 earth, till the buds, on the stock to be grafted, 

 are bursting; then graft, and cover the wound 

 with grafting clay. If the stock to be grafted 

 can be cut off below the surface of the graft, 

 the grafts can be inserted at any time during 

 the grafting season — say middle of Mar 

 middle of April, about Philadelphia 



