IRISH GARDENING. 



95 



Bee-keeping. 



By T. MAGUIRE, The Orchard, Enniskillen. 



SWARIVIING and supering- will be the matters 'nost 

 requiring- attention this month By the time these 

 lines are in print the hawthorn should be in bloom, 

 and if the weather be sufficiently hot at the time a very 

 considerable amount of honey may be gathered from it. 

 To this end, stocks should be at full strength bv the first 

 of the month, and supers in readiness, if not airead}' put 

 on. In some districts, supers were required this season 

 as early as 15th May. Where holly aboimds the flow in 

 May is not to be despised. 



Before putting in crates of sections the hives should be 

 gone over, any frames full of honey at the back should 

 be uncapped and placed in the centre, the tops of the 

 frames should be scraped free of propolis, and the 

 carriers of the crate coated with vaseline or petroleum 

 jelly to make manipulation easier. 



Those who prefer honey to increase of stocks should 

 use every effort to prevent swarming-, by g-iving- room 

 in advance of requirements, giving- ventilation in hot 

 weather and cutting out green cells when found. If a 

 swarm issue it should be returned to the same stock, 

 cutting out all the green cells, imless a nucleus be re- 

 quired. Sometimes an enormous stock will persist in 

 swarming; over and over again, no matter what one can 

 do. The best way to deal with such a stock is to take 

 away the brood frames and form nuclei of them, or dis- 

 tribute them among weaker stocks ; hive the swarm on 

 the same stand again, giving only starters of foundation 

 and confining the brood nest to six frames until the 

 combs are built out. The supers should be replaced on 

 top, putting a queen exclude o\er the brood nest, lest the 

 queen, being restricted for room, ma\' invade the sections. 

 By this method the swarming will be cured and the 

 greatest possible quantity of honey stored in the sections, 

 as the queen will occupy the lower frame as fast as they 

 are built, and in such circumstances all worker cells are 

 generally built. This is, perhaps, the only case in which 

 foundation can be profitably dispensed with. 



When a swarm issues the besi way to cause it to settle 

 is to syringe it with water. After it clusters it should be 

 g-ently syring-ed before removal to make sure it will not 

 rise ag-ain. If left for any time in the place where it 

 settled it should be covered with a damped white cloth. 



If the queen be clipped she will generally be found 

 hopping about the front of the hive. She should be 

 caged and left on the flight board until the swarm 

 returns, when she may be allowed to run in again. 

 Clipping- queens ensures that the first swarm will not go 

 away, but the queen may be lost if not looked after. In 

 case she be lost, the swarm will return, and re-issue 

 with the first young queen as soon as she is ready for 

 flight — mostly in about nine days from the issue of the 

 first swarm, though it depends largely on the weather 

 and how far the cells were advanced when the swarm 

 left. If a swarm go off from successive heat without 

 waiting to build cells, the next swarm will be longer in 

 coming off than under normal conditions. Then, of 

 course, bad weather may delay the second swarm or 

 prevent italtog-ether. 



School Gardening. 



By L. J. HUMPHREY, Special Instructor in Scliocl Gardening under the 

 Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. 



ML'SEUMS.— A most valuable adjunct to the teach- 

 ing of the school garden is a collection of natural 

 objects properly classified and arrang-ed. 

 A collection of dried plants, though of great value to 

 the systematic botanist, should not be the ideal of the 

 school garden museum ; dried plants ofter but little re- 

 semblance to the living plant to the boy of school ag-e, 

 and it is far better to encourag-e him to collect for each 

 lesson what plants he can find rather than to be able to 

 show him a collection which, by its perfection, would 

 damp his ardour for investigating- the weeds of his 

 plot. 



A few specimens there should be to illustrate how 

 plants should be dried and arranged, but more is not 

 necessary. Diseased conditions in plSnts which may 

 not always be available should be preserved when dis- 

 covered, and a suitable arrang-ement of them made. 

 Such an arrang-ement might consist of— (1) the healthy 

 plant, 12) the diseased condition in all stages, (3) the 

 materials used in its treatment, togfether with such ex- 

 planatory matter as can be added without confusing the 

 mind of tiie observer. Such an arrangement would re- 

 sult in the disease and its remedy being definitely con- 

 nected in the mind of the pupil, and there would be 

 much less tendency to forget the appropriate remedy 

 for the disease. 



Soil and sub-soil from the school garden should 

 occupy a prominent position, and next to them should 

 be shown their principal constituents as determined by 

 mechanical analysis. The chemical compounds exist- 

 ing in the soil are apt to mislead young pupils if they 

 are shown in crystallic form, and for that reason the 

 chemical constitution of a soil as dealing with sub- 

 stances with which the scholar is unfamiliar are perhaps 

 better omitted from the case. This argument does not 

 apply to the sand, clay and humus of which soils are 

 mainly composed, as all of them are substances with 

 which every boy is more or less familiar, and which he 

 can separate for himself. 



Local rocks from which to demonstrate the origin of 

 the soil and the stones of the soil should be arranged to 

 show their characteristic appearance, in this, as in all 

 the museum, letting: the exhibits truly represent the 

 usual form, and avoiding- all freakishness, as the un- 

 usual is too apt to confuse rather than elucidate, 

 which should be the sole object of the school g-arden 

 museum. 



A collection of the seeds of the garden and farm plants, 

 as well as of such weeds as are of sufficiently frequent 

 occurrence, should certainly be included. These should 

 be stored when thoroughl}' dry in small bottles or tubes 

 with tightly fitting corks or stoppers, and arranged in 

 such a manner that the name, shape, size and colour of 

 the contents can be readily seen. These collections 

 should be easily accessible in order that the specimens 

 may be passed round whenever the subject is under dis- 

 cussion. It should be also possible to remove a few 

 seeds from the bottle when a more detailed examination 

 is necessary, and when it is desired to test the know- 

 ledgfe of the pupils a few kinds can be mixed together, 

 and the task of separating; and identifying them will 

 prove an interesting and instructive task. 



The work to be done during June in the school garden 

 will include the planting out of celery, leeks, cabbag-e, 

 cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, &c. Hoeing- 

 will be necessary between growing- crops, both to keep 

 down weeds and to check the evaporation of water from 

 the soil. Tall-growing plants in the flower borders 

 should be staked in good time, and any further thinning 

 of annuals carried out. 



