Njveoibei- 27, 1873. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTIGUIiTDKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



431 



the small bit of {^ide-comb, and leaving pure bleeding surfaces 

 on the edges of the combs ; and the glass manufacturer, after a 

 fourth attempt, having succeeded in turning out a lid to please 

 me, and which, as stated in my last, was dome-shaped, I put it 

 on, when the bees at once commenced to build further upwards, 

 and in a very short time they reached the top, and the crystal 

 palace was finished ! — perfect throughout ; not a particle of empty 

 comb taving been given, and entirely the manufacture of the 

 bees in a Woodbm-y hive — all wood, remember 1 — and myself ! 



Now to the feeding; and here is a problem for our objecting 

 friends to solve: — Given an International Exhibition, a bad 

 season, very limited time, and a glass which the manufacturer 

 turned out even larger than what was ordered, and which was 

 "bound to be filled." How was it to be done? Answer, — By 

 feeding, and feeding only, at all times unfavourable for honey- 

 gathering. Who does not know that during unfavourable 

 weather bees will not only cease working in supers, but will 

 even carry down the honey from them to support the brood 

 which is being produced at such a rapid rate at this season ? In 

 order to guard against this I fed regularly at all unfavourable 

 seasons, but not with glucose. Mr. Pettigrew has thrown out a 

 hint on this subject in his last letter, and I am not going to tell 

 how many of my hives I robbed in order to help the crystal 

 palace, but will simply assert that from the day I placed it upon 

 the hive until I removed it from it the bees were fed on nothing 

 but honey, pure and simple. I know that it will be said that 

 anyone may produce such a super at the sacrifice of their 

 apiary, S:c. ; to which I answer, " Tou have now the benefit of my 

 experience to assist you. Try it." And then I will ask, Which 

 of you made .i'lO last season out of an apiary of seven hives ? 

 My crystal palace sold for X'lO, and took first prizes at the Inter- 

 national and at Middleton Agricultural Show, £3. I took first 

 prize at the International for the best hive of honey — £3, and 

 disposed of a considerable portion oi the contents, which weighed 

 82 lbs., at l5. Gd. per pound. There being no class at the Inter- 

 national in which the hive that built the crystal palace could 

 compete, I did not take it there, but I exhibited it subsequently 

 at Middleton, where it as usual carried off first prize — .i'3. ±'10 for 

 palace, i'9 in prizes, about i'2 for honey sold — i'21, and plenty of 

 iioney for home consumption left, besides that still remaining 

 in the prize Woodbury, which has frames in it at this moment 

 weighing between 5 and lbs., and of which a lady who has 

 some thirteen stocks says that it is worth all she has obtained. — 

 D. Beeen, G, Ardwich Terrace, Manchester. 



THE BAE-FRAME HIVE. 



" A FUNCTION to each organ, and each organ to its own function, 

 is the law of organisation," said a great writer. Another great 

 thinker has said that the language of the discoverer — viz., " it 

 struck me" is not correct, for nothing struck him when he 

 found the object of his research. The truth is " he struck it." 

 No doubt this is philosophically true, whether the object found 

 be an island, the law of gravitation, or improvement in machinery 

 or horticulture. 



Well, one night I was in search of a subject for a letter to this 

 Journal, different in kind from all I had ever written. " It 

 struck me " that one on the bar-frame hive from my pen would 

 ke a variety, and hence one was written suggesting improve- 

 ments, and asking some who have the organ of mechanical inge- 

 nuity to carry all into a hive of this kind. I had then quite for- 

 gotten I had seen one some two years ago with a back door to it, 

 thoush I have a distinct remembrance of hearing Mr. Breen 

 and Mr. Wright talk of improving a hive in this way. When I 

 wrote the letter in question I told Mr. Samuel Yates that I was 

 partly indebted to them for the idea of improvements, and 

 partly to observation. I never thought that my letter would 

 offend or injure anybody ; but I find that Mr. Breen is aggrieved 

 that his name was not mentioned in it. If I have injured him 

 in the smallest degree he has a right to be discontented, and it 

 becomes me to offer an apology. I wag under the impression 

 that some one with more time at command must take the 

 matter np if ever the beekeepers of this country wore to have 

 improved bar-frames. Mr. Breen has great instincts and apti- 

 tnae for mechanical contrivances, and I am glad ho is asking 

 others to communicate with him about improvements ; and I 

 trust that some one equally ingenious will, with Mr. Breen, take 

 the matter np, and speedily bring it to a successful issue. I 

 have no organ for such functions, and I am quite content to sit 

 on the lowest form. — A. Pettiobew. 



ALDERNEY COWS. 



As two or three Alderney cows are now often kept by private 

 families, there are many of your readers who could give a good 

 account of their treatment as to feeding, the time of year they 

 sleep under shelter, Ac. I name how I manage mine, and hope 

 others interested in these animals will give the manner they 

 treat theirs. 



Mine now lie-in at night, and can go into a shed it wet in the 

 daytime. I am giving them 2 Iba. of oilcake each at night, the 



same in the morning mixed with sweet hay cut in a chaffer. 

 One of mine, a very small one in height, calves next week. 

 Three months before her time being up she gave lOJ lbs. of 

 butter, and the week before commencing drying her, ti\ lbs. 

 She gives very little milk. I have another, a grand beast I im- 

 ported direct, not through a dealer. She gives a great quantity 

 of milk, and apparently very rich. The most butter I have had 

 from her when at her best in one week did not quite reach 8 lbs. 

 I had once a little beauty bred between the Alderney and Short 

 Horn, the talk of the country. She gave from calving to being 

 dried 141 lbs. of butter. Any of your readers having this Journal 

 bound will find her weekly produce given in your Journal, 

 vol. iii., N.S., page 38.— H. S. 



WARNING. 

 It is high time that aU your readers should be up to the cloth 

 and silk trick. Tour correspondent's friend is well known in 

 these parts. I wag staying at Bath two years ago, when our 

 friend called and showed patterns of carpets at marveUoug 

 prices. " He was about," said he, " to take a room at the Pump 

 Boom Hotel for the sale of these goods, and our orders would 

 at once be executed." Having, as he thought, gained our con- 

 fidence, he produced silks of that Manchester manufacture, 

 purporting to be Japanese, and also pieces of cloth ; but we were 

 up to the dodge. He had the bad luck to call on me here in the 

 following j-ear, producing velvet boots, furs, and a variety of 

 fancy goods at sixpence each and like absurd prices, our orders 

 to be executed the following week. Then came the silks and 

 cloth, when I reminded him of our former meeting. The same 

 gentleman varies big trade by offering birds. I can tell your 

 readers that the cloth is rubbish, as several unlucky purchasers 

 have since found out ; the silks are very inferior, and, being 

 very narrow, purchasers find they have not enough for a dress. 



— E. H.i.NDLEY. 



• 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Crystal Palace Poultry Sho\v {A Gloucestershire Viear and 0//i^ts). — 

 The sole reason of our notes ou the poultry being so short was that four 

 gentlemen on whom we relied were prevented by illness or other causes from 

 being present in time. The notes from one of them we publish to-day. 



Spanish Fowl's Face (A. T. W.).—\\e Jo not think it would be at all 

 beneficial to apply milk and water. The continement must not be in dark- 

 ness, but in semi-darknesB. The old tradition was that white peas made 

 white faces ; just so, whan we were boys we believed blowing into the pop-gun 

 incrtased the report. Keep them scrupulously clean ; feed them, if you have 

 them, on ground oats, if not, on some easily-digested food ; give them gravel 

 and clean water. A week or at most ten days will be sufllciently long tu keep 

 them in confinement. 



Fowls for Canada (B. N. A.). — The fowl that unites all the properties 

 you require is the Brahma Pootra. You prefer to keep only one breed. They 

 are good layers, very good sitters, and very hardy chickens. The writer of 

 this has hatched them in snow, and reared them. They are by no means 

 contemptible foragers, and are not enormous eaters. ^Ve have always heard 

 the Canadian climate praised fur its salubrity. We know that although a 

 long residence in snow would no doubt bo fatal, yet that all animals lilse to 

 have access to it. We believe we are coiTect in stating that formerly the 

 lions and tigers at the Zoological were removed from their cages at the 

 approach of winter, and placed in an artificially- heated house till the warm 

 weather returned; bur having been left out during a very early snow storm, 

 they were found rolling in the snow, aud greatly enjoying it. Since then they 

 face the augr^' elements, and the murtality has greatly diminished. It is so 

 with poultry. If you confine them to a heated hou^ie and forbid all exit from 

 it, your fowls will pine and die. If you will, build a winter- roosting house 

 close-shut a;:!aiast a!! weather, the door put in that corner whore there is the 

 least wind in the winter. If you will feed generously, not even omitting a 

 little animal food at times, leaving the door open in the winter, yuur 

 poultry will do very well. You will have to supply them with water twice 

 every day. That will be quite enough in the winter. The door need be open 

 only lor the four hours of mid-day, and when closed, dung or something 

 ciiuivalent to it should be piled up against it, just as is done to the stable 

 doors in England. They must have food in their .houses always. If it could 

 be kept from freezing into lumps of stony hardness, ground oats mixed with 

 milk and some grease would be the best food. They requh-e this stimulating 

 food only in the winter. Experience in our climate has taught us that the 

 earliest-hatched birds are always the strongest, aud reared with the least 

 trouble. We therefore advise you to time the sitting of your hens, so that 

 when the warm weather comes, and the vegetation bursts rapidly fortli, you 

 may be able at once to put your chickens to the sun. Such will be forward, and 

 you will be able to view the coming winter without dread as regards your stock. 



Fowls in CoNyiNED Spacf, {linmalhoi. — In such a space as you doHcribo 

 you must have a breed that will do well in confinemei-t, and that will also 

 submit to it. As wo are always averse to keeping fowls with their wings cut, 

 and many breeds, such as Gaiuo, Ilamburghs, and Spanish, would certainly 

 liy over a fence Gfeet high, wo can recommend you the Cochins and Brahmas. 

 The question of the numbers you may keep in such a place depends on the 

 helps you are disposed to afford them. They want gravel, grit, and grass; 

 this latter should be growing, and it cut in the Bhai)e of a sod, should be 

 heavj- enough to resist the pull iieces!,ary to tear the gratis to pieces, and also 

 have enough earth to contain aud hold worms and such like creatures, vn-y 

 beneficial to the health of fowls. You may keep a cock aud two hens well iu 

 the space you name, and if you will give them lettuce and such garden refuse 

 they will do well. We described such a house as you will require iu the present 

 number. It should be of wood, rotifed with slate or Bridgnwater tiles, 10 feet 

 long, 6 or 8 feet deep, aud 7 feet high in the lowest part^ vnih perches at thci 

 sheltered end, door in the corner, \sindow to open or phut according to tho 

 eeai^on and tho weather; above all, a gravel floor. 



Poultry IIousb ami Yard (■/. li. ir.).— We vjU presume you have a spaco 

 from 15 to 18 yards long and G wide, indopeniitaifi at tho Bpaoo you allot iot 



