~ Dacomlior 26, 1867. 1 



JOUBNAL OP HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



493 



The Michaelmas Geo3e take their places nnder the stages in 

 Aagast, and Norfolk and Suffolk are pretty well scoured before 

 the dealers full back upon the Irish and the Dutch supplies. 

 The Dutch, which are principally Rroy, corae from Botterdam, 

 and one of the largest Norwich dealers imported 17 tons v;eight 

 of live birds Inst year. They come over by steamers and sailing 

 vessels, packed in big flat baskets, but not to any great extent 

 after the 1st of October. In the dealers' hands they are fed on 

 the same principle as Ducks — low fare to begin with, and then 

 on a gradually ascending scale. On turnips they are capital 

 substitutes for sheep, and when a dealer has a turnip field, be 

 not unfreqnently hurdles off a portion of it and eats it off with 

 them. They first clear the tops and then the bulbs of the 

 softer turnips ; but when they have a field of swedes to deal 

 with, the man in attendance gives each turnip a chop. With 

 this aid they eat far cleaner than sheep, and, in fact, leave no- 

 thing but their " taith," which answers admirably as a prepara- 

 tion for the next wheat crop. Mangels are not so much to their 

 taste as turnips, but they eat the tops with a special relish. 

 While thoy are busy with these green crops they require nothing 

 bat large troughs of water, and the finishing process consists in 

 putting them >indor stages for a month and feeding them on 

 brewers' grains and meal. 



On the western moors of Cornwall everj- one keeps Geese, and 

 they are bought up by jobbers in thousands for the stubbles. 

 Summer Court, on September '25th, is the Goose fair of the 

 county ; but they are only eaten there, and bargains are struck 

 under their savoury influence for draft ewes and wethers. 

 Farmers all over England are supplied very largely both from 

 Holland and Ireland. Geese are extensively bred in Moravia ; 

 and the hilly districts in Germany and Holland are peopled by 

 a lot of (ioose farmers, who get their living entirely by them. 

 The Hussenheim Goose market is a very large one, and of great 

 antiquity, and, according to local tradition, the town owes its 

 name to the bird of its choice. The Dutch hucksters buy 

 goslings from the cotters — who, like the burghers, are remark- 

 able for turning the penny the right way — at prices varying 

 from 1--. ('ill. to 2s They are driven to Botterdam, where they 

 are packed up in crates, which are capable of holding about fifty 

 or sixty each. Their voyage to Hull by the steamers is charged 

 at 18:,'. per cwt., or about £.') for 301) or 400 birds, and they are 

 not fed until they are landed, and then with oats. From Hull 

 they are forwarded to central market towns in railway trucks, 

 each of which is capable of holding 230 birds. A small per- 

 centage of the more weakly ones die from being trampled on, 

 and these casualties, with the expense of transit and sale at- 

 tendants, bring up the price to about 3,s-. 9(/., when they are 

 pitched in the market during August and September. The 

 Irish collections are managed on a similar principle. If the 

 goslings are purchased within reasonable distance of Dublin or 

 Dondalk, they are driven to those ports, and if not, they are 

 sent byrail. Liverpool, like Hull, is quite a " board of supply " 

 for English dealers during the season. 



Considerable supplies of Ducks are also brought from Hol- 

 land, and some Turkeys as well ; but the Norwich dealers' 

 Duck supplies are mostly gathered in through the hucksters 

 from the small cottagers in the county. Bouens and Ayles- 

 burys have not been much used for crossing, and the supplies 

 are generally of the small mixed brown and cinnamon sort, 

 which has subsisted since the Flood. The cottagers do not 

 force their ducklings, but sell them to the dealers, one of whom 

 take3 30,i)00a year, principally in the duck andgreen pea season. 

 They como to him about 3 lbs. in weight, and after a week in the 

 lean and three in the fat yard, they are turned out in prime 

 condition, and fully 1 lb. gain in flesh.— Henry H. Dixon (in 

 ■Journal of the lioijal Aijiictdtural Society of Emjlamf). 



THE BEE YE.VU OP 1RC7 IN SCOTLAND, 

 AND THE 1:GYPTIANS. 

 TirenE is no period of the year, perhaps, when there is less 

 interest felt in the bee garden than in the dreary, dismal 

 month of December. Our little favourites have long since 

 ceased their busy labours, their joyful hum but seldom greets 

 the ear, and for the niust part they are doomed to a lengthened 

 involuntary repose, a repose not of choice but of constraint. 

 Botired amid the treasured sweets which their providence has 

 stored up for a time of need, and surrounded by that comfort 

 and protection which a considerate bee-master bestows upon 

 them, they are in a position to bid defiance to the raging storm 



and withering blast — to the froat and snows of the sternest 

 winter. 



At such a time as this it is not unbefitting that wo should 

 take a rapid glance on the bygone year, and see what our little 

 favourites have been doing, and bow they have fared during its 

 progress. 



Few winters passed over more propitiously than that of 

 \>*i>i\-l. Such was the nature or character of the weather that 

 not a hive in my apiary suffered in the least from dysentery 

 or internal moisture. The spring of lHi;7 found them all I 

 could desire, both as to population and stores ; and February 

 opened the season with the most cheering prospects. These, 

 however, were soon doomed to be completely blasted. March, 

 April, and May followed each other in mournful succession, 

 testing and trying to the utmost the metal of oven the strongest 

 stocks. Breeding was much retarded. Even feeding failed to 

 make up for the deficiency in pollen and other out-door sup- 

 plies. The consequence was that the population remained 

 almost stationary, the increase of brood being scarcely more 

 than commensurate with the ratio of deaths ; and when at last 

 good weather did sot in, most of the hires were found to be 

 deficient in strength. 



June, however, brought with it some splendid days, and now 

 it was evident that breeding was being carried on at a prodi- 

 gious rate. The recuperative powers of prolific queens were 

 amazingly manifested. My young Egyptian hives, especially, 

 shot speedily a-head of all others, and on the IGth of .lune my 

 first Egyptian swarm took its departure. The morning was 

 very unpropitious. Cold and sunless, scarcely a bee had ven- 

 tured abroad till about eleven o'clock. Straying into the garden 

 by chance, I glanced indifferently around at the dullness which 

 prevailed throughout, but noticing that the sun was to break 

 forth shortly, I sat myself down for a few minutes. Scarcely 

 had the clouds cleared off, and the sun shone out, when my 

 best Egyptian hive, without almost any premonitory symptoms, 

 poured forth its livingsilvery stream, making the very air resound 

 with those sharp shrill notes so peculiar to these children of 

 the Nile. Fortunately, though the air was cool, the sun was 

 unclouded, and the swarm, after some little manoeuvring, ulti- 

 mately settled down on a low-growing shrub. Stepping up to 

 the spot, and observing her majesty en the ground underneath, 

 I lost no time in transferring her into the very centre of the 

 swarm. And now, all settled, I could not but admire these 

 pretty little foreigners, as in dense graceful festoons they clus- 

 tering hung, the whole sparkling in the sun's bright rays like 

 so many thousand gems in silver and gold. What a glorious 

 sight to the amateur apiarian is a natural swarm ! its rushing 

 forth on the floor-board like a roaring cataract o'er a preci- 

 pice ! its eccentric evolutions in the air, darkening the sky 

 almost with its immense volume, now sweeping one way, then 

 another, till^ 



" High poised on bnojanl wing, the thonghtfal^queon 

 :In pazo attontivo Tiewfl the variotl ect>no, 

 Swift as the falcon's sweep the monarch t)ends 

 Her flight abrupt ; the following hoht de<ienil8. 

 Round the fine twig, Like cluster'd grapes they close 

 In thickening wfaths, and court a short repose."— (/vroas). 



Never did I manipulate a more gentle and non-irascible 

 swarm. How changed their fiery tempers become when sepa- 

 rated from their brood and stores ! Herr Vogel may be quito 

 right, therefore, when he says that the Egyptian bee-keepers 

 always approach their bees and hive their swarms with their 

 faces unprotected. Certainly I required no such defence. 



Thus, then, ray first Egyptian swarm. Did I wonder that 

 her apian majesty came forth on so unpropitious a d.iy ? I 

 certainly did, but the sequel will show why. Incipient thrones 

 and dominions, in dozens literally, were cropping up around 

 her, and the wonder only is how she could have tolerated such 

 a state of things so long. 



Upon the 19th of June, only throe days after the first swarm, 

 piping commenced, and early on the morning of the 22nd, 

 knowing that all must now be ready, I induced, as my general 

 custom is, the youthful emigrants to start. On the 25th a 

 third, and again on the "iSth a fourth, swarm issued. Thus in 

 twelve days four swarms issued from the parent hive. The 

 number of queens reared in this hive surpassed anything I 

 ever experienced. The young princesses were issuing forth in 

 half-dozens with every after swarm, and in the intervals be- 

 tween I frequently noticed them running out and in at the 

 entry of the hive pursued by bees, and one or two were actually 

 Compelled to take wing, and on returning had great difficulty in 

 being allowed admission by the guards. Betwixt living and 

 dead I counted no less than tbirty-threo matured princetseE — 



