574 Journal of Agriculture. [lo Sept.. 1909. 



of a strong colony till well laid into bv the queen. As queens are capable 

 of laying more eggs than the worker l^ees can attend to at this time of the 

 year, this will not interfere with the progress of that colony. 



With October, the swarming season approaches. If the ages of the 

 queens are known, swarming is much more easily controlled, if not alto- 

 gether prevented. Colonies with queens of the previous season's raising 

 rarely swarm, if properly managed. Of colonies w'nh. two-year-old 

 queens, a moderate number swarm. Colonies with three-year-old queens 

 are most inclined to swarm. By having a table giving the numbers of 

 hi\es with three-year-old, two-year-old, and one-vear-old queens in separate 

 columns the work of supervision is greatlv reduced. Thus, if we wish to 

 prevent swarming by destroying queen-cells, or to anticipate it by artificial 

 swarming we need not examine all the colonies every ten days, but only 

 the three-year-olds, and the two-year-olds once every sixteen or eighteen 

 days. 



As in modern bee-keeping, every queen, regardless of age, is replaced 

 as soon as she proves unsatisfactory, it fnllows that onl\ a limited 

 number of queens get to be three vears old. In an apiary of 150 colonies, 

 the approximate number of queens is as follows: — One year, 70; two 

 years, 50 ; three years, 30. In ordinary good honev country, the 70 one- 

 year-old queens can practically be left out of account in the matter of 

 swarming. Reference to the notes of the spring overhaul will show a 

 number of colonies with two-year-old queens amongst the stocks which 

 ha\e only one or two combs of brood and, e\en though these may have 

 'been built up with brood from others, the ratio of voung bees to old is such 

 that no swarming is likely to occur till later in the season. The same 

 may be said of .some of the stocks with threes ear-old queens, so that 

 instead of watching for swarms from 150 hi\es or examining that number 

 every nine or ten days, there will be about 20 to look through everv ten 

 days and another 20 every 18 days. When preparations for swarming are 

 noticed, it may be done artificialK li\ tlie apiarist in a wav which will l)e 

 described in a subsequent issue. 



PRICKLY PEAK: A PEST OR A FODDER PLANT? 



Alfred J. Ezcart. D.Sc.. PJi.D.. F.L.S., Government Botanist and 

 Professor of Potanv in the M el bourne UniTCrsitv. 



As a variety of statrnients are current in regard to the value of ]>rick]\ 

 pear, .some of which are highly misleading, it mav, jjeriiaps, be as well to 

 give a short condensed account of the facts definitely known in regard 

 to this i)lant, and to its nearest allies. 



I'irstl\. t<j dispose of one popular myth, namel\, that Luther Burbank 

 was the iirst to de\elop a spineless form of cactus. The term "pricklv 

 pear "' includes various species of Opuntia, some of which have been 

 spineless or nearly so for ages, while evf n the most thorny forms occa- 

 sionally develop nearly spineless shoots, which when separately propa- 

 gated may retain the same peculiarity. In a condition of nature, how- 

 ever, these thornless sports either revert to the thorny condition or tend 

 to be eaten out by stock, the thorniest individuals surviving. Under suit- 

 able conditions, however, or when protected in .some other way, thornless 

 forms may survive, and a few species in certain gcfiera of Cacti, never 

 appear to have de\eloped thorns. Both at the Sydney and ^Melbourne 



