74 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 25, 1877. 



the other was not. If both hives were healthy the question of 

 *' W. J. C," page 5G3 fa correspondeut unknown to me), has hit 

 the mark exactly. He asks what the bees in the straw hive 

 were doing while the Stewartou gathered GS lbs. May I not 

 venture to assert that never before has it beeu known that the 

 bees of healthy hives filled a super of 2U lbs. while the cupboards 

 below were quite empty? Charity begins at home, even in a 

 bee hive. We know that in Lauarkshire and other parts of 

 Scotland swarma in straw hives and the stocks that yielded 

 them in 187") rose to 70 lbs. or thereabouts, whereas the straw 

 hive of your Renfrewshire correspondent, which never swarmed 

 at all, was at starvation point after its super of 20 lbs. was re- 

 moved. If our friend is correct in tracing this failure to the 

 materials or construction of the hives, and if his logic is trust- 

 worthy, we may safely conclude that Mr. Phillips, who obtained 

 131 lbs. of super honey from a straw hive in 187(j, would have 

 obtained nearly JOG lbs. of super honey if his bees had been in 

 a Stewarton hive instead; and what would Mr. George Fox say 

 if he were told that he would have obtained three supers in 

 1875, each 85 lbs. in weight, if his bees had been working in a 

 Stewa»ton hive instead of a straw one ? 



While writing these last few lines the post has brought me a 

 letter from a gentleman in Cambridge asking where straw hives 

 can be obtained. Having made a few complimentary remarks 

 about me and my book, he pots the following question: — "Do 

 yon, after seeing the reports of the large takes of honey from 

 the Stewarton hive, still adhere to your first preference to 

 straw ? All other modern books on bees which I have read 

 seem little more than advertisements of one or another kind of 

 expensive hives." I have just answered his letter by telling 

 him that my opinions touching his question will be given 

 publicly in the Journal of Horticulture. I answer here that 

 my preference for straw is as great as it ever was, nor is it likely 

 to be removed by the reports of isolated cases of success with 

 other kinds of hives. I should like to lend a helping hand in 

 efforts to make all bee-keepers think intelligently, and dig down 

 to the roots of every question. Shall I be permitted to appeal 

 to the logic of common sense ? Is there anything in the 

 materials or constniction of a straw hive which will increase 

 the activity or industry of bees? No, nothing. Is there any- 

 thing in the materials or construction of the Crystal Palace bar- 

 frame prize hives that can give the bees greater working powers 

 or help them in any way? No, nothing. Well, is there any- 

 thing in the Stewarton hive— in materials or shape — that will 

 increase the activity or industry of bees? No, nothing. Wherein, 

 then, lies their virtue, or value, or superiority ? No one can 

 answer that question in a decisive and satisfactory manner. 

 Mere assertion does not always carry conviction of its truth. 

 But look at the results! are they not convincing? They prove 

 that the bees in the Stewarton hive were on good pasture, 

 well managed, and had room to store up all the honey they 

 gathered. The results do not prove more than these points. 

 When I hear of success in bee-keeping I do not trace the success 

 wholly to the kind of hive used. I believe that any competent 

 bee-keeper would succeed with boxes from a grocer's shop; and, 

 moreover, I believe that if such boxes had been tried on equal 

 conditions side by side with the Stewarton hive it would have 

 been a neck-and-shonlder race, no man knowing which would 

 win. I write and make these statements in the interests of the 

 whole race of bee-keepers, but more especially in the interests 

 of those most likely to spend money for hives no better than 

 those already in their possession. If bees have room in a healthy 

 clean hive they will not be idle, and no kind of hive increases 

 their activity. Let all learn this wholesome lesson, that if the 

 locality in which apiarians live is a good one for honey, and the 

 details of management be well attended to, they will succeed 

 beyond their expectations, whatever be the kind of hive used. 

 I have my preference, and give my reasons for it, but I have no 

 prejudices of a narrow character. — A. Pettigrew. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



CatTELTY (Rub-a-(fu&,d'T.).~'We mast decline entering upon the subject. 

 It woold inclade topics from birds in cages to horses !□ harness. 



Brahma Hen (J. A. Bta»i(;«).— The symptoms (drooping of the head and 

 walking backwards) demonstrate that ahe has a pressure on the brain. She 

 is probably too fat. Give her a dessert- spoonful of castor oil, and keep her on 

 low soft diet — one-third barloymeal and two-thirds pollard mixed together 

 with water. 



Cockerel [Crib). — He has a catarrh. Lot him out only in the middle of 

 the day. Give him a deasert-spoonful of castor oil, and feed him only on soft 

 food — barleymeal mash. 



Silkies {E. B., Norwich).— The most likely way to find purchasers will be 

 by advertising the birdti. A wry tail in the Hamburgh cockerel is not likely 

 to become straight. 



Schedule of the AQaABiUM United Kingdom Poultry and Pigeon 

 Exhibition.— We are informed that cups Nos. 6 and 7, value five guineas 

 each, are for Dark and Light Brahmas respectively. 



HrvE (Lib). — After prolonged trials of many hives and systems, storifying 

 and collateral. "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper " found the one that 

 yielded the largest har^-ests of pure honeycomb and coneequent profit, with 

 least expenditnro of time-watching, the least disturbance of the stock, and 



soiling of his hands coming into possession, was the Stewarton with all its 

 parts moveable, and he sticks to it. 



Eking and its Consequences (B. G., Co. Down).— By eking you pre- 

 vented your bee:ifrom swarming in the summer of both 1875 and 1876. Your 

 hive is now a large heavy one, but if you had let the bees swarm last year you 

 would have had two or three stacks instead of one. Abstain from eking this 

 Tear, and let the bees swarm twice if they will. About three weeks after the 

 lirat swarm are obtained drive all the bees out of the old bive into an empty 

 one, and take the honey. The combs in it are old and black, and the queen 



Erratum.— "A Beo-keeper's Retrospect," page 5tJ, read s/toals instead of 

 schools. 



Pine Boards for Hives [J. M.).— Thick-wooded hives are an exploded 

 idea. Beej and their combs keep driest and best in hives of pine wood five- 

 eighths of an inch or so thick, always provided they have thorough external 

 protection from the weather by means of an outer case of wood, good straw 

 hackle, or other efficient protector to cover all the hive saving the entrance, 

 and run off all moisture. — A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper. 



Flowers for Bees (P. B. P.).— Furze being a honey plant in the second 

 or third class was not named in the list of first or best class of honey-pro- 

 duciug plants which you refer to. You think some of your supers were filled 

 with honey gathei-ed from the furze bushes growing on a heath between one 

 and two miles distant from your garden. Very likely some of the honey 

 was brought from the heath or gorse growing on the heath, but we are of 

 opinion that most of the honey of your supers was gathered from other 

 kinds of plants. Bees that work on broom and furze are well dusted over 

 with pollen, and appear as yellow as soldiers and dusty as miUers. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Camden Square, London. 



Lat.5r'32'40" N. ; Long. 8' 0" W.; Altitude, lU feet. 



REMARKS. 

 17th.— Dark showery day, but a starhght night. 

 18th. — Another dark wet day, with a bright night. 

 19th.— Wet early, dry and windy after and in the night. 

 20th.— A dry and very pleasant day, colder towards night; barometer un- 

 usually high; a fine sunset, and a bright starlit night. 

 21st. — A very dense fog, particularly so from 10.30 to noon, then cleared off, 



and a very bright pleasant afternoon, evening, and night ; lunar halo. 

 22ad. — Slight white frost in morning, followed by a bright sunny day. 

 23rd.— "White frost and rather foggy early, but again followed by a very bright 

 pleasant Kunny day. 

 First half of week damp, dark, and uncomfortable ; the last three days very 

 . Temperature about 3^ above last week. — G. J. Symons. 



COVENT GARDEN' M.^RKET.— January 24. 



The supply of eaily forced vegetables, such as Asparagus, Seakale, New 



Potatoes, and Rhubarb, is now very general, and prices low ; but Cucumbers, 



owing to 60 much dull weather, are short, and in good demand. Late Apples 



are in fair request at firm rates; Kent Cobs quiet. 



FRUIT. 



