July 16, 1859. I 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTIOULTDRE AND OOTTAGB GARDENER. 



53 



them all. An open fireplace is the best, if a iirc mnat be had 

 in the room. — HowAKTH Ashton, Polefield Hall, Prestwich. 



LIGURIAN BEES. 



Last year I had to send you a rather doleful account of the 

 casting of my Ligurians in spite of all inducements to get 

 them to store honey instead. Now I have pleasure in sending 

 yon a very different account. I have had eight strong stocks 

 flying all this season, and at the present time there are four 

 artificial swarms in addition, but I have not had a single swarm 

 in the usual way. The bees have been so much under control 

 that I seem to have been able to make them show symptoms 

 of swarming or otherwise at pleasure. Without troubling you 

 with particulars, I may state generally that my success is due 

 to giving more facihties to the bees in passing from the stock 

 hive to the super. 



I am working almost entirely with the Woodbury hives 

 and double-glassed supers, and cannot speak of them more 

 highly than I think. The insect is under entire command 

 for all purposes. On the 'Jth ult. my best hive consisted 

 of the stock and three supers, the total height of which was 

 27 inches. I was able to remove the middle super, which 

 contains 32} lbs. nett of the purest honey, and the comb is 

 all sealed. I am sanguine about obtaining another 35 lbs. 

 from the remaining supers. The queen is not yet thirteen 

 months old, as she came off with a second cast on the 19th of 

 June, 1867. 



In this portion of Cumberland we have had four weeks of 

 good weather for bees. My first fruits from three hives in one 

 day were more than 70 lbs. We are now suffering much from 

 drought, and it is telling upon the white clover, on which we 

 mainly depend for honey. — E. B., Broughton Parsonage. 



not occasionally be developed from it, will be considered in 

 another section. — A. Von BKiiLErsca. 

 (To be coKtinaed.) 



THE BAEON VON BERLEPSCH ON FOUL 



BROOD. 

 Fouii brood is either the dying, putrefying, and ultimately 

 drying-up in the cells of the unsealed larvae, or, more gene- 

 rally, of the larva; which are already sealed. This disease 

 varies considerably in its character, assuming either a con- 

 tagious or a non-contagious form. 



NOS-CONTAGIOUS FOUL BBOOD. 



This may proceed from various causes. Thus some of the 

 brood perishes when, from driving out a swarm, or by the trans- 

 position of its hive, a colony has been so weakened that all the 

 brood can be no longer properly nourished or warmed. It may 

 also occur in the spring if, after eggs laid by the queen in the 

 lower parts of the combs have been hatched, a sudden change 

 of weather constrains the bees to withdraw, and the larva? 

 there becomes chilled. Destruction of brood from this cause 

 was observed as eaily as the days of Columella. 



The food on which the larva; are fed may also sometimes be 

 of a deleterious quality, and cause death. Thus Spitzner 

 relates — " In the spring of 1781 I had placed thirty colonies in 

 a forest, where whortleberry bushes were in profuse bloom. 

 When these colonies were brought home I observed that about 

 6 inches of the lower portions of the combs were perfectly 

 black, and all the larvae in the cells dead. The bees, however, 

 speedily removed the defanct larva;, and eight days afterwards 

 1 found the black cells replenished with brood, which matured 

 in due course." 



Hoffman-Brand says, " In the year 1851 the Fir trees here 

 were greatly devastated by vast numbers of a species of cater- 

 pillar. After these had died, Wunsche, the forester at Tiefen- 

 farth, observed that those Fir trees were frequented by bees, 

 and soon after fonl brood made its appearance in his hives. 

 The cells of one comb containing foul brood were altogether 

 black. Similar facts were communicated to me by Mr. Sommer, 

 of Neuhammer," but in neither case had any further evils 

 ensued. 



Sometimes the bees will remove the defunct brood from the 

 cells before it becomes putrid, whilst at other tines they permit 

 it to remain until it is completely dried up. 



This non-contagious foul brood is generally of no importance, 

 being confined to the brood originally affected by it. Whether 

 under peculiar circumstances it may not sometiuios assume the 

 contagious character, or whether contagious foi,! brood may 



SILKWORM-REARING IN ENGLAND.— No. l.'S. 

 The Mount and the Crop, continued. — When the worms are 

 mounted all dirt should be drawn out, rolled up with the 

 papers, and carried from the room. When the insects are 

 tolerably well enveloped in silk, air may be more liberally ad- 

 mitted if the temperature is not below 0.5". A close heat of 

 80° or 90° would force the worms to violent quick work, injuri- 

 ous to the compact disposition of the silk of the cocoon. The 

 sun should not be allowed to shine on the working worms or 

 the silk, as it would discolour the latter. Air is of more con- 

 sequence in proportion as the little workers become covered 

 with silk, and to withhold it would in all probability cause 

 the black negro disease, what I term the "cholera," because 

 worms dying of it become black and putrid. 



The cocoons are completed in four or five days, the change 

 to the chrysalis state takes place, and about the eighth day the 

 crop may be gathered ; but before doing so cut a cocoon 

 open to ascertain if the transformation is complete, for it is 

 not desirable to collect the cocoons unless the worms are 

 dormant. 



The cocoons complete and containing the chrysalis, the crop 

 has to be collected by taking down the spinning materials, be- 

 ginning at the lower stages and being careful not to throw 

 the cocoons carelessly down, otherwise the silk may be stained 

 by the worms which have died from disease. The cocoons 

 should be laid carefully on tables, the stages, or oven the floor. 

 The good hard ones should be placed in baskets by themselves, 

 and the weak, imperfect ones by themselves. Any that are too 

 soft to be reeled, or which are stained, should be put aside, and 

 will serve for inferior spun silk. 



Having collected and thus sorted them, the cocoons are to be 

 freed of the floss or superfluous silk around them. This 

 operation is performed up to the present time by hand ; holding 

 the floss by the finger and thumb and turning the cocoons round 

 they immediately become clean and fit for the reel or sale. If 

 for sale it is advantageous not to keep them at home a day, 

 for they will lose in weight by keeping ; if to be reeled at 

 home, which in England for the present is likely to be the case, 

 the work must be executed immediately before the chrysalises 

 change to the moth state, or they must be destroyed if required 

 for keeping to reel at a future time. 



I shall speak more fully of the methods adopted in destroy- 

 ing the chrysahs and reeling the silk from the cocoons so 

 as to be marketable silk, or such as is required by the 

 manufacturer. 



Producing Silkworms' Eggs, and their Preservation. — Tbebest 

 cocoons should bo selected for egg-production, and such 

 generally are those which are the first spun. They should 

 not be over-large, but evidently hard, especially at their ends, 

 with an indented circle round the middle. An excellent plan 

 is to mount the most forward worms on a stage by themselves, 

 and to keep them specially for producing eggs. I need hardly 

 mention that when white silk is desired, a selection of white 

 cocoons must be made, yellow, when yellow silk is wanted, and 

 so on, the quantity being regulated by the number of eggs re- 

 quired. Generally speaking, a pound weight of cocoons will 

 produce about 1 oz. of eggs. 



It is necessary to provide as nearly as possible the same 

 number of male as of female moths. The signs to distinguish 

 them in the cocoon I have found uncertain, but more often 

 than not the small cocoons contain males, and the medium- 

 sized and large ones females, especially such as are most 

 rounded at the ends and at their centres. The sex, how- 

 ever, will be known when the moths appear, for the females 

 are larger, heavier, and less active than the males. 



The cocoons should be cleared of their waste silk and laid 

 on a stage or table, separating the sexes by guess. 



The moths of the Japanese breeds come forth in eight or 

 ten days after the completion of the cocoons, while the larger 

 varieties are five or ten days more, according to the tempera- 

 ture. It is a custom among the Italian peasantry to string the 

 cocoons by means of a needle and doubled thread. The needle 

 must only just pierce the silk sufficiently to hold the cocoon, 

 otherwise the life of the insect might be in danger from a 

 puncture. The thread should be passed in at the middle of 



