October 82, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTDKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



313 



to ten parts of water, by weight), and somo time afterwards 

 witLi boiliuj water, by which means the fiiugi are destroyed. 

 U wo prefer a self-acting process, we place the hives in an 

 oven, and keep tiiem there for some hours exposed to a tempe- 

 ratare equal to that of boiling water ; here the heat penetrates 

 into all tlie crevices and pores, auJ effectually destroys the 

 fungus. When, thirty-five years ago, I walked the hospital in 

 Berlin as a young medical student, puerperal fever and hospital 

 gangrene prevailed to a fearful extent, and the women and 

 the wounded perished from ulceration, after enduring the most 

 liorrible sufferings. All remedies and precautious having 

 proved futile, we emptied the diU'erent wards, keeping them 

 lor weeks with closed windows, heated to a temperature of -10^ 

 (123' i'ahrenheit), and when they were again tenanted by the 

 sick it was found that the epidemic had vanished. Here, then, 

 also we may presume that a fungus was destroyed by the heat. 



The site of the apiary should be repeatedly moistened with 

 diluted sulphuric acid, and the earth around it dug over. After 

 all the hives are purified, we should, if possible, remove the 

 apiary to a new position. The conveyance of the disease by 

 the bees themselves is perhaps less dangerous, if we only dili- 

 gently examine their hives ; and fi,>r this reason wo only kill 

 them when everything else fails. Their establishment in new, 

 or at any rate clean, hives, is best eS'ectod about the middle of 

 •Tune, because they are then able to build sufficient combs and 

 store them with food for the winter. But all fotd-lrcedinn 

 coloiiu-i s!toi:Ul be traiisft'rred as nearlj a.i possible at the same 

 time, lest the healthy stocks become contaminated by the dis- 

 eased ones. For this reason also we examine all the combs 

 weekly and remove such as are infected, and in this way it is 

 quite possible to conquer the disease. 



As in medicine the most distinguished practitioners generally 

 discovered the right mode of treatment before the actual nature 

 of the disease was determined, so also Dzierzon,von Lerlepsh, 

 and others have already promulgated manj' of the above rules for 

 the treatment of foul brood, and have especially warned us 

 against losing time in worthless quackeries, a warning which 

 we cannot here repeat too forcibly. If, however, the instructions 

 which wo have given above be scrupulously and energetically 

 followed out, no one need despair of curing the most virulent 

 foul brood. — Dr.. Pkeuss, Satiitntsratli. 



BEES IX SOMERSETSHIRE. 



The experience I have gathered in sixteen years, thoughmucU 

 o! it of an old-fashioned sort, may interest some of your readers ; 

 my failures also may possibly prevent one or two from being 

 disheartened, and encouiage them to try again. 



To begin at the beginning of my bee-keeping. The previous 

 tenant of the premises, to which I came in 1802. left me a stock 

 of bees in a very good Nutfs collateral hive of three boxes. 

 They had occupied this Iiive for three or four years, and had 

 never done more thnu fill the central box and build a snjall 

 piece of comb in one side box. I found that the slides between 

 the side and central boxes had always been open, and think- 

 ing that the temperature of the hive had been thus kept too 

 low, I closed them, and the bees at once began to work in a 

 glass super, in which during the -July of the same year tliey 

 stored 10 lbs. of honey. They gave me the same, or perhaps a 

 rather heavier quantity in the following summer ; but directly 

 side communication was opened work in the super ceased, and 

 they never showed any disposition to avail themselves of the 

 additional room afforded by the side boxes. 



During the years 1851 and 1355 these bees neither worked 

 in the super as before, nor gave any promise of swarming ; nnd 

 as they seemed dispirited b';sides, and growing weak in numbers, 

 in April, 1855, I turned them out of their box into a straw 

 cottage hive partly filled with comb, and fed them liberally 

 with the little honey that remained in their own stores and 

 with sugared beer. They throve very well in tiieir new abode, 

 and having, I suppose, reared for themselves a new queen, 

 became very strong before the hunter. In 185(1 they (hrtw an 

 early and large swarm, which I secured in one of Neighbour's 

 improved cottage hives. In the autumn 1 drove the old stock 

 and added the bees to the swarm, and so made a very strong 

 hive. I thus obtained the stores of the old stock without using 

 brimstone, muck to the surprise of many of my neighbours, 

 and did not tcruple to take also three glasses of honey from 

 the cottatic hive. My plunder amounted to more than 30 lbs. 

 of beautiful honey. 



I may just notice here that the transfer from wood to straw 



had a wondf rfuUy beneficial effect on the temper of these bees. 

 So long as Ihey were domiciled in Nutt's box hive they would 

 allow no one to go near them, and many a time my gardener 

 might be seen with his head sheltered in a bush, waiting 

 patiently till his tormentors left him. After, however, they 

 had been removed to the straw hive a total change came over 

 them ; they seemed to have lost their former irritable temper, 

 and even children might play close to their hive unmolested. 



The spring of 1857 found the inmates of Neighbour's cottage 

 hive strong and active. They yielded mo four small glasses and 

 one large glass of honey, in all upwards of 40 lbs. The whole 

 of this honey had a very strong llavour of rosemary. A very 

 large plant of this shrub had blossomed profusely, and so 

 strongly was all the honey which I took this year impregnated 

 with it, that many persons found it very disagreeable to their 

 palates. 



In 1858 I purchased a strong stock and had another given to 

 me, and, with tho addition of these, and a splendid swarm 

 from my own bees, my number of hives was now four. All of 

 these I placed under a shed, and obtained several small glasses 

 of honey, but on the whole the year was not to me a good honey 

 year ; still tho stocks were all of them strong in the autumn 

 and passed tho winter well. 



In the summer of 185'J three of my four hives swarmed twice 

 each. One sent out one large swarm, and this latter another. 

 Thus my total number of hives mounted up to twelve, all the 

 bees worked well throughout tho summer, and from some I took 

 bell-glasses of honey, of the weight of which I have no memo- 

 randa. Why I acted as I now did I cannot tell. I did not, as 

 I ought to have done, drive any of my bees ; but over-per- 

 suaded by vay gardener and an old parishioner, I was foolish 

 enough, and mad enough, and cruel enough to destroy four 

 stocks by the brimstone match, and so I received more than 

 80 lbs. of honey, for which I obtained a good price, besides a 

 considerable quantity of wax. 



In 18G0 the tide turned — what else did a bee-destroyer de- 

 serve ? — no swarms, no honey, and in the spring of 1861 every 

 stock died. My vexation and grief may be more easily con- 

 ceived than described. I could not but feel that my losses 

 arose from my own stupidity and carelessness, and that if I 

 had but used my own experience and a little common sense 

 the case might have been very different. My garden did not 

 seem the same with its flowers almost beeloss. The loss of the 

 cheerful lively hum took away from the brightness of many a 

 gay spring and summer day. I was thoroughly cured of bee- 

 destroying, I hope fur ever, and so, I believe, was my gardener 

 factotum. 



So passed 1851 and 1862 ; but in 1863 a neighbour, to whom 

 I had been able to render a little service, most kindly sent me 

 what he knew I would value — a strong and early swarm housed 

 in one of my tlat-topped straw hives. This stock did well and 

 passed the winter safely. My previous experience had quite 

 convinced me of the advantages which must arise from the use 

 of some form of hive which would allow more complete control 

 of the bees, and more easy inspection than is possible with the 

 straw hive of the usual shape. The best I could hear of was the 

 American bar hive, and I therefore procured one from a very 

 respectable and worthy old man named Downie, at New Barnet. 

 I afterwards procured others from him, but, as will subsequently 

 appear, inconvenience arose from their not being all made to 

 scale, and also from the width of the bars being slightly too 

 great. This, however, was my first acquaintance ^ith the 

 moveable-bar systenr ; and when in 18G1 my bees swarmed, I 

 at once introduced ihem into tlie American box. Tho swarm 

 had settled on a Currant bush. I placed tho hive, removed 

 from its floorboard, above them, and they at once ascended into 

 it. This swarm was a very strong one, and worked bettor than 

 any other I ever had. On the twenty-first day from that ou 

 which they were hived I removed a super of 16 lbs. nttt of 

 beautiful honey, and afterwards they filled a smaller glass, 

 which I allowed them to ktep f.ir their own share. The parent 

 hive also gave me a glass of 1 ! lbs. in weight. 



In 18C5, I had no swarms, but a very large supply of honey, 

 nearly 50 ibs. from the two hives, and all this of the most beau- 

 tiful description. Many of my paiishioners now began to take 

 much interest in the way in which my bees were workt d, and 

 would frequently ask to be allowed to look into tho window at 

 the back of the Aruorican box, though they could see very little 

 there, and the sjt;!it of the bees at work in one of the glafs 

 supers never failed to afTord the liveliest pleasure. I was also 

 very glad to show some who were anxious to try the plan, how 

 to place a bell-glass on the top of their own hives, by simply 



