2U 



JOURNili OP HORTIGUIiTURB AND COTrAGE GARDENER. 



[ ilaroh 23, 1878. 



years, at least in these parts ; but hope must not be surrendered. 

 Therefore let warmth and feeding be encouraged as much as 

 possible in every apiary. — B. & W. 



SUPERSTITIONS RELATIVE TO BEES. 



Seeing in your " Letter Box " reply that you consider none 

 but the ignorant entertain such superstitions, I write to say that 

 persons far from beiijg ignorant in Esses will not sell a hive of 

 bees, believing that if they did the bees remaining in their apiary 

 would dwindle away. I should like to know what other Buper- 

 Btitions are relating to bees. — Langfobd. 



[We extract the following from Brand's " Antiquities." " A 

 gentleman at a dinner table happened to mention that he was 

 surprised, on the death of a relative, by his servant inquiring 

 whether his master would inform the bees of the event, or 

 whether he should do so. On asking the meaning of so strange 

 a question, the servant assured him that bees ought always to 

 be informed of a death in a family, or they would resent the 

 neglect by deserting the hive. This gentleman resides in the 

 Isle of Ely, and the anecdote was told in Suffolk ; and one of 

 the party present, a few days afterwards took the opportunity 

 of testing the prevalence of this strange notion, by inquiring of 

 a cottager who had lately lost a relative and happened to com- 

 plain of the loss of her bees, whether she had told them all she 

 ought to do. She immediately replied, 'Oh, yes; when my 

 aunt died I told every skep {i.e., hive) myself, and put theminto 

 mourning.' I have since ascertained the existence of the same 

 superstition in Cornwall, Devonshire, Gloucestershire (where 

 I have seen black crape put round the hive or on a small stick 

 by its side), and Yorkshire. There are many other singular 

 notions afloat as to these insects. In Oxfordshire I was told 

 that if man and wife quarrelled the bees would leave them. 



"In the Living Librarie, Englished by John MoUe, 1621, 

 page 283, we read, ' Who would beleeve without superstition (if 

 experience did not make it credible), that most commonly all 

 the bees die in their hives if the master or mistresse of the house 

 chance to die, except the hives be presently removed into some 

 other place ? And yet I know this hath hapned to folke no way 

 stained with superstition.' A vulgar prejudice prevails in many 

 places of England that, when bees remove or go away from their 

 hives, the owner of them will die soon after. 



" A clergyman in Devonshire informed me that when any 

 Devonian makes a purchase of bees the payment is never made 

 in money, but in things (corn for instance) to the value of the 

 sum agreed upon ; and the bees are never removed but on a 

 Good Friday. 



" A superstitious custom prevails at every funeral in Devon- 

 shire of turning round the bee hives that belonged to the de- 

 ceased, if he had any, and that at the moment the corpse is 

 carrying ont of the house. 



" Sampson, in his Statistical Survey of the County of London- 

 derry, 1802, page 436, says that there bees must not be given 

 away, but sold ; otherwise neither the giver nor the taker will 

 have Inok." 



"Borlase in his 'Antiquities of Cornwall,' page 168, tells us, 

 ' The Cornish to this day invoke the spirit Browny when their 

 bees swarm ; and think that their crying Browny, Browny, will 

 prevent their returning into their former hive, and make them 

 pitch and form a new colony.' "] 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Obtaining Eggs (Agamemno?i).~The variety ia of more effect than the 

 feedicg. Golden Hambargh pullets fed liberally on ground oats and barley- 

 meal ■will produce eggs as early and frequently as any other breed. 



Hens Dropping their Eggs (E. M.). — It ia probable you will induce them 

 to lay in a nest if you provide one. It phould be a square box put in a 

 comer of the roosting house, well supplied with straw, and bavins two or 

 three artificial eggs to show, for what pnrpoee it ia intended. It wants 

 nothing in the way of concealment, and the sides should not be more than 

 7 or 8 inches high. It is from the eggs lying about that they take to eat 

 them. One gets broken, and then birds that never dreamt of eating an egg 

 greedily devour the yolk. It is very diflScalt to cure the habit. One thing 

 that helps much to do it is to put some hard composition eggs on the floor 

 of the house. The culprits try once and again to mnke an impression on 

 them, and failing give it up. They will also eat eggs lying about when they 

 will not touch one laid in a nest. These complaints eometimes arise from 

 laying-boxes closely resembling pigeon-holes, and placed 8 feet from the 

 ground. 



Gold-pencilled HAMEUBGn'3 Points (BoscoL— Both cock and hen should 

 have faultless white deaf ears not exceeding the size of a fourpenny- piece, 

 combs fall of spikes seited firmly on the centre of the head, and piked behind, 

 the pike inclining upwards. The cock should have a black tail for ground 

 colour, but the feathers should be bronzed on the sides. Both should have 

 taper bine legs. The hen's plumage should be accurately pencilled all over; 

 each feather should have eight or ten dark markings. The tail fhould be 

 pencilled to the end, and the hackle as free as possible from spots. You need 

 not he discouraged if you do not positively attain these last conditions; they 

 are difficulties, and as a rule pencilled tails bring spotted hackles. The 

 colour of both sexes should be rich and not washed out. It is a grave fault 

 if the pencilling is not defined bnt runs into masses and becomes that which 

 is called " mossy." 



Ducks Dying Scddenly (J. B. J.). — We have carefully dissected the Duck 

 yoa sent. "We find it healthy with the exception of the heart and liver. The 

 former most unnaturally distended and full of blood. The liver enlarged and 

 also full of blood. This latter appearance is indicative of improper food. We 

 attribute it to tho rice. Give your Ducks oats to eat, feed them from some 

 vessel in which you can put oats, gravel, and sods of grass. Cover the whole 

 with water, and let them feed from it. They will not then, we think, have 

 any similar disease. 



Canary Dying Scddenly (Mrs. T.). — There was no organic disease. 

 Sudden exposure to cold may have been the cause this severe season. 



Zebra Finches (R. 8. f .).— Waxbills, of which there are several varieties, 

 ai'e very caressing to each other, setting aside the sexes of the birds, even 

 though when more than one or more pairs are kept together in a cage. Wax- 

 billsapparently appear more at home when provided with a residence furnished 

 in the interior a la lusticas regards perches, and the backs and comers of tho 

 cage fitted up with suitable crooked stumps, partly faced-up with bark (cork 

 bark may be fashioned to any degree the fancy may lead), with small inlets 

 or holes here nnd there provided, and a kind of corridor communication from 

 end to ena of the cage. In the earners of the ca:?e fix small receptacles to 

 serve as nesting places, but not got-up in a too-much artificial style, with no 

 French polish about them. Let them be rugged, but securely fixed. When 

 commencing to try to breed with the birds supply them with moss and hair, 

 with a little fine hay or dry fibrous material, such as may be obtained from 

 the ro its of small fruit trees. A cage with wooden sides and back will be 

 best for the purpose, with an open door or slide constructed at each end to 

 place in or take out the nest, or to peep a3 occasion may require atthe 

 progress {if any) the birds may make. The entire matter will be mteresting ; 

 and even though succoes may not favour you, still that which you may have 

 to contend with in tho way of disappointment will be made up for in experi- 

 ence. Then (so far as your individual case maybe concerned) you will be 

 able to test whether "Zebra Finches will breed ia England." We do not 

 wish to discourage you, but urge you on with your interesting task. We 

 cannot just now refer you to facts, proof positive, as to whether they will 

 breed, but we have heard of several instances of Waxbills depositing eggs in 

 their cages. We know of other foreign birds having bred in this country, 

 successfully too, in cages and rooms. Waxbills, like other finches, mostly 

 feed upon seeif s, and that most suitable for these particular bh-ds is millet 

 seed. This they eat with avidity where they inhabit. In the way of soft 

 food (if yon should succeed in breeding with your Waxbills) you may supply 

 them with chopped egg mixed with a little boiled rice or bread slightly 

 soaked in new milk, but let it be fresh daily. Birds which feed upon seeds 

 seed their young from the crop. 



METEOBOLOGICAL OBSEBVATIONS. 



Camden Sqcake. London. 



Lat, 51° 82' 40" N. ; Long. 0= 8' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 



EEMAEK3. 



15th. — High wind in the night, and continuing, though not so violent, all the 



day, which was otherwise fair and bright. 

 16th. — Very fine morning, with rapidly rising barometer; fine day, but cold ; 



a few flakes of snow about 1 p.m. 

 17th.— Fine, but getting colder ; very bright at noon ; bnt a slight fall of snow 



about 2 P.M. ; fine after, and a starlight night. 

 18th.— Fine and bright but windy and cold; very dark at 4.30 p.m., and a 



slight snow shower; very cold at night. 

 19th. — Snow 1:1 ia^iiy deep on the ground, and still snowing at 9 A.M., and 



more or less till noon ; then cleared off, and was very bright all the 



afternoon ; a few flakes of enow again at 9 p.m. 

 20th.— Fine but cold morning, and till about 1 p.m. ; snow in the afternoon 



and evening, and very cold. 

 21st.— Very fine early, but getting dai-ker, so that at 9 o'clock it wag intensely 



dark, not exactly from fog, as things could be seen at some distance, 



but from the colour cf the medium through which you looked. 

 A sharp wintry week with much wind and enow. — G. J. Symons. 



COVENT GAKDEN MARKET.— Mabch 22. 

 A very quiet husineeg doing in all kinds of goods, and with the exception 

 of late Grapes, which are becoming very short, prices have a downward 

 tendency. 



FRUIT. 



Apples 4 sieve 1 



Apricots dozen 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuts bushel 12 



Currants t sieve 



Black do. 



Figs dozen 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, hothouse.... lb. 5 



Lemons ^100 6 



Melons each 



d. B.d. 

 0to3 6 



Molberries lb. 



Nectarines dozen 



Oranges %^ 100 6 



Peaches dozen 



Pears, kitchen.... dozen 



desenrt dozen 8 



Pine Apples lb. 1 



Plums h sieve 



Qoincea bushel 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberiies oz. 1 



Walnuts bushel i 



ditto ^100 1 



d. B d. 

 OtoO 



a 6 



10 



a 



