Aagast 19, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



173 



Pigeon pie — were boards, and on them Pouters cooing and yonng 

 birds hatching. Next the coachman's bedroom— (I really feel as 

 if I were writing a hounehold-furniture catalogue, and feel prone 

 to add " containing tent bed with dimity hangings)— but recol- 

 lecting myself, as school girls say, I look around, and am told 

 that this is the variety room, and an uncommonly good variety 

 class are in it. There are first Jacobins, famous Blacks, of raven 

 plamage — the most telling colour in Jacks, save that the rose 

 shows best in Yellows. There were also excellent Reds and 

 Yellows. Nuns, too, of the ubual colour, the black-headed ; and 

 of the unusual colours, red and yellow-headed. Priests, too, 

 and more Dragoons, and Archangels of an unusual marking- 

 viz , with white heads and flights, which look as if they might 

 be related to Priests. This is a variety which was mentioned by 

 a Mr. Purer in 1858 as having been seen by him in some parts 

 of Germany. Mr. Tegetmeier quotes his words, which are as 

 follows, "Besides the Red, and Black, and Yellow, and Blue 

 there are several varieties, as, for instance, those having white 

 flights either with or without a white spot on the forehead ; but 

 those with a clear white head and flights are most prized." 

 Such are Captain Hill's, and very pretty birds they are, to my 

 mind much prettier than the other Autwerps. Among the 

 Jacobins were some Reds of a very solid and rich colour. The 

 variety room had also in it some Black Beards ; Black and 

 Chequer Smerles, the supposed original Antwerps, some with a 

 little touch of Owl-like frill — very quick active birds, giving 

 token by their indoor activity of their outdoor powers. 



I next enter the back parlour, devoted to Pouters, Reds, 

 Blacks, Blues, and Yellows. Here was the old champion Blue 

 ■with a splendid hen matched with him, one of the best in Eng- 

 land. I notice also a Black hen with good rose pinion, and a 

 Black cock, a very perfect Pouter. I have mentioned in these 

 stables (for there are others to inspect) only the cream, for the 

 birds are so numerous that it is impossible to mention more 

 than those that are most conspicuous to the eye from their 

 special beauty. 



Having now seen the inhabitants of the stable proper, I am 

 taken to see the birds which Captain Hill calls his " rough lot," 

 kept in another stable of similar external appearance ; but on 

 opening the door I find the building unfinished, the divisions 

 made, bat the living rooms not ceiled and ready for a family. 

 In the ground floor of the stable proper is the place for the 

 Bantams ; there they lay, and sit, and sleep. Above, with mnch 

 wing room, the space being open to the slates, are the Pigeons, 

 which fly from rafter to rafter in mnch enjoyment, and though 

 called a rough lot would not wish, I am sure, to exchange their 

 wider range for the closer-penned superior birds in their grander 

 home. Do we not sometimes see ths like to this among man- 

 kind? Ah ! we do many a time. Amid the rough lot there are 

 Borne good birds, Camulets of different colours and Smerles ; 

 and in the back parlour, a little separated by netting, I found 

 good Pouters of the two colours Red and Yellow, and a perfect 

 model of a Black hen. 



Such is a brief outline or slight sketch of Captain Hill's two 

 pigeonries, situated at half a mile or so from his house, the 

 distance affording a nice walk, and the Pigeons forming a nice 

 object at the end. 



Captain Hill is an old fancier, and told me that one of his 

 greatest griefs in early boyhood — a grief which he remembers 

 80 well — was his losing a favourite Almond Tumbler, seeing his 

 bird seized upon by a cat and being wholly unable to rescue it. 

 Boyhood's griefs are photographed on the memory, and, like 

 childhood's tears, are very bitter. 



"Edina" is full of Japanese curiosities, amongst them two 

 Japanese spaniels, no doubt the original, as Sir Rutherford 

 Alcock supposes, of our King Charles dogs. With us in process 

 of time the King Charlie has been altered, I may say for the 

 worse, and the dogs of the breed now exhibited are black and 

 tan with no white in them. In King Charles's time they had 

 much white and were a great deal prettier. In proof that they 

 had much white I refer my readers to our vol xiiv., page 58, 

 January 16th, 1873, where is a picture of John Rose presenting 

 the first English-grown Pine Apple to that king. The dogs with 

 the king in the picture have more white in them than black ; so 

 of other pictures of the doge of that and near succeeding days. 

 No one seeing Captain Hill's pair of dogs, soft and silky in coat, 

 and rich black and white in colour, will dispute the point with 

 me that modern fanciers have spoilt the dog by breeding-out 

 the white. Dog fanciers seldom have an eye for beauty, but 

 delight chiefly in what is difiicult to attain, no matter how ugly 

 it be when attained. Witness the King Charlie, the pug, and 

 the prize blaok-and-tan terrier, which is scarcely a terrier at all. 

 I hope the fox terrier will always be judged by his true merits 

 or proved capacity for work, and then the half beagles will dis- 

 appear, and the true fox terrier be kept. 



Captain Hill may well be congratulated on his Bantams, 

 Pigeons, and dogs, and I congratulate myself on a most agree- 

 able visit. The pleasant air and view at " Edina," the sight of 

 the beautiful birds, the stroll through the hay, the visit to the 

 anticiue and picturesque little toy of a church near, " Perivale 



church," and most of all — above all, the real kindly Scotch wel- 

 come, make my two days at Ealing as pleasant to look back 

 upon as they were to me when there. 



N.B. — If a reader has a stable and coach house and no horses, 

 a good thing now that hay is £6 a ton, my advice to him is to 

 fill them with Pigeons. — Wiltshire Rector. 



DRIVING BEES. 



" Line upon line, precept upon precept," is an old text npon 

 which many a sermou has been preached. How often has the 

 process of driving bees been explained in these pages, with the 

 utmost minuteness and particularity ! yet the question recurs 

 again and again, "How is the operation performed?" When 

 ouce the practice now adopted at some horticultural shows — as 

 recently at Grantham — becomes common, of performing various 

 bee manipulations in public, doubtless an answer to the question 

 will be readily found without constant recurrence to the authori- 

 ties of our apiarian journals ; till then we must not shrink from 

 reiterating information. Once seen performed by a master 

 hand, anyone gifted with coolness and perseverance will find 

 driving bees a very simple operation. Of course " practice 

 makes perfect." 



In my own case I discard much of the paraphernalia which I 

 once thought necessary, and am content with nothing more than 

 some sort of bee-dress, a little smoking brown paper, and an 

 empty box or skep to fit the hive which is to be driven. I 

 begin operations by blowing a steady current of smoke in at the 

 entrance of the hive, which immediately drives the bees up 

 among the combs in a panic of fear. From that moment they 

 are absolutely at my mercy. I proceed then to break the hive 

 from its board, and to turn it upside down upon a chair or pail 

 — anything to steady it. A whiff or two more of the smoke 

 blown in among the combs finishes the courage of the bees, 

 already auifieiently alarmed at the treatment they have received 

 and their sudden exposure to the light. 



The empty box or skep is now brought into requisition, and 

 is gently placed over the reversed hive, after which a few taps 

 smartly given to the sides of the hive will cause the whole 

 population, queen and all, to ascend into the empty chamber 

 overhead. A mighty hum is heard at the moment of the rush, 

 which may last a minute or more till the bees are assured of 

 the safety of their queen in her place of exile. When this baa 

 toned down to something like silence I lift off the once-empty 

 box, now full of bees ; and if I see that most of the beea are in 

 it I put it gently on the stand where the old hive stood, while I 

 proceed to diive out the remainder of the bees into another 

 empty box or skep of similar dimensions. These I carry to 

 their companions on the old stand, and dash them down on the 

 top of it. The parent hive thus emptied of its inhabitants is 

 now ready for any treatment that may be desired. The driving 

 part of the business is done. As for the driven bees they, too, 

 are in the hands of the bee-master to be dealt with at his 

 pleasure, either for transference to a permanent hive like an 

 ordinary swarm, or to be treated otherwise ad libitum. — B. & W. 



A SAD CASE. 

 The Rev. L. L. Langstroth of Ohio, the author of the best 

 work that ever was written on the honey bee, and the simul- 

 taneous inventor with Dzierzon of the frame hive, is prostrated 

 by poverty and sickness, having been even compelled to part 

 with all his bees. This unhappy result appears to have been in 

 a great measure brought about by worry and litigation in defend- 

 ing his apiarian patents. The bee-keepers of America have this 

 present summer subscribed both bees and money once more to 

 start their old friend in his favourite pursuit. May their good 

 intentions prosper. — J. Honteb. 



THE HONEY SEASON IN HEREFORDSHIRE. 



Pf.r ttap s it will interest the readers of the Journal of Horii- 

 culture to hfive a resume o( the experiences of a bee-keeper in 

 the west of England during the past honey season. I say the 

 " past " advisedly, seeing that all honey-gathering ceases in 

 this district when the lime-tree flowers are gone. 



Up to the 1st of June or a little later " all went merry as a 

 marriage bell," and a large glass super was taken off full of the 

 most beautiful honey, and a large glass super which was in- 

 tended for exhibition at the forthcoming show at the Crystal 

 Palace was rapidly filling, many of the cells in fact being sealed. 

 I even had an Utopian idea that I might gain a prize, but since 

 that date not an ounce of honey has been gathered. All hives 

 and supers have been decreasing in weight, and so rapidly that 

 it might be midwinter instead of summer. Several swarms 

 were in the last stage of existence for want of food, and dozens 

 kept in the old-fashioned skeps by cottagers in my neighbour- 

 hood have died outright for want of timely feeding. 



My hives have indicated their poverty by throwing-ont the 



