THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 65 



sort of hives to encourage will depend on your location. If you 

 dwell near a town you will do better with smallish than with largish 

 hives ; if you dwell in a country rich in bee flowers, and known to be 

 favourable to the growth of honey, go in for large hives and storey- 

 fying boxes, and from the very first, have a reserve of empty hives, 

 and get them well painted and put away in a clean, dry place, ready 

 for use. Wood and straw are about of equal value, when small 

 hives are required ; but where money may be made by bees, there is 

 nothing like wood, and my favourite hives are the octagon Stewarton's, 

 and the square Tegetmeier'a and Woodbury's. By having everything 

 in readiness in good time you will not be flurried when a swarm 

 coires off, and you will not risk the loss of a swarm through hiving 

 it into newly painted boxes. Not that the bees suffer through being 

 ])ut into a newly-painted hive, if it is so far dry as not to stick to the 

 fingers. All that happens is^that, having hived them, you, of course, 

 leave them alone to settle down, and they, making discovery of the 

 newness of the paint, turn up their noses an^fly aivay ! Next day 

 your nice hive is empty, and must remain so until you get another 

 swarm. 



These are the only advices that occur to me as needful, in reply 

 to a correspondent who asks for a little advice on the subject. If 

 he can buy a heavy stock, two or three years old, and have it home 

 at once, he may expect one or two swarms in June, and having hived 

 these into new hives, he will be fairly on the road to acqiure experi- 

 ence, and realize the enjoyment of bee-keeping. But he must not 

 attempt to remove the bees and the comb out of the purchased hive 

 into a new one, for the endeavour will end in failure certainly, and 

 if clumsily undertaken may prove as dangerous to the operator as it 

 must be disastrous to the bees. To sum up, the best way to begin 

 bee-keeping is to begin humbly, not attempting over much, and by 

 constant watchfulness to do what is right at any time, while abstain- 

 ing from mere meddling, to grow into a knowledge of the ways of 

 bees, while winning their confidence and affections. S. H. 



A POTATO CATALOGUE. 



" Let the sky rain potatoes." 



HINK of a potato catalogue ! It strikes one as a joke, 

 but it's a fact as sure as daylight. The enterprising 

 " tater dealer " who provides this catalogue is my friend 

 Mr. Richard Dean, seedsman, of Ealing, London, W. Any- 

 body who wants it, need only write and enclose address 

 and a halfpenny stamp, and a few hours afterwards the postman 

 will politely lay the catalogue on the parlour table. It contains 

 descriptions of fifty-five varieties of potatoes, and there is not a bad 

 one in the lot. This catalogue is entitled to a special note, in the 

 first place as a novelty, and in the second place as a very useful 

 guide to the grower of potatoes ; for it is full of information, and 



Kebruary 



