80 Journal of the Royal AgriaiUural Society. 



have found to be the most simple, cheap, and successful ; and it will not cost 

 the cottager more than sixpence to adopt it, in addition to his old hives. 



" Some years ago I placed an empty butter-tub under the board on which 

 the hive rested : the sun cracked the board, and the bees, enlarging the open- 

 ing, took possession of the tub, and, after filling their own hive, deposited 

 26 lb. of honey and comb in the tub below. This 1 took possession of for 

 my own use, leaving their hive full of honey for their winter's consumption. 

 By improving on this simple plan, 1 have carried off the prizes for honey at 

 the Henley Horticultural Society for the last four years. A board, half an 

 inch in thickness, 18 in. in width, and perforated with two holes, each an 

 inch in diameter, is placed between the hive and the butter-tub. The tub 

 should be placed under the hive as early as March ; the bees having a great 

 dislike to any disturbance of their arrangements. I last year took upwards 

 of 40 lb. of honey in this way, although the season was so bad, and an ample 

 supply of food was left for the bees to subsist on during the winter. This 

 plan will prove a good substitute for the ' rear' used to enlarge the common 

 hive ; with this advantage, that a supply of honey can be obtained from the 

 strong swarms as well as the old hives. 



" I have never found occasion to feed the bees from which honey had been 

 taken in the mode described ; but, previously to its adoption, I was in the 

 habit of feeding them with coarse sugar boiled with beer, and a little old wax 

 comb, to the consistence of a syrup. As an experiment, I once fed some 

 bees with treacle made from grating 1121b. of beet root, expressing from it 

 one gallon of juice, and boiling this with one teaspoonful of sulphuric acid 

 (commonly called oil of vitriol), and three teaspoonfuls of common chalk 

 or whitening in powder, which will clarify it and throw off all impurities, leav- 

 ing, on evaporation, a clear syrup fit for feeding bees." (p. 204.) 



Part I. of Vol. II. contains a Report on the Diseases of Wheat, by the 

 Rev. Professor Henslow% in which the fungi, smut, dust, bunt, rust, mildew, 

 ergot, pepper-corn, and wheat-midge are described, and also the means of 

 preventing them, or of alleviating their effects. — A paper on the White or 

 Belgian Carrot shows this to be a most valuable root, producing a crop " not 

 only much more valuable per ton than any other green crop we have, but also 

 heavier per acre, and raised at less expense, by at least one half, than that 

 attending the cultivation of the turnip." (p. 40,) Lord Ducie found the 

 Early Horn Carrot more productive than the Altringham Carrot, the produce 

 being at the rate of 18 tons 15 cwt. per acre, and the expense 61. pei" acre. — An 

 article of the Agriculture of the Netherlands, by the Rev. W. L. Rham, has 

 some remarks on liquid manure, and on the treatise on animal manures 

 before mentioned. The following quotations are pregnant with instruction of 

 the most useful kind : — 



" The most rapid improver of loose sands is rich liquid manure, affording 

 immediate nourishment to plants, which otherwise, for want of moisture, 

 would languish, even with an abundance of solid dung ; for this last remains 

 altogether inert, until it be moistened and parti}' dissolved. When the fibres 

 of the roots spread, they bind the loose sand, and prevent the too rapid eva- 

 poration and percolation of the moisture. These roots remain in the soil 

 when the crop is reaped, and by their decay afford organic matter for the 

 nourishment of the next crop. Hence it is evident that the plants which 

 have long spreading roots, if the)- can be made to vegetate vigorously by an 

 ample supply of liquid manure, greatly improve very light sands ; and, in pro- 

 cess of time, by the decay of the vegetable fibres, produce such an increase 

 of humus as entirely to change the quality of the soil. 



" The collection and preparation of liquitl manure is an object of primary 

 importance with the Flemish farmer. Every farm has, near or uniler the stables 

 and cow-houses, one or more capacious tanks, into which the urine of the 

 animals and the washings of the stables How ; and every exertion is ntade to 

 increase the quantity, and improve tiie quality, of the rank liquor. 



" The tanks are generally sunk below the level of the ground, and have the 



