174 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Mar. 18, 
be almost as well brought into view as by the ordinary 
practices of the apiarian. The universality and antiquity 
of this mode of keeping Bees are, perhaps, not good pleas 
for the practice, because many bad habits may claim the 
same inveteracy; still the constant recurrence to it 
after trial of many others, and in the face of many 
attempts at improvement, is of itself a powerful re- 
commendation. Beside the acknowledged advantages 
of the material used in the construction of the common 
hive—its warmth in winter and coolness in summer— 
the ready and firm attachment it gives to the comb, and its 
general congeniality, it affords the darkness and privacy 
so necessary to the well-being of theinsect. This love of 
privacy is an instinct which must be kept always in view 
by the fancier in the adaptation of his contrivances for 
watching its operations. In fact, in everything else, he 
cannot do better than to keep, as strictly as his object 
will allow, to the principles of this parent model abode. 
Much has been said about ventilation, but it would ap- 
pear that most of the contrivances for favouring this 
object have been, or are likely to be, resented as imperti- 
nent, if we may judge by the fondness of the Bee for a 
domicile which has only one outlet, and that one it en- 
deayours to keep no bigger than sufficient for free ingress 
and regress. Any mode of ventilating the hive which, in 
the height of summer, might save the insect the trouble 
it takes in that way, would probably destroy it, or its 
larvee, at any other season. Again, it is scarcely possible 
to construct a Bee-house free from sharp draughts at one 
time and reverberated heat at another; whilst the single 
isolated stool and the thatched straw-hood are free from 
these objections, and being once well adapted require no 
farther attention. But the curious observer must have 
greater facilities than these simple arrangements afford ; 
and he will do well to observe the principle in the fittings 
of the supplemental hives and glass cases required for his 
experiments. As regards the securing the honey and the 
disposal of the Bees at the end of the season, the keeper 
who would have most profit by them must, I fear, follow 
the ordinary practice of destruction, however repugnant 
to his feelings. The laws of animal life, which give the 
preponderance to productiveness over the means of sub- 
sistence, are irresistible ; and in anticipation of the work 
of famine it matters little whether we use the knife, the 
halter, or the brimstone-match—always observing Mac- 
beth’s injunction, that if the deed were done, “it were well 
that it were done quickly.’”” This industrious and prolific 
little insect breeds fully up to the limits of its own bare 
subsistence. You cannot keep your Bees and eat their 
honey yourself, unless you supply them with its only pro- 
per substitute, sugar; and then there is an end of the 
rofit. In ordinary seasons, it is never safe to allow any 
ut the heaviest hives to stand for ‘‘stock.’’ It is diffi- 
cult to bring even these safely through a very mild win- 
ter ; and they often perish for want of a little artificial 
aid. The rich and ample harvest of the last summer was 
a good preparative for the winter we have just now expe- 
rienced; and, but for that provision, I doubt much if 
half the “stock hives” of the country could have survived it 
without feeding. The practices of Wildman and others 
for removing the honey in the course of the summer, and 
taking the chance of the Bees making up the deficiency, 
eannot be very extensively followed; and, if it were at- 
tempted, it is doubtful if more destruction to life would 
not be the consequence in unfavourable seasons ; at least, 
than takes place by the common mode of autumnal 
execution. In bringing these cursory observations to 
a Lusi I will deav to remove the gloom 
that overshadows this part of the subject, and better 
bespeak the interest of your readers by the rela- 
tion of a little anecdote, strongly illustrative of the 
superior intellig of the Bee, ak: ding as its history 
does, in examples of this description. My father kept Bees 
in the ordinary way of the country, and when a boy it 
was my task, (partly imposed, partly chosen,) amongst 
other ruralities, to watch their progress. It happened 
that three stock-hives had been left standing through the 
winter, in one of which the Bees had died from want. 
From negligence, or want of leisure to work up the comb 
for its wax, the dead hive was allowed to stand on its 
stool till the following May, when the remaining hives 
began to send out their swarms. A swarm todk place 
from one of these, and it was hived in a newly-prepared 
straw hive in the usual way. At first they appeared to 
take kindly to the habitation offered them ; but after the 
lapse of about half an hour they swarmed again, and 
settled (or clustered) as before, and were hived a second 
time, As it was supposed that the great heat of the sun 
or some such annoyance, was the cause of their rising 
again, the hive was this time shaded with green boughs, 
and an umbrella placed over it; but notwithstanding these 
enticements, in avery few minutes they rose again, and with- 
out waiting the usual process of settling, they were observed 
to be rushing to the entrance péle-méle into the above-men- 
tioned ready-furnished but untenanted (except by its own 
dead) hive. Ina quarter of an hour from thus taking posses- 
sion, they were observed busily employed in bringing out the 
dead Bees, small fragments of honey-comb, dead insects, 
and other dirt ; and by the middle of the following day a 
little conical heap of their cleansings was to be seen on 
the ground in front of the hive ; before night, well-loaded 
labourers. were seen entering to repair the dilapidations 
and refurnish the empty cells. In the end, this hive was 
One of the heaviest of the season, after giving out its 
Swarm like an old stock-hive. We all know the story of 
the refutation of the philosopher’s definition of the dis- 
tinctive character of the human race, their“ ability to draw 
an inference,” inasmuch as, that, although the dragsman 
could not, or did not know that he could do-so, his horse 
could, “for he could draw anything.” A double instance 
of this faculty is shown in this anecdote of the swarm of 
Bees. First, their fe tl dy-furnished 
house, previously engaged by their scouts before swarm- 
ing, to the empty one in which they were hived; and 
secondly, their avoidance of the usual act of clustering in 
their third rising, after finding that that act subjected 
them to the annoyance of being thrust into the empty 
tenement they were not in want of; and it may be noted, 
that, although they seemed to deliberate for half an hour 
after the first hiving, their’ resolution being taken, they 
rose almost immediately after the second, to betake them- 
selves at once to their destined abode.—P, P. 
Bees.—‘‘ J. W.”’ wishes ““ Agger” to mention the pri- 
mary cause why Bees store up honey. Agger” con- 
ceives that Bees store up honey that it may support them 
in bad or cold weather, and would add to his statement 
quoted in p. 158 by J. W., ‘‘ that propagation of the spe- 
cies is not the object for which we keep Bees,’’? that the 
object for which he keeps them is the production of honey. 
Killing Insects for the Cabinet.—As “ §.” has, at p. 138, 
inserted a clever letter in answer to mine, which was 
merely intended to advocate the cause of poor persecuted 
and oppressed insects, I am anxious that these few lines 
should appear in return, As “ S.” says, with reason, that 
if I condemn one mode of killing insects, I am bound to 
provide one that is quicker and less painful; this I will 
do to the best of myjability.” I spent the years of 1829 
and 1830 in the South of France, and while one day 
walking under that lovely sky without a cloud, I was 
stopped by a large and powerful insect crossing my path, 
and running as fast he could go from fear of me (and not 
without reason), for I took him up, and held him with 
difficulty in a piece of thick letter-paper. His struggles 
to free himself astonished me, from the strength of limb 
that he displayed. I was near the house of a friend who 
was staying at Thiers at the same time, and while walking 
thither, I passed in one of the vineyards a labourer, of 
whom I inquired the name of the insect ? i 
He said it was 
a taille-piéd, and that it was most destructive to the Vines, 
gnawing through their roots. I took it to the house of my 
friend, and asked if he knew of any method of killing 
insects in a moment ;° for that, although I was anxious to 
take him to England as a specimen, I would let him loose 
rather than he should suffer from a lingering or painful 
death. My friend said he would kill him in one instant, 
which he did by dropping two or three drops of ether on 
his head or back: its death was i e 
plants may be grown on this system in nearly half the 
usual time. About the month of August, the plants will 
be large enough to remove to their fruiting quarters, which 
at Meudon, and at the Baron de Rothchild’s, are a low- 
roofed house or pit, just wide enough for containing three 
rows of plants, with a walk at the back. This is heated 
by flues or fire-heat, which, for plants of that size, is 
equally as good as hot water, being only intended for 
drying up the damp, and keeping up a moderate warmth 
during the winter months. There is no doubt, how- 
ever, but hot water would be the best for practising the 
above system in this country. The floor of the house is 
filled in, to the depth of 16 or 18 inches, with the best 
soil that can be procured. I may here mention that loam 
is very difficult to obtain in the neighbourhood of Paris: 
in fact, good loam, such as Pines are grown in near London, 
is not to be procured by any means ; so that while Pine- 
growers in France have the advantage in climate, we, on 
this side of the water, have a decided advantage in soil. 
The principal part of their Pines are grown in peat ; at 
the Baron de Rothchild’s I saw above a thousand Pine 
plants, all growing in that soil. When the plants are 
ready for removing, it is performed in the following man- 
ner :—the frame is first lifted from the plants, so that 
they can be got at from all sides; then the plants are 
raised with a spade, care being taken to remove them 
with as much soil adhering to their roots as possible. 
They are then planted carefully in the pit above men- 
tioned, three or four inches deeper than they originally 
were, to encourage new roots, which, by being kept close, 
and shaded for a few days if necessary, they will soom 
make. After the plants are thus established in their final 
quarters, no other attention is required but the general 
routine of culture adopted for fruiting plants generally, 
viz., plenty of heat and moisture. I have no hesitation in 
saying, that plants of the Providence, Enville, Cayenne,and 
other large kinds, may, on the aboye system, and without 
the use of a single pot, be made to produce fruit weighing 
from 8 to 10lbs. each.—W. Dunsford, Capesthorne 
Gardens. 
Achimenes longiflora.—It is now time to plant this 
species. It does not start as early as the old Achimenes 
coccinea, and it delights in very coarse leaf-mould, con- 
taining many large fragments of leaves. It should have 
a large and broad-mouthed pot, drained by inverting 
another within it and plenty of crocks round ; very sandy 
1 uld over the crocks, and coarser, with less sand’, 
never done it myself, but I was a witness to this. Iam 
rejoiced to find that ‘ S.’’ approves with me of using every 
means to check cruelty to that part of God’s creation 
which has not, like ourselves, the power of self-defence ; 
and that with all, but especially with the young, cruelty to 
insects and animals only leads the mind to exercise more 
and more tyranny in after life; and_of all tyrants ,“sub- 
altern tyrants are the most intolerant and intolerable.”’ I 
hope that if this has the same result as my former letter, 
that of bringing a clever answer from “S.,’’ that he will, 
while he defends himself, give me credit for addressing him 
with the sole motive of anticipating that happy time still 
folded in the volume of prophecy, * When the wolf shall 
dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with 
the kid, and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling 
together ; and a little child shall lead them ; and the cow 
and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down 
together ; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox ; and the 
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the 
weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. 
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, 
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea.’”’ Isaiah xi. 6.-D. H. W. 
Cultivation of the Pine-Apple in France.—Having 
noticed, at p. 118, some observations on the Royal Gardens 
of France, which I have lately visited, a few general 
remarks upon the manner in which the Pine-Apple is 
cultivated in that country may perhaps be interesting to 
the readers of the Chronicle. Amongst the various 
places which I visited while at Paris, there is none in my 
opinion at which the Pine is grown to such perfection as 
at the Meudon Gardens, by M. Pervillian. There, quan- 
tity and quality are combined, and the whole of the 
plants are fruited without pots, on what I believe is 
termed the system of open-frame culture ; which is a very 
great saving, both in time and expense, as it does away 
with the cost of pots and the trouble of potting, and in a 
great measure with the fermenting materials required for 
bottom-heat. The information which I gained upon this 
subject is as follows:—The suckers produced by the 
fruiting plants of last season are allowed to remain on the 
plant after the fruit is cut until the following March, at 
which period, if the plant be a strong one, the sucker, 
when taken off, will be almost a full i 
above. The bulbs should be planted fully an inch deep, 
—J. R. 
Ipswich Cucumber Society.—Connected as L am with 
the above society, I cannot allow the observations of 
“ Justitia’ to pass unnoticed. Permit me then to divect 
his attention to the first line in the judges’ description of 
the prize specimens, as inserted at p. 140 of the Gar- 
deners’ Chronicle. We will there find that the first prize 
was awarded to Mr. T. Latter, for a brace of ** Kerrison’s. 
Stove’’? Cucumbers, each 153 inches long, both perfectly 
straight, 13 inches in diameter, dark green, with short 
necks, black spines, slight rib, very bloomy, blossoms per- 
fect, handsome fruit—in short, they were perfection, and, 
although not the longest, they were the dest. Iam glad, 
also, that I am able to prove that the standard of the 
society was strictly adhered to in every point, and I should 
be happy to see the arrangements and judgment of all 
Horticultural and Floral Shows give the same universal 
satisfaction. I trust the time is not far distant when the 
standards of the Horticultural and Floricultural Societies 
of London, with that of the Ipswich Cucumber Society, 
will be introduced into every one established for improving 
the cultivation of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. I would 
also request ‘‘ Justitia” to bear in mind that the Ipswich 
Cucumber Society recognises length only when combined, 
with the qualities expressed in the standard.—Zhomag 
Wild, Honorary Secretary. 
Camellia in the open Ground. —In a gentleman’s garden 
in this. vicinity there is now in full flower a red Camellia, 
which has been planted in the open ground for ten years, 
the last eight of which it has been without covering or any 
protection whatever.—Stamford Hill. 
Heonomical Pump.—I am aware of the economy of 
supplying Plant-houses, etc., with water, by having the 
ump placed in the back shed, and the water pumped 
into a cistern situated above the furnace, where it becomes. 
tepid, and is conveyed by pipes to the plant or forcing 
departments. Although not new, I consider the above 
system to be better than Snowdrop’s (see p. 22), which is 
nothing more than changing the situation of the Pump for 
the worse. He seems to think that there can be no ob~ 
jection to his system, except to the ornamental head of 
the Pump, which ‘‘ may be covered with creepers.’”’ I 
always und d that, in Gardening, disagreeable objects 
plant. These suckers are not potted, as is generally the 
case in this country, but planted out in a frame, previously 
prepared with half-rotten leaves, made into a bed, from 
three to four feet high, with little or no heat in it, except 
what is produced by linings; as at this time (March) we 
look forward to a daily increase of solar heat. This is 
particularly the case in France, which is favoured with a 
clearer sky. Half the trouble in linings of dung, which are 
so necessary in this country, is thus dispensed with. The 
linings added to the bed of half-rotten leaves, before men- 
tioned, are found to produce heat sufficient to induce the 
plants to form roots. These are soon followed by others 
into the mould on the surface of the bed, and when this 
takes places, the rapidity of their growth may easily be 
imagined. The principal attention they require after being 
rooted, is to syringe them almost daily with tepid water, 
and to keep up a humid atmosphere. As the plants ad- 
vance in growth, the frame must be raised to give them 
head room, By judicious treatment, I consider fruiting 
only should be concealed. There is, however, a great 
saving of labour, which, in my opinion, is the only ad 
vantage he obtains. He nevertheless finds himself in want 
of a cistern, in which the water might become tepid; and 
he proposes that a concealed cistern should be constructed 
beneath the bark in the pit, and that the water should he 
conveyed to the other houses by means of pipes. if 
Snowdrop can do what he proposes, he must be a conjurory 
—I do not understand how it can be done without. an 
extra Pump. A plant pit is generally more ‘or less sunk 
in the floor, so that the bottom of the proposed cistern 
would not be less than three feet below the level of the: 
house: it is impossible, therefore, to convey water to 
other departments without an extra pump: and cistern.. 
Snowdrop ought to be aware that water will not rise higher: 
than the fountain, by merely having the end of a pipe 
placed in it: if such is the case, how does he expect to. 
convey the water, by pipes, to a situation so much higher 
than the proposed cistern? My reason for making these 
