350 Retrospective Criticism, 



imagine that I am a dealer in bee-hives. To save trouble, I wish to state that 

 I have no trading ends to serve. The preface will explain sufficiently thj 

 circumstances under which my hints came before the public. My desire 

 is simply to give publicity to facts ; and to the experience 1 have derived from 

 some attention to the subject of bee management, and the requisite machinery, 

 pointing out evils of construction and application to avoid, with my reasons 

 for so considering them ; and giving such directions, that amateurs may, if so 

 disposed, proceed according to my plan, spending more or less money, as 

 circumstances and fancy may direct. Mere cheapness is seldom an object 

 with those who possess ornamental pleasure-grounds : but I think the hives I 

 have described may be made at a very reasonable rate, where plainness and 

 economy are studied. — H. Taylor. Highgate Common, June 9. 1838. 



Ulr. Wighton^s Objections to Nutfs Bee-hives answered, (p. 180.) — Having 

 admitted into your pages a communication from Mr. Wighton, Lord Stafford's 

 gardener, at Cossey Hall, on the subject of the swarming of bees, calculated, 

 I think, to confirm, if not to propagate, erroneous opinions on that ill-under- 

 stood point of bee management, I respectfully request the insertion in your 

 next Number of the following countervailing remarks. 



Now, having the highest opinion of Mr. Wighton as a gardener, suppose 1 

 were desirous of availing myself of his superior skill in the management of a 

 hot-house, and, with that laudable view, should prevail upon him to come over 

 and erect one for me, upon his newest and most approved plan ; suppose, 

 further, that, on his departure, he should kindly leave me specific directions 

 respecting his peculiar mode of management in certain critically nice cases, in 

 which other gardeners, less skilled than himself, and adhering to old-fashioner! 

 rules of practice, generally go wrong ; supposing all this, and that, instead of 

 strictly following Mr. Wighton's directions, I should be capricious enough to 

 alter the stoves, the flues, the frames, the doors, &c., and, consequently, 

 should fail to get either pine-apples or melons better or other than my neigh- 

 bours, who have never consulted Mr. Wighton ; would it be fair in me to 

 charge my failure upon him, and to decry his plans as no improvement upon 

 the old established ones ? Similar to this are Mr. Wighton's apiarian pro- 

 ceedings. He had the best directions from the cleverest practical apiarian of 

 the present day, respecting the prevention of the swarming of bees. He 

 departed from those directions ; has failed to prevent swarming ; and now 

 somewhat rashly publishes his dicta, viz. ; that " there can be no successful 

 scheme to prevent swarming," and that " to attempt it is rank folly. All the 

 various plans suggested to prevent the swarming of bees have," he says, " he 

 believes, proved ineffectual; and, for eight years, all his experiments to prevent 

 their swarming have failed." 



Now, per contra, as bookkeepers say, I believe, because I know, not from 

 eight, but from six, years' experience, and close attention to my apiary, that 

 Mr. Nutt's plan for the prevention of swarming has so far succeeded in n y 

 hands, that, during all those j'ears, not more than one stock in sjx has 

 swarmed; and that in no one instance has a stock of more than one vear's 

 standing ever swarmed at all. Of the seven stocks in my apiary last summei, 

 not one swarmed ; and from the six stocks I had the year before I had but 

 one swarm : this is but one swarm out of thirteen stocks. My bees have pro- 

 duced abundance of fine honey in each of those years; and every one of those 

 stocks is alive at this day, and six of them are strong and powerful. Mr. 

 Wighton, therefore, goes too far when he says " there can be no successful 

 scheme to prevent swarming." " Heat and want of room," he admits, " may 

 induce swarming, if there be more than one mother-bee in a hive, but not 

 otherwise." What means, then, are so likely to prevent swarming as proper 

 ventilation and additional and agreeable store-room, as they severally become 

 necessary ? Ventilation will dissipate the heat, and additional room will 

 remedy the latter inconvenience. " But," observes Mr. Wighton, " I never 

 could prevent the bees from swarming by allowing them plenty of room ; " and 

 " ventilation is not easily accomplished, for the bees are sure to seal the 



