80 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
( July 25, 1878. 
this lady that there is something better for her bees than the 
fumes of sulphur. There is a pleasant and satisfactory way of 
taking honey without the destruction of bee life. Some young 
and inexperienced bee-keepers are easily influenced by whims and 
novelties. Many of them are men of keen sympathies and philan- 
thropic aims, but their emotions ripen into fruit too quickly, and 
are seldom found in a mature condition. They have a notion 
that their hives and system. of management are far in advance of 
all others, and that straw hives and the destruction of bees by 
stifling are inseparably connected, and this notion they want to 
see carried, like thistledown before the wind, over the nation. 
My opinion and experience oppose this notion, and I haye no 
hesitation in telling this lady and all whom it may concern that 
she and they may have apiaries of straw hives second to none for 
beauty, convenience, and success, and that honey of the highest 
quality may be obtained from them without the destruction of 
bees. Nay, I hold that bees are more easily taken from straw 
hives than from other kinds. If our correspondent will follow 
my advice and practice she will get the honey from the old hives 
and put the bees in new and modern habitations. Hives contain- 
ing about 2000 cubic inches of space should be provided with 
suitable boards, and when it is deemed desirable to take the honey 
the bees should be driven from the old hives and placed in the 
new ones. 
In driving bees the smoke of fustian or corduroy is first blown 
into the hive (beginning with one at a time), then turn the hive 
upside down and place one about the same size over it, and rolla 
tablecloth round the junction to keep the bees inside. As soon as 
this is done the drumming on the sides of the bottom hives com- 
mences, and this drumming so confounds the bees that they run 
upwards, as for their lives, into the empty hive. In about fifteen 
or twenty minutes the bees are in the top hive, and should be 
placed on the spot where the old one stood. I it be the wish of 
the owner to introduce wooden or square hives the bees driven 
should be shaken into them as soon as they are driven. 
All this is easily done, though to the beginner it seems a for- 
midable task and undertaking. Everything connected with bee- 
management appears wonderful and difficult to uninformed 
beginners, and this lady correspondent will soon become an adept 
in the art of manipulating hives and bees if she begin and act 
as I have suggested. If the season for honey be over when the 
bees are put into empty hives they should be liberally fed, and 
of course if two driven swarms be united in one hive she will get 
three stocks only ont of six swarms, but they will be better and 
stronger in pairs than if fed into stocks separately. As the hives 
are ancient we presume they are small, and therefore that it is 
advisable to unite them after they are driven. If the six swarms 
be all the stocks required the bees of the old ones could be united 
to them at harvest time. If honey be wanted from one or more 
of the swarm hives the bees should be driven as suggested for 
the old hives. The combs in the swarm hives are young and 
sweet, and the honey in them would be more easily taken than 
that in the old black combs. The aim of bee-keepers should be 
to have an apiary of large hives well stored with bees and food 
in autumn if great results are to be looked for in the year follow- 
ing.—A. PETTIGREW. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
WHITE CHICKENS FROM BLACK HENS (C.).—It is by no means uncom- 
mon to find white sports in black-feathered fowls. Spanish seem to delight. 
in it. All black cocks are prone to throw red or yellow feathers, as Polands, 
Black Cochins, Créve-Cceurs. Spanish hens constantly moult white feathers, 
sometimes being splashed all over, sometimes becoming quite white. We 
therefore cannot see why their cousins the Minorcas may not do the same. 
It does not, however, render them more valuable. Quite the reverse—they 
are valueless. Perseyering amateurs in times gone by produced white 
Spanish cocks and hens, but they found no admirers. The striking contrast 
between the black plumage and the white face was lost when the plumage 
itself became white. 
REMOVING BEES (W. W.)—There will be great risk in removing your 
bees 300 yards from their present position across several gardens, for many 
of the bees would go back. As you are bound to remove your hives from 
their present stand, we advise you to remove them to some cottage garden 
or plantation three miles distant for a month; then bring them back to 
your new garden. About the beginning of August you should drive your 
bees into better hives and do as you propose—viz., “ feed them into stocks.” 
If you cannot conveniently remove the hives to a distance of three miles 
for the time being, drive them into the new hives at once and place them in 
the new position before they begin to work, for when bees leave a new hive 
for the first time they look well about them. If you act thus all the hives 
should be driven on an eyening and the bees placed in the new garden an 
hour or two afterwards. On removing the bees obliterate the old stands 
completely, and let nothing of the old hives or coverings be seen near. 
BEE HIVES (A Constant Reader).—Write to Messrs. Neighbour, Holborn, 
London. 
DRIVING BEES (Fainyield)—In advice given to other correspondents you 
will find the process of driving explained, and shortly we shall explain the 
process of taking honey and wax. 
UNSWARMED HIVE (/nquirer).—Your hive should be driven now, either 
by taking a swarm from it or by turning all the bees into an empty hive. 
First take. the super off and pnt a lid on the crown hole, then turn the 
hive on its crown (at a little distance from the stand) and place an empty 
hive on and over it, rolling a cloth round the junction. If you decide to 
take a swarm only drum for four minutes, then unroll the cloth and place 
the swarm on the board of the old hive and the old one on another board, 
which should be placed a few feet to the right or left of the old place. 
Twenty-one days after this has been done the bees in the old hive will have 
hatched all the brood in it, besides rearing a queen for themselves, and may 
be driven into an empty hive. You will. thus get both a super of honey- 
comb, probably not quite full, and the old of honey, with two swarms which 
you must feed into stocks. If you do not want two stocks, the second 
Swarm, which we call a turn-out, could be united to the first one: The other 
way is to drive all the bees from the stock into an empty hive at-once, sacri- 
fice the brood, and take the honey at the same time. If you do so you must 
drum on the bottom hive for twenty minutes or thereabouts. The first plan 
is the most eligible, and which is often carried ont in our own practice. In 
all such operations we use plenty of smoke from fustian rags and seldom get 
stung. 
WARTS ON Cows’ TEATS (A Zady).—If the warts are only dry and hard 
they may be got rid of by a ligature round their bases of strong silk thread ; 
should they be bleeding warts and accompanied by slight ulceration or sore- 
ness, a strong lotion made of alum in powder with vinegar added should be 
applied immediately after every milking. We have known cases where the 
animals have been so subject to warts that they will continue to come in 
spite of any remedy ; it is then better to sell the cow at once, or dry her off 
her milk and feed her for beef. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32°40" N.; Long. 0° 80" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
9AM. | IN THE Day. 
Hygrome-| $35 pee Shade Tem-|_ Radiation | & 
ter. Sa lak 2 perature. |Temperature, é 
52 |sa-| lane! 22 Lo 
Dry.| Wet.| QS |A Max.| Min.| sun. | grass 
Inches. deg. | deg. deg. deg. | deg. In. 
We.17 | 30.311 | 717 | 643 | W. 63.9 125.9 520 _— 
Th. 15 | 30.333 | 74.9 | 66.6 | N.W. | 66.0 133.7 55.7 —_ 
Fri. 19 | 30.291 76.1 | 69.4 N. 67.2 129.0 59.1 _— 
Sat. 20 } 30.155 | 7£9 | 66.8 | N.W. | 67.4 135.2 | 546 | — 
iu 30.029 728 | 66.4 h -| 67.8 128.1 55.8 _ 
n 2 | 29.981 | 72.4 | 66.9 68.2 181.7 | 564 | — 
Tu. 23 | 29.998 | 67.3 | 60.6 68.2 1196 | 621 | — 
Means | 30.157 | 72.9 65.9 | 67.0 129.0 56.5 _ 
t 
REMARKS. 
17th.—Fine sunny hot day. 
18th.—Bright sunny morning, heavy clouds in afternoon, very warm day; 
beautiful evening. 
19th.— Hoi morning, little cloudy at times ; very fine evening. 
20th.—Very fine hot day, rather more wind ; beautiful starlight night. 
21st.—Beautiful day, bright and hot, rather windy and dusty; calm fine 
evening. 
22nd.—Fine bright morning, overcast from 1P.M., and very slight shower 
1.30, not measurable ; beautiful evening. 
23rd.—Very dull and cloudy morning, sunny and bright with thunder in 
afternoon, which was louder inevening. Lightning five miles distant 
at 8.18 P.M. 
A very warmweek. The average daily maximum temperature in shade has 
been 83°, or 10.3° higher than in the previous week, but like it without 
measurable rainfall—G. J. SYMONS. 
COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—JULY 24, 
THE great bulk of soft fruit has now passed through our market, Cherries 
and Strawberries being nearly over, as also Black Currants and Raspberries. 
With a fair crop generally prices have ruled good and must have well re- 
munerated the growers. All hothouse fruit is lower. 
FRUIT. 
Ss. ds S..d. s. dw s. d 
Apples.. tsieve 0 Oto0 O| Melons.....:.... each +4 0told 0 
Apricot dozen 1 0 3S 0} Nectarines .... dozen 4 0 12 0 
Cherries = cea 0 6 1 6, Oranges... #100 § 0 16 O 
Chestnuts. . bushel 10 0 20 0| Reaches........ dozen 2 0-12 0 
Currants 4sieve 3 6 + 6| Pears,kitchen.. dozen 00 0 0. 
Zsieve 6 0 6 6 dessert ...... dozen 00 00 
dozen 6 0 12 0) Pine Apple: c et. 30 60 
tb. 0 0 O 0} Piums..... - sieve 0 0 00 
Cobs... 5 Ib 0 0 O O| Raspberries.... Pib. 06 10 
Gooseberries .-. quart 0 6 0 9) Strawberries .. eib. 0 6 10 
Grapes,hothouse ib 1 0 6 0} Walnuts ...... bushel 5 0 8 0 
Lemons ........ 100 6 0 10 0 ittoOsscaskeene #100 00 00 
VEGETABLES, 
s. d. s. d. sd sad 
Artichokes...... dozen 2 Oto4 0|Mushrooms.... pottle 1 6to2 0 
Asparagus...... bundle 2 0 6 0/| Mustard & Cress punnet 0 2 0 4 
Beans,Kidneytforced~ th 0 6 1 0} Onions .. ushel 26 3 0 
Beet, Red ...... ozen 16 38 0 picklin a quart 0 4 06 
Broccoli .....--. bundle 0 9 1 6} Parsley.... doz.bunches 2 0 0 0 
Brussels Spronts }sieve 0 0 0 0 i = dozen 00 06 
Cabbage ....... dozen 10 20 quart 09 10 
Carrots bunch 0 6 0 9 bushel 3 6 7 0 
Capsicums.. P1000 16 20 ci v bushel 5 0 7 0 
Cauliflowers dozen 3 0 6 0} Radishes.. doz.bunches 1 0 1 6 
Jelery ........-- bundle 1 6 2 0O| Rhubarb bundle 0 6 09 
Coleworts..doz. bunches 2 0 4 0} Salsafy .... 0:39, 93510 
Cucumbers .... each 0 4 1 0} Scorzonera 10 00 
Endive = 1 0 2 0} Seakale .....0.: 00 00 
Fennel.. 0 3 0 0} Shallots .. 03s 40 
Garlic .. 0 6 O 0} Spinach .. 26 40 
Herbs .. 0 2 0. 0} TLurnipsiis.:. 06 09 
Leeks .. 0 2 0 4] Veg. Marrows.. each 0 4 06 
Lettuce .. 10 20 : 
