: 
October 3, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, _ 
269 
we have had for some years. The increased average and the 
additional produce will afford us 11,500,000 qrs. for consumption. 
We shall require 13,000,000 qrs. more, for which we must look 
to our foreign commerce and to our Indian and colonial supplies. 
During the past harvest year, now drawing to a close, we shall 
haye imported upwards of 15,000,000 qrs. of wheat and flour. 
This is the largest import we have ever received; it has kept the 
price reasonably moderate, and the surplus has come mainly from 
the United States. The latest advices from that quarter show 
that, while the great crop of 1877 is not yet exhausted, the pro- 
spect of the present crop is much less satisfactory. In France 
the wheat crop is believed to be below an average, so that we are 
likely to meet our nearest neighbours in the market as buyers 
rather than sellers. There is thus much probability of the present 
price being maintained, and, perhaps, slightly increased, but there 
will be no scarcity.” 
—— Mr. JosrePH ALEXANDER, Imlick, Carrigans, Londonderry» 
writing to the Jrish Farmers’ Gazette under date 26th August, 1878) 
describes potatoes as being “a grand crop; nothing like it so far 
as appearances yet go since 1845, and ground being in so dry a 
state a large portion of the crop is likely to keep sound. To give 
a comparison of this year’s crop with that of 1877 the statement 
might seem somewhat exaggerated. Take a Cunningham acre, 
yielding four tons in 1877, and this season yielding twelve tons: 
the nutritive value of one ton this year being equal to that of two 
tons of 1877, would make one acre of 1878 equal to six acres of 
1877. This may seem rather startling at first sight, but a little 
thought of those who have had the experience will convince them 
that the comparison of the two seasons is doing full justice to 
1877. Of course much depends on the next few weeks of this 
year.” Very much: and we almost fear that Mr. Alexander is 
oyer-sanguine in his estimate, but hope not. 
EXAMINATION OF STOCKS. 
Or all the months of the year September is the most suitable 
for a thorough examination of stock hives, the best month to 
finish feeding and let the bees settle down to the quiet and rest 
of winter. It is also a good time to examine hives with a view 
to ascertain if they are quite clean and healthy and free from 
foul brood. Generally speaking, hives then have hatched out all 
healthy brood, and if some cells remain with lids to them we 
have good reason to suspect the existence of foul brood. Almost 
all diseased and foul brood is sealed up—i.e., covered up with lids, 
which are rather scooped or concave in shape, much resembling 
the lids of honey cells. 
Last week I examined all my stocks, when I found seven of 
them rather short of bees and one affected with foul brood—a 
swarm of last year. On discovering the foul brood the hive was 
condemned, the bees driven into a small empty hive, which will 
be fed into a stock at an expense of 3s. only, for the swarm is 
small. The hive yielded to-day 6 or 8 Ibs. of good honey, which 
willbe sold at 1s. 4d. per pound. The bees were shaken out of the 
affected hive by giving it three good thumps on the board, and 
then partly covered with the small hive. The bees outside ran 
into the hive. The honey was speedily taken and run into a jar 
in one of the vineries. Afterwards I saw the queen and three 
bees at the bottom of the hive slightly daubed with honey. She 
was at once carried to the swarm, which was in a state of great 
commotion without her. I placed her on the board at the door 
of the hive. In an instant of time the bees that first saw her 
gave the signal and the sound that the lost one was found, and 
they began to be merry. 
But what about the seven hives short of bees? Well, I wrote 
to Mr. Addey in Lincolnshire to send 12 Ibs. more of condemned 
bees to strengthen them (I had received twenty swarms, 100 lbs., 
of him to feed into stocks already). He sent 16 Ibs. of bees in 
three swarms or separate lots. They arrived late in the evening. 
Having come a long way by rail they were hungry and jaded. 
They were taken by candlelight into one of the vineries and fed. 
Next morning before daylight they were taken to the apiary—at 
least, two lots were taken there and placed in front of the four 
hives to receive them. The third lot was placed in a remote 
corner of the garden, away from the other hives. The three 
hives meant to receive them were not together, but separate 
among the other hives. They were all allowed to fly about 
during the next day. About 5 o’clock p.m. the stocks to receive 
the bees were well fed with good syrup strongly minted, which 
was poured over their combs and then dusted with grated nutmeg. 
In about a hour after these hives were turned upside down, and 
the strange bees were cast into them like peas or corn from 
measure to measure, and over them a handful of chopped thyme 
was cast. These precautions were taken to prevent fighting and 
the loss of bees. Iam happy to say that not a battle was fought, 
not a bee killed. Each of the hives got about 2 Ibs. of bees, or 
ten thousand in number, which have made them strong stocks. 
‘The mint and thyme used helped much to effect a peaceful and 
happy union. Any strong-smelling substance would, I fancy, 
answer the same end if it over-mastered for the time being the 
peculiarity of smell belonging to each swarm of bees. For the 
sake of experiment I will some day try assafcetida, which gives 
off a very strong and offensive smell. 
The twenty swarms that I am feeding into stocks have not 
had syrup enough yet. Owing to the mild weather we have had 
of late bees have been out a great deal, and therefore have con- 
sumed much food. What a mistake the Swiss clergyman made 
in asserting that a large swarm of bees does not eat more food in 
winter than a smajl one! And what a strange thing it was that 
so many advanced English bee-keepers believed his statement |— 
A, PETTIGREW. 
THE STEWARTON HIVE. 
Mr. PETTIGREW contributes an article on the Stewarton hive 
(see page 233), which I regret to say is most inaccurate both as 
regards its description and mode of management. It is really a 
rather unpleasant task to be required so frequently to demonstrate 
that “ the captain on the paddlebox” is out of his reckoning, but 
the old craft must be steered straight at all hazards. , 
Weare told “ Two boxes octagonal in shape, 6 inches deep and 
15 inches wide, with two honey boxes 4 inches deep, all with cross 
bars, make a Stewarton hive.” It actually consists of at Jeast 
three, not two, breeding boxes, 14, not 15, inches wide, with as 
many honey boxes as required, all without cross sticks. The 
slide space is not half an inch but three-eighths, which the merest 
tyro in bee-keeping knows is the unvarying width betwixt combs, 
I have wrought that hive successfully for the last twenty years 
and have never before heard, much less have seen, the “ crown 
board” upon it of which your correspondent dilates. The bar 
and slide is no innovation of the last ten years, but has been its 
sole crown board for seventy years. The slides are never shifted 
from the top of the upper breeding box to the honey boxes as 
your correspondent described, “with free access from both first 
and second floors to the attic,” which is on no account allowed. 
Mr. Pettigrew is very far astray in stating “the queen can go 
into the super as often as she pleases without hindrance.” She is 
strictly debarred therefrom by the central slides being kept always 
closed. This has been from the first, and still is, one of the best 
features of the hive, without which slides neither Mr. Pettigrew’s 
straws nor any bar-frame hive I have yet seen, if we except the 
Lanarkshire frame hive, which has slides, can be wrought on the 
Stewarton principle. Stewarton colonies are not wintered in one 
box as Mr. Pettigrew supposes, but in two. The third box added 
in spring is not an empty box, but the combed box removed in 
autumn : hence his remarks as to drone comb are beside the mark 
this “faulty feature” haying no existence save in his own imagi- 
nation. Neither is he happy in the depreciatory comparison as 
to the Stewarton form. “They resemble alot of American cheese 
boxes or a bundle of riddle rims” he says, but must confess I 
have never yet seen either American cheese boxes or riddle rims 
of octagonal form ; to my eye both articles would come in more 
suitable as ekes for big straw skeps. Mr. Pettigrew is, however 
perfectly mght that the Stewarton hive is not so generally well 
known as it ought, although the number of sets turned out annu- 
ally is immense, several makers having almost constant employ- 
ment in their manufacture, executing private orders; hence its 
sale is not freely advertised nor pushed. ; 
How the Stewarton so far excels the big straw skep system I 
will endeavour to state on a future occasion—A RENFREWSHIRE 
BEE-KEEPER. 
ARTIFICIAL COMB FOUNDATIONS. 
YOUR new correspondent, Mr. Todd, has given us his experi 
as to the value of the recently Hee iCeal ese sheets artificially 
formed for comb foundations. He says he hopes to see his con- 
victions of their value endorsed by myself and others after “ex- 
periment next spring.” Jam happy to be able already to endorse 
them by my past experience in the current year. Logic and fact 
are all in favour of this singularly useful and most ingenious 
discovery. Let these wax sheets only be fairly tried, and it is 
impossible for any sane person to gainsay their utility and 
economic use. From long experience I am convinced that Mr. 
Todd is far too liberal to his opponents (if he has any) in taking 
that “5 Ibs. of honey go to make 1 tb. of wax.” Presuming that 
the pound of sugar contains at least as much fatty or waxy matter 
as the pound of honey, I long ago came to the conclusion that it 
required somewhere about 20 tbs. of sugar at the very least to 
elaborate 1 lb. of wax. Anyhow, taking Mr. Todd’s extremely 
“safe” calculation, he has fully proved his case on the ground 
of economy of material. I see that Mr. Pettigrew advises the 
disuse of all comb whether old or recently constructed. So 
recently as the middle of September he repeats his suggestion of 
the “desirability of having the combs in the stock boxes renewed 
every season,” and adds “Iam sure that this suggestion will in 
process of time be universally approved.” I do not know how 
this may be, but I am equally sure that unless bee-keepers avail 
themselves of the help of these comb foundations, the waste of 
| honey required every year to replace the old combs then discarded 
