November 28, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
419 
and £30,144,013 for dead meats and provisions. Thus the imports 
ef Great Britain of animals alive and dead has increased from a 
total of £5,733,660 per year to £36,156,577 per year. The import 
of wheat, other grain and flour, has steadily increased from 
£20,164,811 in 1858 to £63,536,322 in 1877, making a total import 
for 1877 of live and dead animals, and animal products, grain and 
flour, of £99,692,899. Last year we had over a hundred million 
bushels of exportable grain. It is estimated that this season wa 
shall have 180 million bushels for export. 
WINTERING BEES ECONOMICALLY. 
THERE is no greater blunder in practical bee-keeping than the 
retention at the end of the season of an array of weak and 
sparsely peopled hives, which, like Pharaoh’s lean kine, eat up 
the fat, and very probably in the long run giving way after con- 
suming a considerable amount of both food and trouble, which is 
altogether wasted and as bad as thrown away; whereas, by 
uniting two or three such hives together, say one on either side, 
to a central, a first-rate dependable stock is established for the 
succeeding season, and in that excellent translation by the late 
Miss Graham of Duntrune of Jonas De Gelieu’s interesting work 
“The Bee Preserver” we find that author takes credit for the 
discovery of the fact that such conjoined stocks can be wintered 
as economically as any one single kept separate. The soundness 
of this position he incontestably proves by lists of experiments 
repeated over and over again, and yet confesses his inability to 
account for, to him, the surprising and unexpected result. His 
talented translator gives copious proofs in the appendix of her 
experience with her own and her garcener’s hives, and the 
diminished weights from September to March of the years 1828 
and 1829 confirmatory of the hypothesis, only one of which I will 
adduce. She says, page 133, “ The gardener’s hive No. 2 received 
two swarms in addition to its own, and this allied army took 
possession just as peaceably as the others, and actually consumed 
less honey during the winter than No.1, which was only doubled.” 
Every tyro of our day has verified this discovery for himself, 
and ought to be able to satisfactorily account for 1t. The natural 
heat emanating from the combined body keeps up the temperature 
of the hive to the required point, and the inmates are thus en- 
abled to enjoy their comparatively undisturbed dormancy with 
the minimum of exertion and consequent consumption of store ; 
whereas in the sparsely peopled hive the quickened respiratory 
action and increased muscular exertion to raise the temperature 
demands food to supply the waste of the system, clearly resulting 
in the fewer mouths of the separate and more active consuming 
as much food as the conjoined. 
Your correspondent Mr. Pettigrew having previously chal- 
lenged the accuracy of the observations of the illustrious Huber, 
which notwithstanding will continue to elicit the admiration of the 
apiarians of all time, is it to be wondered at if the discovery of 
the gentle Swiss pastor should be scoffed at, and the credulity 
of the advanced bee-keepers be denounced from “ the paddle box” 
as follows, page 269?— What a mistake the Swiss clergyman 
made in asserting that a large swarm of bees does not eat more 
food in winter than a small one! and what a strange thing that 
so many advanced English bee-keepers believed his statements !” 
It may prove interesting here to note that the above highly 
accomplished lady, who moved in the best Edinburgh society of 
half a century ago, and whose ready wit drew forth the encomiums 
of such celebrities as Scott and Jeffrey, died towards the end of 
last year, having attained the great age of over ninety-five years. 
She was the last representative of the old family of Graham of 
Claverhouse, one of her ancestors being Viscount Dundee, better 
known in Scottish history as “The Bloody Clayerhouse.” She 
retained all her faculties to the last, and with them the warmest 
interest in her old favourites. A letter she addressed a few 
months before her death to the present writer on our common 
hobby was alike remarkable for the chasteness of its style as well 
‘as the beauty of its caligraphy.—A RENFREWSHIRE BHE-KEEPER, 
BEES’ UNPRODUCTIVE EGGS. 
A RECENT correspondent of this Journal, in his observations on 
the subject of unproductive eggs in a particular hive to which I 
drew attention some weeks ago, has missed the singularity of the 
particular circumsiances as detailed by me. Everybody knows 
that bees not only remove eggs when they do not want them but 
even devour them freely, as for instance in the case of a sudden 
glut of honey coming on as well as in the cases described by him. 
What I remarked upon as singular was that the bees in this case, 
at the very time they were being liberally and continuously fed 
for the express purpose of encouraging an increase of population, 
yet not so bountifully as to amount to a glut of food supplied, 
allowed the queen to lay again and again a quantity of eggs 
which the bees did not suffer to reach maturity, but appear to 
haye devoured for some inscrutable reason, and quite out of their 
usual custom when being so fed. If they did devour or remove 
them, which is your respected correspondent’s only solution of the 
matter, I think it a very curious circumstance. I ventured upon 
suggesting two other causes as possible ; namely, either a tempo- 
rary weakness—call it impotence or barrenness on the part of the 
queen or a weariness on the part of the whole hive—at the usual 
rest period of the year, after the labours of an exhausting summer. 
It does not seem to me as if either of these suggestions is absurd 
or beyond the reach of probability as an explanation.—B, & W. 
THE NATURAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL. 
ABOUT five months ago some notes from my pen appeared in 
the columns of the Journal under the above heading. The price of 
artificial comb foundations was referred to, and this question was 
asked, Are they worth their price? Mr. Arthur Todd answered 
this question from the distant land of Algeria. I was pleased 
with the tone and earnestness of Mr. Todd’s letter. He energeti- 
cally endeavoured to prove that they are well worth their price 
and most useful to bee-keepers. His figures I could not under- 
stand, and certainly they did not touch the comparisons of my 
letter between the cost of artificial foundations and perfect combs 
made by bees from sugar syrup. I may here say that I never 
disapproved of the use of artificial comb foundations. From the 
first notice of them I have been of opinion that they would be of 
great service in apiculture if bees readily adopted them. In the 
first number of the Journal for 1878 my letter on ‘“ Bee-keeping, 
Past, Present, and Future” appeared; and in that letter I pre- 
dicted that with artificial comb foundations in use supering in the 
future would assume new proportions and eclipse supering in the 
past. Iam of the same opinion still. Theinstrument that makes 
the foundations and the foundations made by the instrument are 
wonderfully perfect. Mr. Todd says, “I quite agree with the 
best American authorities in that for the brood chamber the arti- 
ficial foundation is a magnificent success ; but that for supers, 
unless an excessively thin foundation be used, it is best not to 
tack on the word artificial to super honey, and so leave it open 
to the charge of being adulterated.” Iam disappointed to learn 
that Mr. Todd does not approve of the foundations being used in 
supering or for super honey, for, as I have already said, I have 
been in great hopes that the foundations would be most useful in 
supering. Notwithstanding what he says in disapproval of their 
use I still cherish the idea that they will be very serviceable and 
extensively used in supering. On writing on this subject before 
I stated that wax as well as flax could be bleached, and that the 
foundations for supering should be made for white or bleached 
wax. Some of the foundations that come down from London at 
present are of a golden colour and will not do for supering. It is 
to be hoped that attention will be given to the manufacture of 
foundations white enough and thin enough for honeycomb. As 
far as Mr, Todd’s experience goes the foundations answer well for 
hives and broodcombs, and that bees take to them readily, and 
this certainly is no small gain and advantage in bee-keeping. 
As to price, it appears to me that while wax sells at 2s. per lb. 
the foundations must cost considerably more if made in England. 
In America both honey and wax are cheaper, and foundations may 
be sold at a lower price there than they can be in England. 
In comparing the cost of artificial foundations with that of 
natural combs made from artificial feeding, in my first letter I 
found a margin of gain on the side ‘of the natural. From 20 Ibs. 
of sugar we obtain 40 Ibs. of syrup, and from this a swarm of bees 
in September or October can fill a bar frame or straw hive full of 
beautiful white combs and store up about 20 tbs. of syrup honey ; 
all this for 5s. If the bees be removed there remains a hive full 
of pure white virgin combs half filled with syrup. Of course the 
syrup should be removed from the combs before they are used for 
supering, and the only way of getting it out is to let the bees of 
other hives or another swarm takeit. Thus perfect and beautiful 
natural combs may be had for supering, incomparably better and 
probably cheaper than artificial foundations. The trouble of 
filling supers thus in autumn with perfect combs would be great, 
and therefore the artificial foundations are welcomed amongst us ; 
and I earnestly hope that all that has been said in their favour 
may be fully realised in the future experience of British bee- 
keepers.—A. PETTIGREW. 
MELTING COMBS DOWN INTO WAX. 
THE first time I tried the boiling plan I found it so much trouble 
and took so much time that I made up my mind if I could not 
find a better plan I should melt no more except a little for my 
ownuse. I now take a large dish of any kind that will stand the 
heat of an oven, such as a common pie dish, or a roasting tin will 
do—anything that will hold water; then put another smaller dish 
inside that for the wax to melt into; then fill the bottom dish 
with water, and cover the inside dish with a piece of fine copper 
gauze turned up a little all round to prevent the combs from 
faliing off. On this gauze put the combs, squeezing them together 
so that it will hold more ; the wax will melt through and leave 
the refuse on the top. Turn it over a little now and then, so that 
the wax may find its way through the refuse, and press it gently 
but not too much, else the dirt will go through as well as the wax. 
