64. 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 20, 1876. 



and that it ia useless to transfer them. Some crossings would, 

 perhaps, be useful." 



I will quote another paragraph from the letter, which closely 

 agrees with Mr. Pettigrew's teaching. " The great question of 

 the day in our Switzerland, as in France, Germany, and America, 

 is that of mobilism or fisism [the systems of fixed or moveable 

 combs]. Mobilism has the incontestable advantages of offering 

 facility for theoretical experiment and the formation of artificial 

 swarms ; but is it superior or even equal to fixism with regard 

 to the production of honey ? I doubt it a little, because bees do 

 not like to be disturbed in their labours, which always occurs 

 more or less when moveable frames are used." — J. H. Eldeidge, 

 Norwich. 



SEAKCHING FOR QUEENS. 



" In uniting swarms can Mr. Pettigrewor some other correspondent BUggest 

 a method of disposing of the old queen other than patting one's hand into 

 a crawling mass of hees to seek and pick her out, which is anything but a 

 pleasing process to contemplate, especially to any timid person ?— Thohas 

 Watts." 



Mb. Watts has done well to put this question, which is of con- 

 siderable importance in the interests of practical and profitable 

 management of bees ; and it is to be hoped that some one of our 

 readers may be able to suggest a simpler and better method of 

 ridding bees or hives of their old queens than the one I have 

 followed and recommended. Many bee-keepers who adopt our 

 way of managing bees inform me that they can do everything I 

 advise but finding the queen in the crawling mass of a driven 

 swarm ; and many who have seen me find the queen, and the 

 way in which it is done, have become as expert, clever, and 

 courageous at this work as it is possible for anyone to become. 

 The other day a company of ladies and gentlemen came by 

 arrangement to see bees swarmed artificially ; but when I saw 

 the queen and desired them to come near to see her, they would 

 not from sheer timidity. It does require a certain amount of 

 courage and confidence to turn up a hive and look amongst its 

 crawling inmates, and to drive them into an empty hive and 

 peer amongst them till the queen is seen. It requires as much 

 courage to remove bars of comb covered with bees from bar- 

 framers ; and many become expert at this. 



For the encouragement of all let me say that bees mastered 

 and driven into empty hives are generally very quiet and seldom 

 sting. In the hands of courageous people the work is simple 

 and easily done. To find the queen some apiarians shake the 

 bees out on sheets; but we think this is a very disagreeable 

 roundabout mode of operating. When we have a great many 

 swarms to unite to stocks in autumn possessing young queens, 

 we divide the swarms into three or four lots each by putting 

 them into empty hives. Of course the queen of a swarm can 

 be in one lot only, which settles quietly in a cluster. All the 

 rest Bpeedily discover their loss, and manifest it in a great 

 uproar and tumult ; and as soon as the uproar commences the 

 bees are united to the stocks. Then the queens are easily found 

 and destroyed among the bees of the small clusters. As soon 

 as seen they are destroyed, and the bees are given like the rest 

 to the stocks. But our usual mode is to drive all the bees from 

 a honey hive, and if its queen is old to destroy it before they 

 are united to one or two stocks. To us nothing can be more 

 simple or easy than this. We shall be glad if our readers will 

 favour us with their opinions and experiences. Some bee- 

 keepers use puff-ball, some chloroform, in the process of uniting 

 swarms. We Bhall be pleased if our correspondents ventilate 

 the question fully. — A. Pettigbew. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



New Poultry House (E. IF.).— As you are fortunate enough to speak of 

 space as unlimited, we shall deal accordingly. For a hundred fowls we would 

 have a house 30 feet long by 20 wide, and at least 12 feet high. It should be 

 well lighted both in the roof and at the sides. The door should be in a 

 corner, and the perches (2 feet from the ground) should not be in a line with 

 the door or any other place where there is a draught. The flooring must be of 

 earth well rammed down, and should slant every way to the door to facilitate 

 cleaning. The laying boxes may be against the wall or boarding in a line 

 with tne door. There muBt be a separate house for Bitting. The perches 

 should rest on a ledge fastened to the wall at one end, and on moveable 

 tressles the other. This is convenient for moving, and as soon as the fowls 

 are out the percheB should be removed and the house cleansed. A heap of 

 dust is a good thing in a house, and it may be kept perfectly sweet and clean. 

 Dust iB a fowl's bath. Duck and Geese must not rooBt with fowls. If they 

 do you will soon have disease. If you have a farmyard let them roost any- 

 where ; if you have not, any place will do. A lean-to, an old calf pen, an unused 

 pigstye, any such place will do for Ducks and Geese. They detest order and 

 cleanliness, and we believe rhey never thrive so well as when they are per- 

 mitted to follow their own dirty habits. 



Exhibitions of Honey (J. E. B.). — The best time for an exhibition of 

 honey, &c, is about the beginning of September. The middle of the month 

 is the best time where bees are removed to the moors, for heather yields 

 honey till about the 10th of September. For the encouragement of bee- 

 keeping and bee-culture prizes at small horticultural and agricultural meet- 

 ings should be offered, 1st, for the greateBt results in weight from one 

 stock of bees ; 2nd, for best and heaviest swarm of the current season ; 

 3rd, for best super of honeycomb. The first-named deserves a prize of 

 greater value than the other two. A lady in the north of Scotland gives 

 annually a prize for the heaviest first swarm, and there is generally a keen 



contest for it. For country exhibitions in England the fewer conditions laid 

 down the better, but it should be understood that the exhibits are to be the 

 natural products of the bees from the flowers of the fields and forests 



Taking Sor-EBS (J. 0. W.).— In taking the super )from your old hive at 

 the end of this month, fir it cut it from the top of the hive by dra win" a 

 piece of string or wire between them, raise the super by thin wedges about 

 a quarter of an inch, and leave it so raised for about an hour to enable the 

 bees to lick all the honey from the broken cells. Get the bees from the super 

 mto the old hive, and then drive all into an empty hive. As you have no super 

 on the 18-inch hive which you wish to take, drive them, too, about the end 

 of this month into another empty hive, and rapidly feed both into stocks by 

 giving each swarm about 15 lbs. of good sugar boiled in 141bs. of water, or 

 mixed at the rate of 1 lb. of sugar with one pint of water, and boiled for two 

 or three minutes. Let each swarm have 2 lbs. of syrup at least every night 

 From the syrup thus given the hees will rapidly build combs, and not only 

 store up food, but produce a hatch of young brood or bees that will make the 

 stocks strong for winter. For feeding swarms rapidly we have never seen or 

 heard of an instrument equal to a feeding-board, which is simply a floor- 

 board with a dish or trough in it. Our feeding trough holds three quarts of 

 syrup, and can be filled from the outside through a funnel and tube. A lar<*e 

 flowerpot saucer let into a board, or placed on it, answers very well'il plenty 

 of chips of wood or short straws be placed in it to keep the bees from bein» 

 drowned. We are glad to learn that you and your friendB are gathering in- 

 formation and encouragement from the pages of this Journal, and find your- 

 selves " emerging oui of darkness into light." All will be clear and easy to 

 you by-and-by. 





HETEOBOLOGICATj OBSERVATIONS. 



Cauden Square, London. 



Lat. 51° 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0" 8" 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 





Date. 



9 A.M. 



In the Day. 





1876. 



h era a,_ 

 »■*=■ 3D « 



Hygrome- 

 ter. 



it 



it 



5=> 





Shade Tem- 

 perature. 



Radiation 

 Temperature. 



a 



July. 



1 

 Dry. i Wet. 



Max. 



Min. 



In 



sun. 



On 

 grass 





We. 12 

 Th. 13 

 Fri. 14 

 Sat. 15 

 Sun. 16 

 Ho. 17 

 Tu. IS 



Inches. 

 31.447 

 30.398 

 V9.4 '3 

 31.411 

 30.343 

 30.214 

 30.255 



deg. 

 640 

 69.7 

 725 

 77.3 

 75.2 

 81.0 

 66.6 



deg. 

 54.2 

 60.3 

 65 3 

 68 6 

 62 8 

 67.9 

 59.4 



N.W. 



w. 



N.W. 

 N. 

 N.E. 

 N.W. 

 N.E. 



deg. 

 62.3 

 64.4 

 67.0 



Ilil.S 

 67 2 

 69.4 

 697 



deg. 

 74.8 

 86.8 

 85.7 

 92.6 

 89.4 

 S9 9 

 S1.5 



deg. 

 47.3 

 53.0 

 56.6 

 53.3 

 58.3 

 62.7 

 51.0 



deg. 

 129.0 

 128.8 

 111.2 

 125.5 

 124 8 

 12S6 

 120.S 



deg. 

 40 8 

 49.0 

 53 2 

 53.4 

 52.4 

 57 6 

 43.4 



In. 



= 



Means. 



30.353 



72.2 



62.6 





60.8 



85.8 



55.7 



124.1 



50.7 



0.000 



REMAKES. 



12th. — Very fine, bright, pleasant day and night. 



13th. — A brilliant summer day, very hot. 



14th. — Fine, but rather hazy in the morning; very warm, close, and storm- 

 like in afternoon and early evening, bat fine night. 



15th. — Hazy in morning, very fine all day, but intensely hot — in fact, the 

 hottest day this summer, thermometer reaching 92.6 ; ' in shade. 



16th. — Very fine and very -hot, and both feeling close and storm-lite, and look- 

 ing so about 7 p.m. 



17th. — Another hot day, but towards the evening there wa3 a little movement 

 in the air (which has been very stagnant hitherto in the heat), and 

 the heat became more bearable. 



18th. — Another very fine day, but the breeze tempered the heat, and so the 

 weather was much more pleasant. 

 Very fine rainless summer week, the air very dvy, and the range of tempe- 

 rature considerable. The temperature on the loth, 92.6°, unusual, but by no 



means unprecedented. — G. J. Syivions. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— July 19. 

 The present hot weather is proving too muoh for all kinds of soft fruit, and 

 supply is consequently falling cff. Prices somewhat higher than last week. 

 Hothouse fruit is lower in consequence of the close of the London season, 

 though beBt samples of Grapes and Peaches maintain their fall value. 



FBUIT. 



Apples 5 sieve 1 



Apricots bos 1 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuts bushel 



Currants -i sieve 3 



Black do. 4 



Figs dozen S 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, hothouse.. . . lb. 1 



LemonB ^100 6 



Melons each 2 



d. s 

 6 to 5 



1 



Artichokes. dozen 4 



Asparagus ^ 103 1 



French bundle 



Beans, Kidney ^lb. 



Beet, Red dozen 1 



Broccoli bundle 



Brussels Sprouts J sieve 



Cabbage dozen 1 



Carrots bunch 



Capsicums %* 100 1 



Cauliflower dozen 1 



Celery buniile 1 



Coleworts.. doz.bunches 2 



d. 



Oto 6 

 6 6 

 

 6 1 



Cucumbers each 



Endive dozen 



Fennel , bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish. ... bundle 



Lettuce dozen 



French Cabbage .... 



Mulberries lb. 



Nectarines dozen 



Oranges ^ 10) 



Peaches dozen 



Pears, kitchen. . .. dozen 



dessert dozen 



Pine Apple b lb. 



Plums i seive 



Quinces bushel 



Raspberries lb. 



-strawberries lb. 



Walnuts bushel 



ditto ^100 



VEGETABLES. 



s. d. i 



Leeks bunch 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustard & Cress punnet 

 Onions bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley.... doz.bunches 



Parsnips dozen 



Peas quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes., doz.bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Salsafy bundle 



Scorzonera bundle 



Seakale basket 



Shallots.. lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes dozen 



Turnips bunch 



d. a. 



OtoO 



21 



12 



30 























8. A. 8. 

 4 toO 

 10 2 



a <• 



Vegetable Marrows 







2 







2 



ii 



9 

 2 6 

 S 



1 

 3 



9 



1 

 



s 



1 6 

 1 6 







