Aajnst 3, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF EORTICULTDEE AXD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



for the frill, the so-called rose, it is ooly a deteriorated frill, 

 which unfortunately only the beat, or rather close-bred Osis in 

 England possess, and especially the small White ; thus missing 

 one of their most important points, the full — never too full — 

 frill. Let us endeavour honourably to serve the uninitiated, 

 instead of imitating the fox who lost his tail, because the best 

 Oivls in England are generally short of frill, to attach to it the 

 fancy name of rose, and try to persuade the fancy to imitate 

 ibis deterioration. I shall suggest, as this venerable Tark 

 does, to my fellow English fanciers, to breed the Tarbits as fine 

 as the O.vls in head, and both those handsome varieties as full- 

 frilled as possible, and when they attain this object, let them 

 compare them with the Osls possessing the rose and the now 

 existing Turbits, and then decide. Specimens of perfeet- 

 shaped Tarbits I have forwarded to our Society at Birmingham, 

 though rather revolutionised in markings by the present fashion 

 here. — H. P. Cabidia, Smyrna. 



The Birmingham Columbarian Society describe the eye of 

 the Owl Piaeon as being orange red, a point Mr. Weir fails to 

 oatoh, as different from Mr. Brent's description of such eye, as 

 pearl or gravel colour, though Mr. Weir corrects the Society on 

 other points. Will Mr. Weir tell us the genuine colour of the 

 Oivl Pigeon's eye ? — Readeb. 



VALUABLE PIGEONS STOLEN FROM 



EXHIBITIONS. 



Iagkee with Mr. Hewitt and Mr. Graham that watchful eyes 

 are the best safeguards. I would suggest that committees of 

 shows should guarantee the safety of the birds while in their 

 possession. I think that if they were to charge M. or 6d. per 

 pen extra for the entries they would be able to have additional 

 men to watch. As regards the chains and locks my opinion is 

 that thev would be useless, because those who intended stealing 

 would effect their purpose unless a watch were kept upon them. 

 My bird, value £20, was stolen from Romford at half-past four 

 in the afternoon ; this would have been impossible if the birds 

 had been well looked after. Messrs. Jennison offered Mr. 

 While £5 towards his loss, but the Committee of Romford 

 Sbow have not offered me any compensation. I will give £3 

 for the recovery of my Cirrier and the conviction of the thief, 

 I will also give a guinea to any person who will by his evidence 

 convict any thief or thieves stealing Pigeons from any forth- 

 coming show this season, or will subscribe a guinea to any fund 

 which may be formed having the same object in view. — H. 

 Takdi^y, Market Hall, Birmingham. 



DEATH OF MR. T. W. WOODBURY. 



I LITTLE thought — when, on the 20;h of this month (July), 

 after an enforced cessation of some months, owing to severe 

 and protracted il'ness, there appeared another of those papers 

 bearing the signature so well known to the readers of " oar 

 Journal " of " A Devonshiee Bee-keeper," in which he most 

 feelingly announced his partial but uncertain improvement, 

 and his looking hopefully forward to permanent recovery, and 

 in which he most gratefully tendered his " warmest acknow- 

 ledgments and heartfelt thanks " to myself and others who had 

 assisted him with the pen, and to numerous friends and corre- 

 spondents who had expressed their warm sympathy with him 

 during his illness — I little thought, I say, that this would prove 

 to be the last contribution bearing his signature, or that before 

 the succeeding week's number could reach us we should have 

 been shocked to hear of his almost sudden death. It is, how- 

 ever, my sorrowful task to have to inform the editors, and 

 numerous apiarian and other readers and correspondents of 

 this Journal, of the melancholy fact. On the night of Wednes- 

 day, the 26th, soon after the time of his retiring to rest, he was 

 seized with a violent internal pain, and in a very short time, 

 before the doctor who had been sent for could arrive, he had 

 •ceased to exist. 



Thus has the unbroken friendship of twenty-two years been 

 severed. It was in the summer of 18i9, in consequence of a 

 short paragraph from my pen which appeared in one of our 

 local prints, that I received a letter from Mr. Woodbury, ex- 

 pressing his interest in the communication. A few weeks 

 after this he called on me, and from that time commenced an 

 intimacy which soon ripened into warm friendship. We had 

 both for some years been ardent bee-keepers, but our acquaint- 

 ance and mutual interest in the beloved subject, together with 



our numerous walks and rambles connected with apiarian pur- 

 suits, added, if possible, fuel to the fire. 



In the autumn of 1850 I removed to Ireland, and, of course, 

 our personal inter-communication on bee matters received a 

 check. I soon established a prosperous apiary in my new 

 home, bat my friend was not so fortunate. During the follow- 

 ing year, chiefly owing to the knavery of the people in the 

 country in whose garden he had kept his bees, his hives 

 dwindled away to a very low ebb, and for a time he relinquished 

 active kee-keeping in disgust. Still, however, his real interest 

 in the subject remained. 



I returned to reside in Exeter in the autumn of 1854, and 

 very soon set to work to surround myself with a more extensive 

 apiary than I had ever had before. Mr. Woodbury took a very 

 great interest in all my proceedings, but he maintained that he 

 should not himself again enter the lists as a bee-keeper. Bat 

 example is contagious. Being interested in observing the 

 prosperity of my bees, and in the progress of some beautiful 

 supers which were being filled, he could not resist the impulse, 

 and on one occasion of my calliog at his house, I found him sur- 

 rounded with planks and tools, busily engaged in making bee- 

 boxes. He was the very best amateur carpenter or cabinet- 

 maker that lever knew; his workmanship was really beautiful. 

 Whatever he did in this, as in other matter.*, he did thoroughly. 

 Mr. Woodbury then informed me that he should not exceed 

 four stocks of bees, and for some time he adhered to his reso- 

 lution. With the ordinary bar hive he beoatne so exceedingly 

 expert a manipulator, that when the third edition of Lang- 

 stroth's book was published, he could not at first perceive any 

 advantages that moveable frames possessed over moveable bars. 

 It was not until I had made several frame hives, somewhat 

 after Langstroth's pattern, but previous, however, to my having 

 had any of them stocked with bees, that he candidly told me 

 that he had Ijecome a convert to the utihiies and capabilities 

 of the, to us, new principle, and that he should set to work at 

 once to make some. By a happy combination of adaptation 

 he utilised all his boxes, loose bars, and combs, and succeeded 

 in turning out the form of hive which has ever since enjoyed so 

 wide a reputation — viz., the Woodbury hive. From the time 

 of his adoption of this hive, and of his introduction of Ligurians 

 into his apiary, Mr. Woodbury greatly extended his operations, 

 and his four original colonies soon became vastly increased. 

 For the accounts of his introduction of Ligurian queens ; of 

 his first and subsequent attempts at their propagation ; of his 

 failures as well as his scc^esses ; of the history of the succesa- 

 fal transmission of Ligurian colonies to Scotland, Ireland, 

 America, the Cape, Australia, and elsewhere, I can only refer 

 our readers to the pages of past numbers of the Journal during 

 the space of many years. 



I have hitherto spoken of our departed friend chiefly in re- 

 lation to his caiear and chsra t^r as an apiarian, and it is with 

 greater difficulty and diffidence that I approach the subject of 

 his domestic rtlitions. I have endeavoured, most imperfectly 

 I fear, to describe him in the character of a warm, sincere, and 

 enduring friend. To this must be added, and all who have 

 known bim intimately will bear me out in the assertion, that 

 in all the relations of domestic life he was almost, if not quite, 

 incomparable — a devoted son, sacrificing se'f for the happiness 

 and comfort of aged parents, a most loving and affectionate 

 husband and father. I felt it to be indeed no small privilege to 

 be permitted to join the family circle with almost the freedom 

 and non-constraint of a near relative. 



In conclusion I have only to add, that I am sure that all the 

 readers of the Journal, and all the contributors to its columns, 

 whether interested as apiarians or otherwise, will experience 

 deep feelings of sorrow for the loss of one who has for so many 

 years contributed so largely to its columns, and I may be per- 

 mitted to add, to its value and interest as a weekly periodical. 

 Since the commencement of his illness, Mr. Woodbury ex- 

 pressed to me his deep regret that he had not during the time of 

 health, given to the world the beneflt of his large experience in 

 a thoroughly comprehensive work on the honey bee. Still we 

 may trust that in his numerous writings on the subject, "he 

 being dead, yet speaketh." — S. Bevah Fox. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Mbs. Claeke, of Axconbdby Hocse, neab Huntingdon. — W. Corbet, 

 Esq , Strasbourg House, Castle Connell. Ireland, says— "I wrote to her 

 in answer to her advertisement, iortKo Frizzled fowls and two Ptarmigan 

 fowls, and sent her ,£2. She acknowledged having receiv. d the money, 

 but said the fowls were sold, and in a short time would &end me others. 

 As she did not do bo I wrote for the money ; this she promised to send but 

 never did, and in the end would not answer my letter." 



