Jnly 7, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



19 



give the result of my own experience. On the 7th May last, I 

 plaoed a super box on a Stewarton hive. It had in it a small 

 piece of last year's comb, and perhaps a ponnd of honey. I 

 removed this super on the 28th May, exactly three weeks 

 alterwards, and it contained 18.J lbs. of honey, nett weight. — 

 Richard Mills, Swanley, Kent. 



BAR FRAMES versus EARLY SUPERS. 



Referring to the account of an early super in Nos. 481 and 

 ■482, Journal of Horticulture, it might be interesting to 

 some of your readers to learn that I have this year used no 

 supers of any kind, and nearly all my hives are Pettitt's bar- 

 frame hives, with the ten and the thirteen frames. On the 15th 

 June I took from one of the ten-frame hives (which was a stock 

 transferred from a straw hive this spring), six of the frames 

 well filled with honey and well sealed over, the six combs 

 weighing 39i lbs. In exchange for the six full frames I put in 

 six empty ones, which I find on examination to-day are nearly 

 all full, and will in a few days, I think, realise a similar 

 weight ; but I shall not take more than five combs in this in- 

 stance, leaving the bees five for their use during winter. I 

 have generally considered five or six of these bar-frames suffi- 

 cient for their consumption in winter, and they contain about 

 double the comb-building space that is found in some of the 

 common straw hives. 



On the loth of June I went to the hive above referred to 

 with the intention of forming from it an artificial colony, but 

 found the combs so full of honey that there was no room left 

 for brood, and in all this ten-frame hive there was none found, 

 excepting on one comb about 3 inches square, which was oc- 

 cupied by brood on either side, or about 18 square inches. I 

 therefore thought it best to appropriate the six combs to my 

 own use, and try on the other six rather than to make a swarm 

 with so little brood in it. — Sudbury. 



VEGETABLES BETTER THAN NOTHING. 



[W should think so ! — Eds.] 

 Undoubtedly great sustenance can be derived from vege- 

 tables. Vegetarians can give us many examples to prove that 

 not only will vegetable matter alone sustain life, but that meat 

 is injurious. Without going so far, I limit myself to one or two 

 instances, proving that we are not absolutely dependent on 

 meat, and that in its absence, or a very small quantity of it, 

 good health and strength can be secured. Volney, a well-known 

 though not a recent authority, describes the Wallachians in his 

 travels as "tall, well-built, robust, and of a very wholesome 

 complexion, diseases being rare among them." Further on we 

 are told, "the manners of the Wallachians, as far as I have been 

 able to judge them, are simple, and neither embellished nor sullied 

 by art. Temperate in their repasts, they prefer vegetables to 

 fruit, and fruits to the most delicate meat." The miners in 

 Belgium furnish another good example. They eat, according to 

 a report made in the locality, 2 lbs. of bread per day, about 

 2 ozs. of butter, 1 oz. of coffee and chicory mixed, while for 

 dinner they have in the evening a portion of vegetables mixed 

 with potatoes, weighing at the most 1J lb. They have meat 

 on Sundays and festivals, but during the week they drink neither 

 beer nor other fermented liquors. Coffee is their only beverage. 

 Yet these workmen are hardy and healthy. It is not the coffee 

 which sustains them, for it constitutes but l-35th of the nutri- 

 tious property of their aliment, though M. de Gasparin, in a 

 paper read some years ago before the French Academy of 

 Sciences, attempted to prove, from certain tables, that the waste 

 in liquid excretion is less when coffee is drunk than at other 

 times. The miners' coffee is not like the French cafe an lait, 

 for it has but l-10th part of milk in it ; he drinks several pints 

 in a day, and eats only bread and butter until the vegetable meal 

 of the evening. The albuminous substance which enters into 

 the rations of the Belgian miner is thus reduced from 23 grammes 

 to 1 5 grammes of azote. This is less nutritious even than the 

 diet of the monks of La Trappe at Aiguebelle. Here is, there- 

 fore, proof that life and health can exist throughout a whole 

 population with less nutritive substance than is generally con- 

 sidered necessary ; that meat can well be replaced by vegetable 

 and farinaceous matter. But it will be argued, that the im- 

 poverished British workman and pauper will object to the diet 

 of the Belgian miner. In answer, however, might it not be 

 suggested that the Belgian acts with greater wisdom when he 

 preserves his health and spirits even on such a miserable diet, 



than the Englishman who, constantly aiming at nothing less 

 than the sirloin, falls short of the goal, and consoles himself with 

 spirituous liqours ? There is fortunately a medium course, and 

 much despair might be avoided if our poor, and indeed some of 

 the lower middle classes, knew bstter how to combine vegetable 

 substances, and produce excellent meals, without any assistance 

 at all from the butcher. Occasionally a good wholesome vege- 

 table diet would be better than nothing ; and, by refreshing the 

 blood and assuaging thirst, would lessen the temptation of drink, 

 always so great in moments of feverish anxiety, poverty, and 

 want. Without adopting the miner's diet, many a good meal 

 can he made for a few pence from vegetables, cooked with more 

 heart than at present shown. It would take too long to analyse 

 all the different vegetables at hand ; but I will, on a future occa- 

 sion, return to the subject, and for the present content myself 

 with a few practical examples illustrative of my meaning. 



For a cheap, yet tasty and substantial dish, let me suggest 

 that the housewife grate two carrots, two turnips, one parsnip, 

 a little beetroot and artichoke into one pint of split peas, boiled 

 in two quarts of soft water for two hours. The whole might 

 then be boiled with three teaspoonfuls of Indian, wheaten, or 

 Scotch meal, mixed in cold water, leaving it to simmer togeth er 

 for two hours more ; a little parsley, mint, and thyme will flavour 

 the dish. More water might be added if necessary. This some- 

 what complicated " hodge-podge" would well satisfy a middle- 

 class family, and cost less, at any rate, than a joint. It would 

 not do, perhaps every day, but might occasionally save the meat 

 and avoid the horror at stinting at dinner. For a cheaper dish, 

 why should not the lentil be introduced for everyday use in Eng- 

 land as in France ? For instance let a pint of lentils be soaked 

 in pure soft water for twenty-four hours, then put in a stewpan 

 (earthen or enamelled is best), and boil for four hours. Then two 

 onions, one parsnip, one carrot, a little parsley, thyme cut small, 

 and a small quantity of boiled rice should be added. This, mixed 

 and boiled a short time together, would produce a satisfying and 

 savoury dish, somewhat better than the diet of the Belgian miner, 

 and yet very cheap. Lentils are about the most nutritious vege- 

 table we possess. In 100 lbs. they contain 84 lbs. of solid matter, 

 and 16 lbs. of water, of which 33 lbs. are flesh-forming, and 48 

 of heat-forming principle ; while butchers' meat, according to 

 Baron Liebig's table, has hut 21.5 lbs. per cent, of flesh-forming 

 principle, and 14.3 that gives heat. The rice has 82 per cent, 

 of the heat-forming principle. Compared with these, the other 

 vegetables are more useful as giving water, flavour, and rendering 

 the dish light and digestible. The celebrated Indian and Chinese 

 dish called dahl, has also lentils for its chief ingredient, and is 

 purely of vegetable matter. It is substantial and delicious, and 

 is made as follows: — Stew a quart of split lentils till they form 

 a thick soup ; have ready a pound of rice, well boiled in milk, 

 and drained off as dry as possible. Shake the rice up loosely in 

 a dish, and, after mixing an ounce of curry powder with the 

 lentils, pour the lentil soup over the rice and serve it up. Dishes, 

 cheaper even than these, may be made palatable. 



Before concluding, however, there is one important objection 

 which has often been made, through ignorance of the first rule in 

 cooking vegetables. It is observed that a meal from them is not 

 satisfying. I have found it frequently happen that the person 

 who thus objected, did not know even how to boil a vegetable. 

 The rule is simple, but must never be forgotten. Every kind of 

 vegetable intended to be served whole should, when put to boil, 

 be placed at once in boiling water ; and this applies especially to 

 potatoes, and vegetables from which the outer cover has been 

 removed. Now it often happens that potatoes, &c, are, to save 

 time placed in cold water and left to boil gradually. It is just this 

 which allows the nutritious matter to escape, and renders the 

 meat unsatisfying. When, on the contrary, the water boils from 

 the moment the vegetable is immersed in it, the albumen is parti- 

 ally coagulated near the surface, and serves to retain the virtue 

 of the vegetable. The reverse is, of course, the rule for making 

 soup, or any dish from which the water will not be drained. 

 By placing the vegetables in cold water the albumen is slowly 

 dissolved, and actually mixes with the water — a process most 

 necessary for the production of nutritious soup. It is to be, 

 hoped that the poor, who have a special need for the most their 

 money can produce, will learn, in whatever haste they may he, 

 not to boil all the albumen from their potatoes, reserving for 

 their meal only the starchy matter. — (Food Journal.) 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Separating Chickens (C. B.).— The time at which you require to breed 

 Btock birds must influence you in separating your chickens. There is 

 however, no fear if they are but two months old. As a rule with birds of 



