502 



JOURNAL Or? HtKXICULTUKB AND COTTAGE GASDENELi. 



[ December 27, 1877. 



no advocate for a very small hive, nor ever have been. Taking 

 Mr. "Woodbury's average size as the minimum and Mr. Petti- 

 grew's as the maximum, there will be no perceptible difference 

 in the population of those hives when autumn is over, suppos- 

 ing them to have started fair in the spring with queens of equal 

 power and bees and food in equal proportions, also supposing 

 that they are treated exactly alike. They will Btart alike the 

 following spring (errors and mishaps allowed for), and the harvest 

 will be according to the supply, and likewise the. consumption 

 of food will be more or leas according to the population. A 

 very large hive with a very large population no doubs gathers 

 more honey than a Bmaller hive with a less population ; but 

 then also it will consume honey in proportion, and in bad 

 seasons, or where there is unfavourable pasturage, it will often 

 starve where the other will live and thrive, not to speak of the 

 tendency of bees to make an excess of comb, which will be 

 favourable certainly to a large development of brood, but which 

 will as certainly cause a wasteful consumption of honey in the 

 process of unnecessary wax-formation. 



Not many weeks ago one of your correspondents gave Eome 

 account of "what may be called a telescope hive. Being large 

 in itself it was so constructed as to admit of contraction in 

 autumn by means of dummy slides or partitions. I have just 

 constructed one of these to carry sixteen bars. It is of exactly 

 the same width and depth as the ordinary bar hive of Mr. Wood- 

 bury. The only difference is in its length, which obviously can 

 be extended ad libitum. I do not think I have exactly hit the 

 proper length for the admission of the additional six bars as 

 described by your correspondent. On examination I find my 

 hive to he 22rs inches long, inside measurement. Here then is a 

 hive which might be called " the peacemaker," as it combines 

 the two contending principles and allows scope for the working 

 of each under varving circumstauces of years and pasturage. I 

 mean to give it a fair trial during the approaching summer, and 

 have no doubt whatever as to ita meeting all the wants of the 

 educated bee-keeper of century nineteen. It is plain to the 

 simplest understanding that this hive can be enlarged to the 

 fullest capacity oi the Pettigrew lippen, and comb contracted 

 to the smallest dimensions consistent with the safe working of 

 even a weak cast. 



The eight bars in the centre would suffice for winter storage 

 and use, when the two ends marked off by the dummy partitions 

 could be filled with Bhavings, so making the centre snug against 

 severe frost. If the bees were exceptionally strong one of these 

 partitions could be removed and space for twelve bars allowed 

 to the bees. There is, moreover, ample room overhead for two 

 large supers or almost any number of sectionals. Nor is it a 

 mere speculation as to whether this hive is good or not. Its 

 great success last year in so bad a season verifies literally the 

 proverb " the proof of the pudding is in the eating."— B. & W. 



BEES IN LONDON. 

 I do not understand bees, at least in the sense that skilled 

 apiarians understand them, but I admire their wonderful habits, 

 their great industry, their sagacity and apparent intelligence. 

 As a gardener I have tended them, cultivated them perhaps I 

 may say, for their honey, the same as I have grown trees for 

 their fruit; but trees I confess have received much more of 

 my attention than bees. I have never killed the trees when 

 gathering their fruit, but I have, with pain and regret, assisted 

 to kill thousands of bees when gathering their honey. But that 

 cruelty belongs to the past, and I have not indulged ma practice 

 so relentless and rude since I commenced reading your pages. 

 From the bee department of the Journal I have, like other gar- 

 deners, derived many a valuable hint and have had many an 

 hour's 'pleasure in reading. Prom the poultry pages, too, I 

 could not only tell that I have derived enjoyment but proht, 

 for the putting into practice the advice therefrom gained I have 

 had the reward of hard cash, which my henwife has duly 

 appreciated. But I am wandering. My object in writing is to 

 admit what I feel is a shortcoming on my part, for although I 

 have been entertained and benefited by reading about poultry 

 and bees, I have not in return attempted to entertain others. 

 I have never before written a line on bees, and I am not sure 

 that the present effort will not exhaust me ; and I should not 

 have written now had I not met with a surprise during the past 

 summer of a kind that I do not remember to have seen pub- 



lishsd. 



When we read about localities being unsuited for bees, of 

 bad feeding grounds, and deterrent observations of that nature, 

 an idea is fostered, I think, that our honey-gathering friends 

 can only exist profitably on the purple heather-clad hills and 

 amid fields of white clover. Bat is not the tone of such sugges- 

 tions as we occasionally see rather a reproach on the bee-keeper 

 —or killer, than on the bees ? I think so. Bees, I am of 

 opinion, will thrive almost anywhere if their owners will exer- 

 cise the same amount of intelligence aDd industry tbat are dis- 

 played by the " insects." At any rate I know they will prosper 

 in London, whioh suggests that they will increase and multiply, 



and will store up honey in other places similarly destitute of 

 clover and heather. When I refer to London I do not mean 

 the suburbs, but a central and one of the most busy parts of the 

 metropolis. Within a stonb's throw of the north-west end of 

 Charing Cross Railway Station in the Strand — that is, if you 

 can throw high enough, iB a small Tmt flourishing apiary. The 

 topmost room of one of the lofty buildings there contains birds 

 and bees ; it is, in fact, an aviary and apiary combined. The 

 owner, who has a coEsiderable business there, has a fancy for 

 bees and for birds, which he personally attends to, and the 

 results are highly gratifying. It was by the courtesy of an 

 assistant that I was permitted to insptct these thriving London 

 bees. I happened to aitend on the day that a Buper had been 

 taken from one of the hives — a splendid super of London-stored 

 honey, yet bright and clear, which could not have weighed less 

 than 35 lbs. The bees aro kept inside the room and close to 

 the window, which is closed with the exception of an aperture 

 at the bottom of the sash for their egress and ingresB. They go 

 in streams across the Thames and return laden with the results 

 of tbeir smoky expedition. "Where their feeding ground iB it 

 is not easy to determine, but it is certain that it is not on the 

 leather nor among the clover. 



The super was removed to a lower room when the door was 

 closed, and the window was opened for the escape of the stray 

 bees. They found their way out satisfactorily enough, but the 

 assistant thought their movements rather slow. At every 

 casual examination he found bees in the room, until at length 

 he thought it rather " queer," and he examined more closely, 

 and was not a little amused to find a continual stream of beea 

 as busy as bees could be carrying back the honey from the super 

 below to the parent hive above. London bees he thought were as 

 " 'cute as London boys — always on the look-out for themselves. " 

 Their "little game" was stopped, and a fine take of London 

 honey was secured by the loss of little more than a dozen beeB. 



This little narrative may perhBps interest your utilitarian bee- 

 keeper Mr. Pettigrew, and m^y, perhaps, also encourage others 

 who hesitate to keep bees because they have no clover. To my 

 mind it proves how impediments vanish before intelligence and 

 well-applied industry on the part of the bee-keeper, who, I 

 think, is generally more to blame than the bees when failure 

 occurs. — A Country Gardener. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Stock Fowls (C. S.}. — At this time of year, if all the eggs ate required for 

 sitting, a crick should not have more than lour or rive hens. In February he 

 may have teven or eight, and in April and May a dozen. A cock of different 

 blood would be desirable; but if the bird yon have is in points preferable to 

 aoy other you have in view we advise you to keep him for this year only. 

 You need not fear any LI effects fr >m the two cocks running with fourteen 

 heos, but in May and June yuu woud have to remove one of them. An 1876 

 coek would do well put with the pallets of last year, and that would enable 

 you to put the young cock with the heos. The formation of walks in .879, 

 the different sexes Deing taken from the different runs, would probably be 

 very successful. 



Fowls Hard-chopped {Constant Header).— Give each a table-spoonful of 

 castor oil. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 

 The usual "meteorological observations" not having arrived at the time 

 for going to press their publication must be postponed until next week. The 

 temperature in London has been considerably lower during the last few days 

 than previously, and there wa3 a s ight fall of snow yesterday (Wednesday) 

 morning— the first snow of the wintur. 



COYENT GARDEN MARKET.— December 26. 

 Business, as is usual immediately after Christmas, is by no means brisk, 

 and there is no quotable alteratiou in prices. 



FRUIT. 



s. d. s. d. 



Apples Jsieve 2 6to5 



Figs dozen 



Filberts lb. 6 8 



Cobs lb. 6 8 



Grapes, hothouse.. lb. 1 6 6 



Lemons ^100 6 >i 10 



Melons each 16 10 



Oranges ^ 1C0 



Peaches doz. 



Pears, kitchen.. dozen 1 



dessert dozen 2 



Pine Apples lb. 1 



Plums £ sieve o 



Walnuts bushel 5 



;. d. s. 

 OtolO 

 

 3 

 6 

 6 5 



VEGETABLES. 



S. d. S. d. 



Artichokes dozen 2 Otol 



Beans.KidneyforcecR^ieO 10 16 



Beet. Red dozen 16 3 



Broccoli bun ;le 9 16 



Brussels Sprouts $ sieve 2 6 



Cabbage dozen 10 2 



Carrots bunch 4 6 



Capsicums Vino 1 J 2 



Cauliflowers dozen 2 4 



Celery bundle 16 2 



Coleworts doz. bunches 2 4 



Cucumbers .... each 10 16 



Kndive dozen 10 2 



Fennel bunch 3 



Garlic lb. 6 



Herbs bunch 2 



Lettuce dozen 10 2 



I Leeks bunch 2 4 



Mushrooms .... 

 Mustard & Cress 

 Onions 



pickling 



Parsley doz. 



Parsnips 



Peas 



Potatoes 



Kidney 



Radishes., doz. 



Rhubarb 



Salsafy 



Scorzonera .... 



^eakale 



shallots 



Spinach 



Turnips 



Veg. Marrows.. 



pottle 



punnet 



bushel 



quart 



bunches 



dozen 



quart 



bnshel 



bushel 



bunches 



bundle 



bundle 



bundle 



basket 



lb. 



bu&hel 



bunch 



each 



% 



