60 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 19, 1854. 



me with just two hives in good condition — a Nuttfs collateral 

 that has stood three years, and a common cottage-hive that 

 has stood four years. I had intended to get a couple of first 

 swarms naturally from them, and then to unite the later 

 swarms if any, and finally transfer the old stocks into bar- 

 frame hives, as I intend to use none others in future. The 

 bad season for swarming, however, quite frustrated this 

 intention. They hung out till I was tired of watching them, 

 and resolved to get artificial swarms by driving and transpos- 

 ing. The result has surpassed my most sanguine expecta- 

 tions, and not only are the driven swarms first-rate (of course 

 I allowed a fortnight's interval after driving the one before 

 operating similarly on the other), but the stocks are also in 

 prime condition. I only regret that I did not adopt this 

 course a month earlier than I did. After driving the first, 

 the old stock in its transposed condition hung out strongly 

 the day afterwards. Of course, it has since been used only for 

 transposition. 



My friend " E. B." very kindly sent me a Ligurian queen a 

 short time since, and which I successfully placed at the head 

 of a stock by a process which I have never seen described, 

 and, therefore, to me quite original. The said queen arrived 

 just after driving and transposing my two stocks ; and as 

 I was unwilling to interfere with either of them or the 

 swarm so soon, if I could avoid it, I made an arrange- 

 ment with a bee-keeper in the neighbourhood for one of his 

 stocks, which had been hanging out for some time. Having 

 a bar-hive untenanted that was two-thirds filled with healthy 

 comb and a considerable quantity of honey, I transposed 

 it with the stock at about 11 a.m. when fully at work. The 

 returning bees of course entered it, and a state of great ex- 

 citement naturally ensued. In an hour I placed a box over 

 the top, containing the Ligurian queen and about a couple 

 of dozen of her subjects, the box having a moveable top of 

 glass, and a moveable bottom of perforated zinc. The excite- 

 ment slightly abated on this being done, and I left her so 

 till 3 p.m., when I took her own subjects away, and then 

 allowed one bee to enter from below. Perceiving that it 

 behaved most affectionately to her (if it had not, its death 

 warrant had been sealed instanter), I admitted a few more, 

 one at a time ; and finding that they all appeared doubly 

 affectionate, at last I withdrew the slide altogether, and. 

 allowed them all to descend. Work recommenced vigorously 

 at once, and plenty of bees from the old stock joined them 

 during the succeeding two days, and the result is a fine 

 swarm headed by a Ligurian queen. 



There is an old proverb that " It never rains but it pours ;" 

 for, on the very day that this queen arrived, a beautiful 

 Ligurian swarm, with queen born in Italy, arrived through 

 the kindness of a relative who is, however, not himself a 

 practical apiarian. It was on arrival tranferred into a bar- 

 frame hive and is doing remarkably well ; so you see that 

 being quite free again from foul brood I am once more in a 

 favourable condition. — G. F. B., Spalding. 



EXTEAOEDENTAEY LIGUKIAN SWAEMS. 

 I wonder whether I shall astonish you as I have done all 

 about here when I tell you that the eight-pound swarm of 

 mine in May (Ligurian), cast again for the third time on 

 Wednesday, July 5. On the previous Saturday the bees 

 flew out as though swarming, and on examination I found a 

 dead queen ; yet on Wednesday they swarmed in spite of a 

 super. The grandmother on examination proving to have 

 no queen, I have joined this one to her, otherwise I should 

 have liked to have kept for a curiosity a third virgin swarm. 



' — A NoBTHTTMBEBLAND BeE-KEEPEE. 



[The fecundity of this monster Ligurian swarm has evi- 

 dently been quite on a par with its unprecedented magni- 

 tude.] 



LIGUEIAJ5TS EST AYESHIEE. 



My Ligurian hive having thrown a very fine swarm yes- 

 terday (10. h July), a thing far beyond my expectation two 

 weeks ago, I must pronounce Ligurians superior to blacks 

 in multiplication. I can now see no means of getting the 

 young queens impregnated with Ligurian drones, but will 



carry my after-swarms to the country, where they will 

 be a reasonable distance from blacks. — A Stewabton 

 Apiabian. 



[The old stock should, of course, accompany the after- 

 swarms in their country excursion ; nor should the first 

 swarm be left behind if it contain drones, as is probably the 

 case.] 



Cooking Meats. — Every wife and mother owes it to her- 

 self, her husband, and her children, as well as to society at 

 large, to prevent waste in every department of the house- 

 hold, whether provisions are cheap or dear, whether the 

 husband is rich or poor: for waste is a crime against 

 humanity, an insult to the bounteous Hand which " giveth 

 us all things, riches to enjoy." On the other hand, a true 

 economy is one of the wisest, the best, and ennobling of 

 domestic virtues. A hundred careful experiments were 

 made in England in reference to roasting and boiling meats- 

 in order to ascertain the respective losses. Roasted chickens 

 lost 15 per cent. ; beef ribs and sirloins, 19 per cent. ; geese, 

 19 per cent. ; boiled mutton legs, 10 per cent. ; boiled beef, 

 15 per cent. ; boiled shoulder of mutton, 28 per cent. ; tur- 

 keys lost 20 per cent. ; mutton legs and shoulders, 24 per 

 cent. ; ducks, 27 per cent. Boiling beef saves more than 

 4 per cent, over roasting.- H a leg of mutton is boiled it loses 



10 per cent. ; if roasted, 25 per cent. ? " The fatter meat is r 

 the greater the loss ; it should be moderately fat, to make it 

 tender ; but there is an unprofitable fatness. Eleven pounds 

 of roast beef rib lose 2 lbs. and the bones 1 lb., so that of 



11 lbs. bought only 7 lbs. come to the table. Hence if roast rib 

 pieces cost in New York, in April, 1S64, 20 cents a-pound at 

 the butcher's stall, it is more than 31 cents a-pound on the 

 dinner-table. It is philosophically true that 1 lb. of clear 

 roast beef is more concentrated than 1 lb. of boiled beef, has 

 less water in it, and hence may contain more nourishment ; 

 but the more concentrated food is, the more unwholesome it 

 is, not only because it requires a greater digestive power to 

 convert it into pure blood, but the sense of sufficiency at 

 meals is induced to a considerable extent by the bulk of 

 what is taken, and if we eat concentrated food until there is 

 bulk enough to remove the feeling of hunger, there is so 

 much nutriment in it that nature can't extract it all in a 

 perfect manner ; hence there is not only too much nutriment 

 for the wants of the system, but all of it is imperfectly pre- 

 pared and we really get less of the strength and less pure 

 blood out of it, than if much less had been eaten, or it had 

 been taken in a more bulky, or, if you please, in a more 

 watery condition. This is the reason why dyspeptics and 

 others eat a great deal, but they do not get strong. But if 

 there is too much bulk, there -is not enough nutriment 

 although a great deal is taken into the stomach. Porter 

 and beer, for example, fill up the stomach, and seem to make 

 persons fleshy, but there is little nutriment and great bulk ; 

 great beer-drinkers are never strong but are puffy. — (Hall's 

 Journal of Bedtih.~) 



OTTE LETTEE BOX. 



Superiority of the Ligubian Bee {A. K. C, Dunsta/1.— This new 

 species is unquestionably far superior in fecundity, good temper, and beauty 

 to the common hive bee. 



Liooeian Bees— A Wixdow Apiary (M. B., Hampton).— Write to T. 

 Woodbury, Esq., Mount Radford, Exeter. Bees will very probably do well 

 in an upper room, but we do not think it possible to avoid the occasional 

 loss of swarms from such a situation. 



Maiden Swarms [B. P., Worth Lincolnshire).— -Two swarms from a 

 swarm of the current year are unusual but not unprecedented. 



Uniting Weak Stocks (A Constant S'.tlscriber).—'Blow e. little smoke 

 into each, and after allowing them two or three minutes to enable the bees 

 to fill themselves with honey, invert one hive in a pail, and surmount it with 

 the other, then drive the inhabitants of the lower hive into the upper one, 

 and the union will be complete. This operation should be performed in the 

 daytime, and, if adroitly managed, need not occupy many minutes. 



Transferring Bees {A Constant Reader).— Although more than one 

 swarm may generally be looked for. the rule is by no means invariable. If 

 you mean to break up the stock it should be done in the autumn -when the 

 honey harvest is over, aod little brood exists. Any attempt to transfer the 

 bees to a Payne's-hive at this time would probably end in their entire 

 destruction. Comb-building in an upward direction is not at all unusual. 



Butter Imported and Exported {Essex).— Last year 98S.70S owts. were 

 imported, and 102,406 cwts. exported. 



