180 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 26, 1885. 
at the foot of sunny walls and the fronts of dwelling house", extra pains 
should be taking in preparing the ground for them. All loose exhausted 
soil should be removed aud good loamy soil supplied, to which has been 
added a liberal quantity of manure. A depth of not less than 2 feet of 
good soil ought to be provided, and the roots of the plants should have 
the soil well rammed about them. As the plants will experience little or 
no check they may be pruned at once—the weakly shoots to a single 
joint and the stronger to three or more joints. If pruning is neglected 
the plants may perhaps flower at once ; but it would be better to encou¬ 
rage a strong growth, and which, in many cases, would also be a flowering 
growth. Strong, well-established plants that are worth retaining should 
have the surface soil removed, so as to bare many of the roots and receive 
a liberal dressing of loam and manure in equal quantities, the latter being 
best procured from the pig yard. A little of the old soil may be placed 
on the surface, both to prevent offensive smells and to preserve a neat 
appearance. 
Pruning Climbing Roses .—In mo3t localities this may now be safely 
commenced. They must not be neglected any more than the dwarfs or 
standards, or they soon become weakly and produce few or no really pre¬ 
sentable blooms. All the Teas should be freely cut back to the main 
branches, leaving one joint on the weakest shoots, and three or more 
where they are strong—say, near the size of a pencil. Where the space 
is not yet all occupied strong leading branches may be neatly nailed in, 
only the unripened portion being cut away. Gloire de Dijon, when thus 
freely pruned, rarely fails to bloom well, and also forms extra strong 
branches earlier in consequence ; these will produce fine flowers in the 
autumn. Mardchal Niel requires rather different treatment, as this 
blooms principally on the long well-ripened lengths of the previous sea¬ 
son’s growth. Some of these, then, should be laid in to their full length, 
while if a few are cut freely back several fine shoots will result, which 
should be carefully laid in for the next season’s display. It is the neglect 
of this precaution that is the cause of so many plants soon becoming ex¬ 
hausted and useless. Hybrid Perpetuals, as a rule, are of but little ser¬ 
vice against houses, especially if allowed to grow and flower at random. 
Unless extra strong they should be pruned back nearly as freely as the 
Teas. Banksians should not be so hard pruned, as the very strongest 
shoots if shortened will only produce still stronger and flowerless growths. 
It is better to lay in a few of the strongest shoots, shortening all those of a 
medium size and. thinning out the spray. 
Pruning Evergreens .—This also is now being attended to. Laurels 
that are formed into banks require to be neatly cut, using either a 
knife or secateurs in preference to the more expeditious but more muti¬ 
lating shears. Any Laurels that are too tall or of a straggling habit, if 
sawn neatly off near the ground, will push out a quantity of strong shoots, 
and if these each spring are shortened somewhat neat and more handsome 
specimens will be the result. Laurustinuses may also be similarly im¬ 
proved, and we have frequently cut down large Yews and Portugal 
Laurels with successful results. Crowded mixed shrubberies, unless 
thinned either by transplanting or the cutting away of the commoner 
sorts, soon lose much of their beauty. Conifers especially should not 
be pressed against by other trees or shrubs, and the latter should be cut 
away from them. Even the Conifers are sometimes improved in appear¬ 
ance by judicious pruning. All the deciduous flowering shrubs will bear 
being freely shortened back, and in some cases will be much benefited 
thereby ; while no one need hesitate to cut back all straggling shoots of 
Box, Hollies, Escallonias, Aucubas, Euonymuses, Acacias, Genistas, Sweet 
Bay, Hydrangeas, Weigelas, Berberries, &c. 
SEASONABLE NOTES ON BEES. 
Since we wrote our last letter there have been two or three bright 
genial days, and the bees have taken long flights. These were oppor¬ 
tunities for cleaning floorboards and doctoring hives which showed 
signs of dysentery. All our hives seemed very strong, and breeding 
is evidently going on apace. The few flowers which are in bloom 
were continually visited, and much water was carried home. We 
generally have these unexpected bright warm days in February, and 
they are apt to make novices at bee-keeping at onc» begin to disturb 
their bees by feeding and other premature attentions. All disturb¬ 
ance should be carefully guarded against, at least until the end of 
this month. Even then, unless there be a continuance of finer 
weather, the stocks are by far best let alone. We have often in this 
Journal warned those who have bees against beginning to stimulate 
their queens to breed too early in the year. There is nothing gained 
by having a lot of brood hatched out in the cold spring weather ; 
often the effect is the reverse of gain, the sure cause of dwindling. 
There are many things to be attended to now. All preparations 
for the summer work should be carefully made. Surplus hives should 
be ordered at once, or where made at home be all finished before the 
press of work comes on as the bees are awakened to activity. Supers, 
of whatever kind employed, now should be obtained and fitted out 
with strips of foundation. This should be of the thinnest manufac¬ 
ture, and even of that we never employ much in supers. A strip an 
inch broad is amply sufficient. We have tasted super honey aud had 
the disagreeable experience of a cake of hard wax between the teeth. 
If thin foundation be employed the bees appear to be in such a hurry 
to get on with their work, once they enter a super, that they do not 
pare down the thick midrib, but build out the walls upon it. There 
is no doubt that 1 lb. sections are those most easily disposed of. 
There may be a ready market in some parts of the United Kingdom 
for large slabs of honey or for large supers, but such is not the case 
in our large towns of the south of England. There 1 lb. sections 
are most sought after, and after them the 2-lb. sections. We are 
glad to see the Committee of the British Bee-keepers’ Association has 
not yet decided on any particular section as a standard ; if they 
do so we hope that it may be of such measurements that a certain 
number will fit well into the standard frame. Bee-keepers should 
order sections at once. 
It is false economy to be niggard in the use of foundation ; suffi¬ 
cient should be purchased to use it liberally. If swarms cannot be 
hived on frames of comb already constructed, then full sheets of 
foundation should be employed. Combs that have been exposed 
during the winter, and hives and supers previously used, must be 
fumigated to destroy moths and other insects. Water should be placed 
near the hives, and as the bees become active the ventilation through 
the hives may be partly checked to induce a moister temperature. 
Boards may be placed over the quilts ; a certain amount of condensa¬ 
tion in the hive as the season and breeding progress will be beneficia 1 . 
While the bees were kept for weeks in their hives by wintry weather, 
this condensation was fatal to their well-being. As they fly more and 
more frequently abroad, and as they require water for the brood, it 
will be beneficial. 
Look out for birds which feast on bees—we have found them 
more destructive during the spring months than in the dead of winter. 
The tomtit is a voracious destroyer of fatigued or partly chilled bees. 
If you watch bees in their first spring flights you will see that they 
do not go far afield, and that they often settle against the sides or on 
the roof of the hive or on the wet ground and pathway to collect the 
water. Birds and toads then make the best of their chances and 
destroy many. Later on the sparrows are the great enemies ; a pair 
of these birds near an apiary will rear their young almost exclusively 
on bees. It is not the drones only they attack, we have seen them 
take bees continuously before drones are flying. They will catch 
them as they alight heavy with pollen, dart over a hedge for a minute, 
then rise again with the bee and fly off to their nest. Having watched 
these manoeuvres on the part of a pair of sparrows for some time we 
walked round to the other side of the hedge, a big stone was found 
covered with the stings and other parts of bees. Just as the thrash or 
blackbird beats out the snail from its shell, so these sparrows had 
prepared the dainty morsel for their progeny. 
We have just recommended water to be placed near hives, and we 
should at the same time warn those who have not seen the evil conse¬ 
quence of having their apiary near a large sheet of water—such as 
pond or river. In windy weather bees are destroyed wholesale in 
such places. If no properly arranged supply be near they go to the 
pond and are blown in and drowned. The best plan of giving water 
will be used by the bee-keeper according to circumstances. We once 
had a large rain-water butt near our bees, and by letting the water 
drip very gently from the tap down a long piece of canvas we gave 
a much-appreciated water supply to our bees. Another arrangement 
equally successful was a big pan with some bricks and some stout 
wood shavings in it—anything that will absorb the water and allow 
the bees to draw it out without actually going into the water will 
answer. Some use tea leaves in pans and keep them constantly 
moist. Presently when we commence stimulative feeding with thin 
syrup less water will be required, and the bees will not so eagerly 
seek it. 
Planting for bees should still be carried on. We mentioned 
several plants and shrubs in our last letter which bees delight in ; to 
that list should be added the Raspberry and the American Black¬ 
berries among fruits, and the Veronicas and the indispensable 
Borage and Mignonette among flowering plants. Both these latter 
may be sown in April and will give honey during the summer and 
autumn ; where there is a shrubbery they may be sown broadcast and 
raked in. If the Borage once establishes itself there will be no 
trouble about abundance of plants in future seasons.—P. II. P. 
THE BRITISH BEE-KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
I Am glad to see that “ A Hallamshire Bee-keeper” admits that large 
quantities of honey were on sale in the bee department established at the 
Health Exhibition by the British Bee-keepers’ Association. This is a 
step at any rate in advance, for now we are agreed that something in any 
case has been done by the Association to promote the sale of honey. He 
proceeds, however, to ask me, “Whose honey was it that was told?” 
To this I reply, that I neither know nor care. It was not mine, aud if 
the persons whose property it was made a profit on the sale, so much the 
