450 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDEHER. 
[ May 28, 1885. 
sections, time spent, or interest on capital, &c. He makes 
out a return as an average of 27f lbs. of honey each stock by 
taking the twenty-six strong ones to “ average ” on, and by 
adding 500 dols. he received for queens (being a great queen 
breeder, which is a total side issue and depends entirely on 
making bees return a profit in honey), and dividing by the 
forty which came through alive, he makes out an average 
profit of £2 15s. 8d. for each stock—a striking contrast to 
my calculation of sixteen and a half to be more than returned 
in sugar. 
It is such misleading accounts as these which cause new 
hands to expect more than they wBl ever realise, and unless 
they carry out your correspondent’s idea and keep strict 
accounts of everything, even the time occupied in manipulat¬ 
ing, they will be for ever expecting impossibilities. There are 
losses in all trades one way or other, that they must be 
deducted from profits, and bee-keeping is no exception, 
perhaps the losses in this business are greater than in any 
other.—A Hallamshire Bee keeper. 
INTERCHANGING COMBS. 
SPREADING BROOD. 
When the spreading of brood was first propounded it was advised 
to be performed without the slightest precautionary measures. I was 
amongst the first to write against what I knew would ultimately ruin the 
hive operated on. After our notes of warning, the operation was advised 
to be performed in similar language as your correspondent uses (page 383) 
—“ It must be done cautiously and skilfully, or it will result in failure, 
the advent of foul brood, and maybe the loss of our hive or hives.” It is 
singular that an 'operation so hazardous should be performed or recom¬ 
mended, and all the more so when not a single writer on the subject has 
ever given instructions as to the time it should be performed. There 
have been no proofs given of the advantages likely to accrue from the 
spreading of brood, but plenty of assertions, which I challenge. 
The question suggests itself : Does man require to give bees a helping 
hand in the spreading of brood ? Do bees fail to perform this important 
part of the internal economy of the hive ? 1 think not, and those with 
contracted hives have had good examples of the natural spreading of 
brood when they find their supers have been invaded by the queen, and 
the cells freely made use of for brood instead of honey. A disappoint¬ 
ment and a loss at the same time. 
I now ask the question, When should that operation be performed ? 
I anticipate the answer. Surely not until frost passes away, because it is 
the rise of the outside temperature that encourages bees to breed, and a 
fall that incites them to destroy eggs and larvae ; and this is done 
throughout the year when bees are allowed to work as Nature designed, 
and a great deal more when any art has been used to spread the brood. 
While I am writing this (May 8th) we have had only four full days 
this season that bees carried pollen and honey, and only twice has the 
thermometer risen to 60°. There were but twenty-four hours between a 
snowstorm and the commencement of the honey season. After the four 
days of honey-gathering expired the thermometer sank to 25° during the 
night, reaching 40° only during the day, giving a mean of 32V for three 
days in succession, the fourth day being only 3° higher ; but”every day 
and night heavy snow showers fell. To-day it is more genial, but still 
very cold. I never experienced a more protracted season, but it is not 
uncommon to have such weather in May. Under these circumstances, he 
would indeed be unwise who would spread the brood under any pretext 
whatever. When is it to bed one ? I again ask. My bees unfed and 
brood unspread, and have been so during their lifetime of three years to 
some and less to others, are within a short time of swarming or supering 
as the case may be ; but if I had recourse to brood-spreading my 
hives would have been a long way from giving satisfaction or profit. 
Advocates of brood-spreading tell us of the great and rapid increase 
of bees after the operation—a grand device to mislead the novice. It 
takes nearly three weeks from the laying of the eggs until the hatching 
of the perfect insect, so it is impossible for a hive to be benefited by any 
spreading of brood before that time; but unless it can be proved that 
bees refuse to spread their own brood—a thing never known unless in 
cases of disease—there can be no good but much mischief wrought in the 
spreading of the brood at any season, or under any circumstances. I 
quite agree with the advice given by your correspondent not to waste, and 
t o keep accurate accounts. I will supplement his advice, to make and 
take notes, and keep them, and all who have leisure and can afford to 
spend time and spoil a hive by spreading brood, let us know the result of 
these experiments at the end of the season ; but do not blame me for 
any loss. I have sounded the warning note. 
Equally hazardous to spreading brood is that of interchanging combs 
from one hive to another. By this means did the late T. W. Woodbury 
ruin his whole apiary by the spread of foul brood. Taking a brood-comb 
from a strong stock does more injury to that hive for the season than any 
good it can do a weak one. The proper way to do with weak hives is to 
utilise its queen the first opportunity, and put the swarm in its comb3 if 
they are clean. 
It is useless in attempting to force bee-keepers to adopt any particular 
hive or hives, for there will always be advocates for all systems; let us, 
therefore, instead of condemning any system, help our less experienced 
brethren with the hives they possess, who in many instances are willing 
and anxious to advance for their own sake in making manipulation easier, 
but know full well that it is absurd to say that frame hives are produc¬ 
tive of more honey than straw ones. 
In support of my argum°nt I have received many letters from districts 
with little else than straw hives, and yet I know none with frame hives 
that send more honey to the market than they do, both in supers and drift 
honey.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
Bees at the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society’s Show. —As may 
he seen in our advertising columns a very liberal schedule of prizes is 
offered for bees, honey, hives, &c., by the Lincolnshire Agricultural 
Society at their annual meeting to be held at Great Grimsby on the 29th, 
30th, and 31st July. The fact of this important Society continuing to 
include a department for bees, Ac., at their annual gatheiing speaks 
much as to the value they attach to the department as a means of 
encouraging the more extended cultivation of bees for the good of all. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
R. S. Wil’iams, Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway 
London .—New and General Illustrated Plant Catalogue. 
%* All correspondence should be directed either to “Tiie Editor” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjec'.s, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Books (F. P.). —A book that will suit you is Johnston & Cameron’s 
Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology,” price 6s. 0b, published 
by W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London. The cases for binding 
this Journal are Is. Gd. each. 
List of Roses (FI. B. B.).— We are obliged by your suggestion, which 
shall have our early consideration. 
Blood Manure (Kelt ).—The recipe of Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., to which 
you refer, not having proved satisfactory, we ordered its withdrawal from 
the “ Gardeners’ Year Book,” but by accident it was retained. It seems to 
us that three or four times the quantity of acid is needed for reducing the 
blood, and we can only suggest that you try a much larger quantity and 
ascertain its effect. 
Birds and Pears (M. F. TV.). —In reply to your question as to what to 
do to prevent birds destroying Pear3 by pecking round the stalk when they 
are a good size, which causes them to rot, we can only suggest some stout 
circular pieces of cardboard similar to the collars that are U3 d for sup¬ 
porting the petals of Carnations, with a slit made from the side to the 
centre and a very small hole there, so that the collars can be fitted round 
the stalk. We have seen these collars quite baffle the mischievous tits that 
seem to delight in spoiling as many Pears as they can. 
Ceplialotus follicularis ( W. X. B.). —This, we presume, is the plant you 
mean, and is popularly known as the New Holland Pitcher-plant. The follow¬ 
ing extract from our “ Greenhouse Manual ” will answer your inquiry :— 
“ It bears numbers of little pitchers and is very interesting, and to do well 
should have a warm yoart of the greenhouse. Grow it in a mixture of chopped 
sphagnum and sandy fibrous peat, providing extra good drainage, keeping 
the yilant rather high, and just covering the roots. It is well to insert the 
pot in one of larger size, filling the interval with sphagnum moss, and cover 
with a bellglass fitting the inside of the outer pot, taking off and wiping dry 
occasionally. In summer the pot may be stood in a saucer kept full of 
water, lessening the quantity towards autumn and keeping empty in winter, 
and with the bellglass tilted or slightly raised. The compost must be kept 
wet in summer, but less so, yet moist, in winter.” 
Horn and Hoof Shavings as Manure (F. P., Exeter). —So far from 
these being of no value, they of great u;e as a manure, being particularly 
good for fruit trees, because of the slow decay of the matter and its conse¬ 
quent lasting value for the trees. They contain nitrogen, phosphate, and a 
very large amount of sulphur. The smaller the particles are the more quick 
s the action of horn shavings, and they are the more immediately effective 
jf rotted in a heap before being applied to the land. They are good for 
