116 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 7, 1884. 
struck in autumn, and now established in 2 inch pots, into 4-inch pots, 
using a light compost. Supply each after potting with a small stake, and 
place them in the same house as the Petunias. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUNDS. 
Bedding Plants to be Propagated .—Where the stock of such plants 
as Ageratums, Heliotropes, Koniga maritima (Alyssum variegatnm), 
JreBines, and Coleuses is rather limited, in many cases it will be advisable 
to commence propagating them at once. Take off the soft-growing tops, 
trim to a joint, and dibble them in thinly either in well-drained pots or 
boxes filled with light sandy soil, the pots to be plunged in the propa¬ 
gating frames and kept close till struck, and the latter stood on a hotbed 
and covered with strips of glass. The cuttings should be watered in, but 
subsequently little water will be required, and if damping results either 
wipe the glass dry or uncover the cuttings for about an hour every morning. 
Pick off any decaying leaves and shade from bright sunshine. When the 
cuttings are struck gradually expose them to more light and air, and make 
more cuttings from the tops when these are strong enough, the plants to 
be placed in pots or boxes, using good soil, when they are breaking after 
this topping. Proceeding in this manner a few dozens of plants may be 
increased to thousands by the time they are wanted. 
Zonal Pelargoniums .—These have damped badly this winter, and a 
considerable number will have to be struck this spring. Hard half-ripened 
tops do not strike root readily, and in order to secure the requisite number 
of softer cuttings, those to be increased should be introduced into a gentle 
heat. The shelves of a newly started vinery will suit them, and the 
cuttings later on will strike freely if the pots are placed on the shelves 
over the hot-water pipes. The golden and silver variegated sorts are the 
most scarce, and luckily the spring-struck plants of these are usually the 
most effective during the summer and autumn months. Prior to potting 
or boxing off the stock of Pelargoniums, and supposing there is no necessity 
to strike the tops, it is advisable to take out the points of the plants, and 
when they are breaking is the time to repot them. All ours, when planted 
out, are kept pegged down oyer the beds, and those who also follow this 
practice are advised not to stop the young plants, as the more spreading 
they are the better they fill the beds. 
Sowing Seeds .—Seed of tuberous-rooted Begonias, Echeveria metallica, 
Pentstemons, An'irrhinums, Grevillea robusta, Cannas, Acacia lophantha, 
Chamcepeuce diacantha and C. Casabonse must be sown early and the 
seedlings grown quickly in order to have them of serviceable size when 
required for planting out. The Begonia and Lobelia seeds are the most 
minute, and for these well-drained pans should be filled with sifted s< il 
consisting of equal parts loam and leaf soil, with silver sand freely added, 
a little of the roughest soil to go over the drainage, the fine soil to be 
made rather firm, and the surface quite level and faced with a little sand. 
About an hour prior to sowing the seeds water the soil through a fine-rose 
pot, and when the seed has been thinly and evenly distributed over the 
surface lightly dust over a small quantity of sand, cover with glass, and 
stand the pans cn a brisk hotbed. Shade heavily till tl e seeds have germi¬ 
nated, and if at any time it is necessary to moisten the soil it must be 
done very carefully, either by partially plunging in tepid water or through 
a fine rose, or the seeds will be dislodged. 
The seeds of Echeverias, Pentstemons, and Antirrhinums being also 
rather small, should not be buried deeply; in fact they are best treated 
similarly to the Begonias, care being taken that they be kept uniformly 
moist and closely shaded till they have germinated. Remove the shading 
directly the seedlings are seen, and gradually expose the pans to more 
light. 
Grevillea robusta and Chamsepeuce seeds should be lightly covered with 
fine soil, and the pots or pans plunged in a brisk and moist bottom heat. 
The seeds of Acacia and Cannas are usually very hard, and seldom germi¬ 
nate satisfactorily unless previously softened in rather hot water. If the 
evaporating troughs over the hot-water pipes are kept constantly full the 
seeds may be soaked in these for a few hours, or till they have swollen 
considerably ; or if this plan is impossible or thought dangerous, place the 
seeds in bottles of water, and plunge these in a strong hotbed for at least 
twelve hours. The seeds being softened, they should be sown thinly in 
pots of light soil previously warmed, watered with warm water, and 
plunged in a hotbed, the seedlings eventually to be potted off singly 
into 3-inch pots, and receive a shift before they become root-bound. The 
reots of Cannas, after they have been started in heat, divide readily, but it 
is not advisable to start them yet unless the stock is too limited. 
m 
'HE BEE-KEEPER. 
SWARMING veesus NON-SWARMING SYSTEM. 
Information gathered from all parts and from every class 
of bee-keepers on the above subject would indeed be most valu¬ 
able. On page 53 a correspondent from Co. Down, after setting 
forth his own views and opinions on the matter asks, “ What do 
others say?” We will endeavour to reply to his invitation by 
stating what deductions we have been able to draw from our 
experience in trying both systems. 
If asked to give a verdict in a few words we should say, 
“Both systems must be employed together.” The bee-master 
must act according to li's own judgment, which will depend 
entirely upon various contingencies caused either by locality, 
season, condition of stock, or even by quite unforseen accident of 
the moment which may entirely change the system upon which 
a particular hive has up to that moment been managed. It is 
quite impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast rule for the 
government of a single hive, or of any collection of hives. 
Advantage must be taken of every opportunity offered by, for 
instance, an early warm spring, when stocks may be increased to 
advantage, and supers fill well afterwards; or of the extraordi¬ 
nary breeding powers of any particular queen, or again of the 
proximity of perhaps some acres of a particular crop which a 
farmer has placed nearer the apiary than usual; in fact, cases 
can be multiplied ad. lib., which will only be seen and seized by 
the bee-keeper after experience has taught him many lessons. 
We kept bees for many years in a locality similar so far as 
the production of honey goes to that of Co. Down. There we 
had to depend entirely on a short season of plenty during which 
we expected our supers filled and the extractor to be constantly 
at work. This glut usually sets in about the first or second week 
in June, and was all over in about three weeks. In such a neigh¬ 
bourhood it was impossible to carry out a strictly swarming 
system, for the swarming mania usually set in in the midst of 
the honey harvest. Before newly hived swarms could have well 
got into supers the flow of honey would have ceased, and both 
stock and swarm would have been profitless for the season. Our 
habit was to drive out swarms from the most forward hives 
towards the end of May, and by stimulating these swarms and 
by the use of full sheets of foundation to build them up quickly 
so that the batches of young bees were hatching out just at, 
or a little in advance of, the advent of the honey glut. Our 
best supers were often obtained from these swarms. The stocks 
from which these swarms issued soon had fertilised queens, and 
invariably good vigorous o es. When we knew the queen to he 
fertilised we took another weaker stock having an older queen, 
and having destroyed this queen we united its bees to those of 
the driven stock, placing the young queen in possession. W"e 
then doubled the stock by placing the hive from which queen 
and bees had been taken on to the top of the swarmed hive, first 
placing all frames with drone comb on the top and the worker 
brood below. We kept all honey slung out from the lower combs, 
giving the young queen every scope to fill up the cells with eggs 
before the glut of honey set in. We used queen-excluder zinc 
between the hives. 
When the harvest commenced abundance of room had been 
provided above s'nce nearly all brood had hatched out, if we bad 
been obliged to place some there. A powerful lot of bees was 
prepared to pounce on the nectar, and theslinger was busy every 
other morning, extracting every drop of honey from the top 
batch of combs. We always found early morning the best time 
to extract, the honey had lost much of its water by evaporation 
during the night, and required little ripening. In one or two 
instances we caged the queens of stocked wishing to sw T arm just 
before the harvest, but we did not find this plan answer. Two 
queens we remember finding dead in the cages, and both stocks 
prepared for swarming with a fresh batch of queens ready to 
hatch. As a means of obtaining a great weight of slung honey 
in a short time there is nothing like doubling, and by making 
sure of a young queen at the head of the doubled stock, that, 
stock nearly always does well for the next season. 
To a certain extent the non-swarming system may be carried 
out, but where the bees are very forward we think that more can 
be done by taking the first early swarms and doubling weak 
stocks. Our tactics, however, will be very different in our new 
locality. With hundreds of acres of Heather within reach of 
our bees we shall not be driven to such straits as formerly. 
Later swarms may now be taken, and if too late for the first 
harvest from fruit and forest trees, they may do wonderfully 
well with the Heather honey. But our aim will be now to get 
supers filled. It is not easy to extract Heather honey unless 
slung immediately after storing. Sections must be the order of 
the day now, and all our devices must be to compel our bees to 
so work as to give us the greatest possible quantity of honey in 
the comb. Whether honey be required in the comb or for the 
slinger, the aim of the bee-master must be to force the bees to 
put the honey where he requires it. If the bees have nowhere 
else to put it when honey is abundant they necessarily must 
place it where he wishes. Therefore he should use his utmost 
endeavours to try all sorts of schemes to get the brood nest full 
of brood and eggs in all stages, just allowing the bees space for 
a sufficient supply to provide them whereon to live, just at the 
time he knows the honey glut will set in, then only let him keep 
his supers warm and conveniently situated, and the honey must 
be put into them if it can be collected. 
After all, our capricious climate may spoil all. Should a 
