March 8, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
197 
Pruning and Cutting Down Shrubs .—When trimming the fronts of 
shrubberies and other prominent positions use only the knife or 
secateurs, as, if other tools are used, the leaves are almo.t certain to 
be much disfigured. Nearly all the shrubs and evergreens are improved 
by occasional prunings, both in order to restrict those overgrowing 
their neighbours, and also to improve the form of various specimens. 
Conifers, where growing irregularly, may be freely pruned, and if there 
are two or more leaders or central growths the best should be pre¬ 
served and the others cut away. If in any case the leader is damaged, 
select a good branch, and stake this upright in the centre of the trees, and 
it will soon take the lead. Any evergreens, such as common Laurels, 
Portugal Laurels, Hollies, Yews, Sweet Bays, Laurustinus and Box, as 
well as flowering shrubs that have either grown too tall or have naked 
stems, may safely be improved by being cut down to near the ground, as 
when thus treated they seldom fail to break freely and strongly. A saw is 
the best for this work, and the wounds should be rounded off with a knife 
to facilitate healing; jagged wounds, on the contrary, holding water, which 
encourages decay. The mere fact of cutting down sickly evergreens and 
shrubs, however, will not renovate them, as these in most cases require 
lifting, the roots being lightly shortened and replanted in good fresh soil. 
On clayey soils plant rather above the level, and such soils will be much 
improved if surface or open drains are cut, and good outlets provided. 
Pawns .—These are much benefited by occasional rollings at this tim e 
of the year, this fixing the grasses prior to their forming entirely fresh 
roots, besides firming the ground, also removing inequalities when these 
are not very large. Dry days are best for this work, and prior to rolling 
the wormcasts should be distributed with brooms as much as possible, but 
do not collect them, as they serve to keep the ground from being exhausted. 
Lawns seldom get a dressing of manure of any kind, but they need it in a 
great many instances (this encouraging the grasses and keeping down moss 
and Daisies) soot, lime, and wood ashes mixed with six times their bulk of 
fine loam or garden soil. Applied liberally and well worked in with iron 
rakes or bush harrows, will serve the double purpose of destroying the 
moss and improving the sward. Where the grass is thin, sow seeds as 
mixed and supplied by the vendors. Badly drained lawns are quickly 
improved by cutting a few drains, and it is not yet too late to do this. 
Roses .—Any that have been laid in during the winter ought to be 
planted as soon as the state of the ground permits. If they are to go 
where Roses have been growing previously, a liberal quantity of fresh 
loamy soil ought to be given them. Dwarfs on the Manetti stock must be 
planted deeply, so as to bring the point of union with the graft or bud 
below the soil. Standards should be staked up at once. They may be 
pruned at once, and in warm dry localities many of the established may 
also be pruned, but in low-lying positions, where late frosts are experienced, 
it should be deferred another fortnight. 
Herbaceous Borders .—Many plants in these, notably the Phloxes, 
Asters, and Japanese Anemones, if not lifted and divided in the autumn, 
should now be attended to, otherwise they become too much crowded, 
They are also gross feeders, and lifting admits of thoroughly enriching the 
borders. Better have a few strong crowns or shoots than many weakly 
ones ; therefore freely thin out all not divided and at all crowded, and fork 
into the borders a liberal dressing of either well-decayed manure or good 
leaf soil. 
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IE BEE-KEEPER. 
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ABOUT LIGURIAN BEES. 
I AM glad to notice that a spirit of inquiry is at last being aroused 
concerning the merits or demerits of foreign bees, and the wisdom or 
unwisdom of introducing them into our apiaries with the object of 
improving (?) the strain or breed of bees in the United Kingdom. 
I have long ago formed a very decided opinion on the question, but 
felt some diffidence in hastily expressing it, because of the almost 
unanimity with which modern writers on bees have sounded the 
praises of Ligurians. It is becoming quite certain that sooner or 
later the truth must be told, and so I venture to give publicity to 
some facts which bee-dealers as well as bee-keepers will do well to 
consider if they value their own interests. 
No writer that I know of has emphaticalty condemned these bees 
except Mr. Pettigrew, and his opinion lost the weight it would other¬ 
wise have possessed for two reasons—first, he had no personal expe¬ 
rience of Ligurians ; and second, because he wrote just as strongly 
against bar-frame hives, declaring they possessed no merit to recom¬ 
mend them in preference to skeps. We cannot, therefore, wonder at 
bee-keepers taking a great deal for granted when all the high autho¬ 
rities were in favour of the new race of bees, and the bee journals 
were full of advertisements of pure Ligurian queens, with marvellous 
accounts of their superiority over the common black bees. Nor should 
we omit to mention the fictitious value which high prices gave them 
in the eyes of those who think that nothing can possibly be good 
which is not dear. 
I feel quite certain that we should ere now have seen the last of 
Ligurian bees, so far as making a profitable business out of their sale, 
but for the curious fact that almost everyone is delighted with them 
on a first acquaintance. The novelty is pleasing, the care required in 
introducing a new queen lends a charm to the operation, and, when 
success is assured, the pleasurable anxiety with which the first young 
Ligurians are watched for adds to the interest taken in the little 
strangers. Then comes the extraordinary fecundity of many Italian 
queens, the immensely strong stocks and numerous swarms which 
are the natural outcome of this, and finally their extreme docility. 
This is their greatest recommendation. The delighted bee-keeper- 
can handle his new bees so easily, rarely receiving a sting, he 
becomes quite an expert, and says so much in their favour that he 
is afterwards very unwilling to acknowledge his mistake, and takes 
much convincing that all is not quite so certain as he supposed. And 
so he makes excuses for his want of success with his new hobby— 
“ the season is unfavourable ; “ they will do better next year,” and 
so on. As time passes, the truth begins to dawn upon him. He never- 
had robbing to such an extent before ; his surplus honey is not worth 
harvesting ; he buys sugar in autumn by the hundredweight—pro¬ 
bably a touch of foul brood startles him ; his bees are much more 
troublesome than they used to be ; and after a few years’ experience 
with Ligurian bees he is a -wiser and poorer man, and ends by either 
giving up bee-keeping altogether, or becomes so thoroughly dis¬ 
satisfied with Ligurian bees that the very name is odious to him. 
This is not an overdrawn picture. I assert that it is the experience 
of 80 per. cent, of those who have tried the experiment of ligurian- 
ising an apiary. It would occupy too much of your space were I to 
go through my own experience in detail, so let me say very briefly I 
was often asked in years gone by why I did not “ go in ” for Ligu¬ 
rians. I thought my objection a sound one. It was this. I had not 
the least prejudice against them, but I had always found my black 
bees so satisfactory I did not care to make a costly and troublesome 
experiment without being quite sure of an adequate return. However, 
circumstances occurred one autumn a few years ago which induced 
me to give Ligurians a trial. I procured some half-dozen queens 
from different dealers and successfully united five of them to as many 
good black stocks. The result of my experiment was very much as 
described above, except that I should have to colour the picture a 
little more strongly to faithfully reproduce what I suffered. Eventu¬ 
ally I got rid of Ligurians, and at the present moment if I were 
offered the chance of having my apiary ligurianised free of cost 
with the best strain extant, and a bonus of £10 tacked on to the gift, 
nothing would induce me to accept it. 
It is a dictum among lawyers while estimating the value of a 
witness’s evidence, to take into consideration two main points— 
first, his technical knowledge and practical experience of the subject 
at issue ; and second, the value of his evidence as bearing on the 
case, and the amount of corroboration it will receive. So allow me 
to say, as illustrating the value of my own testimony on the first 
point, I never harvested 15 lb 3 . of surplus honey from a Ligurian 
stock yet, and the average amount would not be 3 lbs. per hive, 
while since my ligurianising experiences commenced I lost in one 
year nineteen stocks of bees out of a total of thirty-two hives from 
foul brood alone ; and all this, as I must impress on my readers, 
happened, not because I was an enthusiastic rash-handed novice in 
apiculture, opening stocks daily, slinging right and left from combs 
containing unsealed brood, &c. (I never placed a comb in the extractor 
with unsealed brood in it) behaving as injudiciously as these young 
bee-keepers frequently do ; nothing of this kind brought about my 
disasters, and yet Ligurians with me were a complete and thorough 
failure. Next week I will add the experience of some other bee¬ 
keepers on this subject in corroboration of my estimate of Ligurian 
bees.—W. B. C., Higher Bebington. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Thomas S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, London. —Catalogue 
of Choice Hardy Perennials ( Illustrated ), and Lists of Chrysanthemums and 
Climbing Plants. 
J. Backhouse & Son, York.— List of Alpine and Herbaceous Plants. 
J. Carter & Co., High Holborn. —Catalogue of Farm Seeds. 
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