432 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 59, 1884. 
surfacing the pots with short manure so as to keep them cool and moi-t 
at the roots, and syringe moderately night and morning until ripening 
commences. Plants with fruit wished kept back should be stood in a 
frame behind a north wall, and have plenty of air, with a net thrown over 
it to exclude birds. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Gardenias .—These plants will bear severe priming after they have 
flowered ; in fact they are much benefited by b-ing well cut back. They 
grow with greater luxuriance and keep comparatively free from insects, 
much more so than when the growth is slow and stunted. It' mealy bug 
or brown scale are present syringe the plants thoroughly with petroleum 
and water at the rate of an ounce to the gallon. If one applicati n does 
not destroy the insects repeat it two or three times at intervals of a few 
days. After the plants are thoroughly cleaned place them in bri-k 
moist heat until they commence growing vigorously. When they reach 
this stage they should be potted. The young stock will be growing 
freely and must be kept clean, the shoots well stopped, and the strongest 
tied out towards the rim of the pots if shapely bushes are required. 
Repot, when the plants require it, employing a compost of good loam and 
sand, or a, mixture of peat and loam, for these plants will do well in 
either. When in active growth Gardenias require abundance of water 
both ovpr the foliage and at the roots. 
Poimettias .—During the autumn and winter these plants are invalu¬ 
able for t he stove or conservatory, and their brilliant scarlet bracts are 
not surpassed by any plants at that season. They will last nearly double 
the time in the best position when prepared properly for standing in a 
much lower temperature than that of the stove. These plants can be 
grown to perfection in a much lower temperature during the summer 
months than many suppose. If grown in the stove they are drawn up 
weakly and ruined, but if gradually hardened to cool treatment after 
they are rooted they will be dwarf and capable of producing bracts 
of great size. For an early batch cuttings should be rooted at once, and 
others at, intervals of about a month, but none later than the end of 
July. In order to achieve the best results it is important that the 
cutting* be dwarf and sturdy, not such that have been drawn up weakly 
in strong heat. The cuttings should be taken off with a sharp kuife just 
where they join the old stem, or if these are too long the tops of the 
young shoots will strike freely. The cuttngs should be inserted singly 
in 2-inch pots filled with sandy loam ; a little sand should be placed in 
the centre of each for the base to rest upon. A good watering must be 
given, and the plants either plunged in the propagating frame or stood 
under handlights, kept close and well shaded from strong sun until 
rooted. As soon as rooted they should be gradually hardened to more 
light and air, and by the time the small pots are full of roots they may 
be in an intermediate temperature. 
j Uuphnrbia jacqw.nicejiora .—There is some little difficulty in striking 
the cuttings of this useful plant unless they are prepared for the 
purpose before insertion. Cuttings taken from plants growing in strong 
brisk heat are very difficult to strike, but when taken from plants in a 
cool house not one need be lost if ordinary care be exercised. The 
system we follow with success is to place the plants intended to supply 
cuttings in a warm house, and as soon as they are ready for taking off 
the plants are removed to the greenhouse for ten days. The cuttings are 
then taken with a heel or without, according to the length of the young 
shoots, and inserted thickly in sand in 6-inch pots. After insertion the 
cuttings are well watered and kept close under bellglasses in a heated 
structure until rooted. If shaded from bright sun scarcely one will fail 
to form roots, the old plants being again returned to the heated structure 
until more cuttings are ready. Directly the young plants are rooted, 
and before their roots become matted, they are placed singly in 3-inch 
pots in a compost of loam, sand, and a seventh of manure. They should 
be kept in heat until established, and then placed in an intermediate 
temperate re. 
Thyrsacanthvs rvtilans .— Cuttings of this useful plant should now 
be rooted for winter. Strong cuttings must be selected, and inserted 
singly in 3-inch pots, and if kept shaded from the sun and in a close 
frame in heat will be rooted in about a fortnight. As soon as they are 
rooted pinch out the point of the plants, so that they will form two or 
three shoots instead of leading with one. By the time they have com¬ 
menced growth their small pots will be full of roots, and they can le 
placed in 5 and 6-inch pots in the same temperature as the Euphorbias. 
The same compost will suit them, and in their early stages a little leaf 
mould is vcrv beneficial. 
Ilabrothamnns elega.ns .—This and its varieties are very useful for 
supplying cut flowers, whether grown in pots or planted out to cover 
walls, and will by this time have ceased flowering, or nearly so. To 
have them in good condition for next winter and spring they should be 
pruned back without further delay. If the plants are as large as re¬ 
quired. or have filled the space allotted to them, cut them close back, 
leaving only one or two eyes of last year’s growth, as the plants flower 
upon the young growths made during the summer. 
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FOUL BROOD—FLOORS AND VENTILATION. 
There are still many bee-keepers who have but a very 
inadequate idea of the origin and prevention of foul brood. I 
have often stated that stamping out the disease on its first ap¬ 
pearance by burning the combs and disinfecting and thoroughly 
baking the hive, then putting the bees through the purgatorial 
process for so ue days, is the most satisfactory way of dealing 
with the disease. Salycilic acid and carbolic acid are good pre¬ 
ventives when judiciously used, but from what I know of the 
malady I do not believe it will effect a cure where the disease is 
much developed. Some people have spread an opin : on that if 
bees have access to Willows the larvae will have an immuni ty 
from the disease. Such people seem to be unaware that salycilic 
a nd, though extracted from the Willow, is not ch mically the 
same as either the honey or pol'en derived from its catkins. 
It is now nearlv a ouarter of a century since my experiment 
in propagating foul-brood fungi with milk appeared in the 
pages of this Journal. Some idea of the potency of these germs 
may be gaine 1 when I state ti at after 1 exposed them to a 
boiling heat, then hermetically sealing the vessel containing 
them, exposing it to the weather for some years, after drying 
the resid mm and keeping it in that state for several more 
years, I reproduced the same forms as at first. Humidity 
within the hive is very favourable to the development of foul 
brood, as is also a close atmosphere. To avoid these the greatest 
care should he exercise 1. 
Manv years since through this Journal, I suggested that 
floors of hives should be constructed of some other substance 
than wood, hiuting that charcoal might be substituted, but none 
responded to my sugge tions. Previous to that I had been try¬ 
ing different materials that would be less absorbent of moisture 
than wood, but after many trials I found there was nothing so 
useful as perforated zinc, and my best hives were those so fitted. 
I never found a bee chilled on them. They were far less con¬ 
ductive than damp wooden floors ; the perspiration from the bees 
and other matters a 1 ! passed through to the under s’iding floor, 
so that the bees were at once relieved from the la’ our of clean¬ 
ing out the la’ter and from the offensiveness of the former. 
These ventilating floors are also very serviceable and of great 
importance to the good management of bees—for example, during 
snow, when it is necessary to confine the bees. The first mild 
sunny day in spring a hive is much benefited by giving a good 
ventilation for two hours during the warmest part of the day, 
while it is absolutely necessary during hot weather in summer 
that bees should be well ventilated from beneath. It prevents 
crowding out, allowing the bees to work with freedom, prevents 
the collapsing of combs an 1 incipient foul brood by overheating, 
and is an abs lute ne essary in transit, such as when bees are 
taken to and from the Heather. It will, perhaps, astonish those 
who are in favour of thick close-fitting floors, that for many 
years my most forward hives were those that stood all winter 
with a large space of ventilation beneath. Moreover it is the 
practice of manv of the most successful Scotch bee-keepers to 
so ventilate their hives during winter. The practice of under 
ventilation and insensible upward ventilation is of Scotch origin, 
and has been followed for nearlv forty years in my apiary, while 
a system on the same principle has been carried out from time 
immemorial in the Stewarton hive. Hives so managed will, as a 
rule, be free from many evils found in negl cted ones, not the 
least being that of foul brood, which damp and overheating prin¬ 
cipally cause. The foregoing hints will perhaps assist the un¬ 
prejudiced bee-keeper who maybe in possession of Italian bees, 
which require more room and air than the common variety, but 
for which many bee-keepers have made no allowance : hence I 
believe the cause of cases of foul brood which would have been 
avoided had the bees been domiciled in suitable hives. If bee¬ 
keepers would exercise more judgment instead of following every 
interested person, and study the nature and requirements of the 
honey bee, they would not only save much expense, but get much 
more satisfaction.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
LIGURTAN BEES. 
Once upon a time, as the story goes, a philosopher (so to term him) 
in a fit of deep meditation was struck by the fact that all great and 
prosperous cities are situated on rivers; and on mature reflection this 
coincidence appeared so remarkable that our philosopher put pen to paper, 
and out of the sublime depths of his inner consciousness evolved a pon¬ 
derous tome on the subject, and which, if memory serves ns, gained a 
wide circle of readers at the time. It may be that certain carping critics 
will take offence at our ranking our author a philosopher at all, and that 
they would rather be inclined to class him, to use the phraseology of an 
American humourist, a “ phool! ” In which case we penitently confess 
our error, and exclaim in the words of Moukharns, “Well hast thou 
spoken.” The cause i9 patent to all except to our ph-. Still, we w 11 
not be too harsh under the circumstances, remembering, too, as the author 
of “Hero Worship” tells us, that the latter genus comprises no unim¬ 
portant part of the population of these happy isles. 
