496 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jane 19, 1884. 
former are preferable, because the pots give almost constant labour in 
washing to keep them clean. These plants will grow well in sphagnum, 
peat, or loam, but when grown in baskets peat fibre is the best. Shade 
from strong sun, syringe frequently, and give abundance of water. 
Gloxinias .—Seedlings raised from seed sown in the early spring and 
now established in small pots should be placed in 5-inch pots and grown 
close to the glass in an intermediate temperature where they can be 
kept shaded from strong sun. These plants will grow in a much cooler 
house than many suppose, and the flower stems will be sufficiently strong 
to support their blooms, which is not the case when forced in strong beat. 
If a little seed is sown at the present time, and the young plants grown 
and flowered in the size pots named above, they will be found most 
useful late in the season. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND. 
Surplus Bedding Plants .—In most gardens the bulk of the bedding- 
out has been compieted ere this, and a few hints regarding the disposal 
of the surplus plants may be of service. Where there is a reserve garden 
used for storing evergreens and other plants from the flower garden, these 
are also available for the summer and autumn propagation of various hardy 
and tender bedding plants. Those not possessing this convenience should 
yet endeavour to devote a few good plots of ground in the kitchen garden 
or elsewhere to a similar purpose. The various sorts of Pelargoniums espe¬ 
cially are seldom struck early enough in the autumn to become sufficiently 
strong to stand a dull winter. Neither the gardener nor the employer likes 
to see the beds interfered with during August, yet it is during this month 
the cuttings should be taken off. Those, then, who can plant a given 
number of each sort, as well as all those that are valuable and scarce, on 
a sunny well-manured piece of ground, should do so, and thus be enabled 
to cut them freely and as early as they choose. To be successful with 
Verbenas it is necessary to start with strong clean cuttings, and these can 
seldom be procured from those plants growing and flowering in the 
ordinary flower beds. Place out a few young plants on well-manured 
ground, mulch with short manure, and water occasionally with liquid 
manure, also pinch off all the bloom, and the result will be abundance of 
strong sappy growths from the main stem, and it is these which strike 
freely in August or early in September. The same treatment exactly 
meets the requirements of the Violas, Ageratums, and Lantanas. Lobelias 
will also yield cuttings in the same way. Many, however, depend upon 
old autumn-lifted plants to furnish the requisite number of cuttings, but 
neither Lobelias nor Heliotropes, Verbenas, Iresines, Coleuses, and Alter- 
nantheras can be transplanted and wintered with any certainty, especially 
if at all injured by early frosts. 
Our plan with Lobelias is to place a number of young plants thinly 
in boxes of good soil, standing them in a cool open position, preventing 
flowering, and wintering them in a cold pit. In the spring every plant 
may be divided into a considerable number of already rooted pieces, and 
plants thus easily obtained are much preferable to seedlings. It is also 
advisable to keep a number of Alternantheras in well-drained boxes of 
light and fairly rich soil. During the summer they should be stood in a 
warm open position, kept carefully watered, and be housed before the 
cold autumn rains are experienced ; or if they have to be wintered on 
the shelves of warm houses they may be potted off during August. A 
few of each sort of Iresines and Heliotropes may well be potted, using 
5-inch pots and rich light soil. These will be serviceable decorative 
plants, and be sufficiently strong to furnish abundance of cuttings in the 
spring. 
Surplus plants of Sempervivums, notably S. tabulseforme, should have 
their centres cut or picked out, and this will induce the formation of a 
number of side shoots, which may eventually be taken off and grown 
into plants for next season’s service. Echeveria metallica may be similarly 
treated, and any old stems from which the tops have been cut and rooted 
will also furnish a succession of cuttings. Old plants of a good strain of 
Golden Pyrethrum should be replanted for the purpose of seed-saving, 
as the strains supplied by some seedsmen cannot always he depended 
upon. 
'CL 
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6 ) ^ 
m 
HR BEE-KEEPER. 
PREPARING STOCKS FOR NEXT SEASON. 
Failures in bee-keeping can often be traced to improper 
management in the preceding season, which by careful thought 
and attention might have been averted, thus saving the bee¬ 
keeper much trouble and disappointment. Arrangements and 
preparations for next year should at once be made. Whatever 
kind of hives are decided upon, let them be thoroughly clean, 
and, if old, disinfected; have moveable floors, and better if these 
are made of perforated zinc, having five holes to the inch closed 
on the under side with wood, so that a recess be formed between 
the two that the debris will not lodge on the upper floor but fall 
underneath. Tbe usefulness of these floors, in addition to what 
I hinted in a previous article, is that when bees are troubled with 
parasites during warm weather, when they rid themselves of these 
pests they fall through perforations to the floor underneath 
(which is easily removed), and can therefore be destroyed in great 
numbers. These zinc floors, too, are much more easily disinfected 
than wood. So well pleased am I with them in every respect 
that I will neither recommend nor use any others. One objection 
may be raised by those having round or octagon hives requiring 
for easy working square floors, but this objection is easily over¬ 
come. A belt or rim of strong zinc is made the size and shape 
of the hive at least 1 inch deep. The perforated zinc is now 
soldered to the upper edge and wood is fitted in beneath, the 
centre of it being made to slide out and in for ventilation and 
cleaning, which is easily done if the bearings are on the outer 
edges. 
Another important matter in hives is to have the mouth or 
entrance extending at least 1 foot with a regulating slide. Many 
entrances are by far too small, but where perforated zinc is used 
these may be less. M henever bees crowd out and fan much it 
is a sign that ventilation is required. When this is neglected 
the incoming of honey is lessened, while overheating with a chill 
immediately after is certain to cause foul brood. 
The crowns of the hives should have all arrangements neces¬ 
sary for supering and insensible upward ventilation. Straw 
hives should have the centre hole covered with perforated zinc, 
and have slits for supering at the outer sides. Frame hives 
would be much improved if lateral slides were attached to every 
frame, but perhaps it will be difficult to persuade those used to 
the old style of frames, so 1 will address myself to new beginners, 
supplementing what I have already said on the subject. The 
bee-keeper must bear in mind that no hive is large enough unless 
it contains within its walls not less than about 1800 superficial 
inches of double-sided comb, and this comb should never be dis¬ 
turbed unless when actually necessary. All surplus honey should 
be obtained from supers. 
The form of the hive in this variable and uncertain climate 
is of great importance. Look at a swarm suspended on a bough; 
then you get the ilea that the circle, if not too wide, is the 
natural form, and the one in which the bees will thrive best and 
store most honey. 
The next po'nt to consider is the stocking of the hive. That 
should be done immediately, so that the hive be thoroughly filled 
with combs made from honey, for be it observed that combs made 
from sugar are more brittle than those made from honey. Care 
should be taken that there be not an excess of drone comb. The 
bees having young queens are not so liable to make drone comb 
as those having an aged queen. Then all hives should be filled 
this season, as when space is left to be filled next spring drone 
comb is almost sure to be built. Where comb foundation is 
used it encourages bees to build worker comb, but not always. 
Straw cylinders fitted with bars and frame hives are easily 
managed and drone comb controlled. It is different with com¬ 
mon straw hives. Foundation cannot be used in these to ad¬ 
vantage, but one advantage they possess over all others is, with 
their “ram-horn” combs the bees are provided with the best 
wintering hive in existence. A mere handful of bees in such 
hives, if kept dry, will not only survive the severest winter, but 
will often advance and pass those four times their strength 
located in the beautiful modern straight combs. Bee-keepers 
find such large straw hives cheap, and, cheaply covered, putting 
the swarms into Stewarton hives with combs which have been 
kept over from the previous year, perhaps the easiest and most 
profitable system of bee-keeping. 
To fix the foundation in frames, the safest and easiest plan is 
to have a groove in a bar one-eighth of an inch deep; in tins put 
the sheet. Lift with a teaspoon from a gluepot the melted wax, 
hot, but not boiling. Pour the wax first on one side, then on the 
other as the first side sets, holding the frame slightly inclined so 
that the wax runs freely from the higher end to the lower one. 
If the sheet is full-sized it will be necessary to “ clasp ” the sheet 
on each side by a piece of bent tin or zinc which is wide enough 
to pass over the bottom bar. Whenever the wax is set turn the 
frame on the end and place in position. Full-sized sheets should 
be about three-quarters or half an inch from the bottom rail, but 
should nearly touch the ends of the frames. This allows for the 
vertical stretching of the sheet, and insures the frame being 
fastened to the ends, so that the combs are rigid in the frames, 
and insuring safe manipulation and preventing collapse when in 
transit. To insure the comb being built to the bottom rad I 
allow a space of five-eighths between the bottom of the frames 
and the floor; this bottom space admits a fountain-feeder when 
necessary. When full sheets are used a few holes for passages 
should be made in the sheets bypassing a hot wire through them 
where required. When bees are put into sheets of full size give 
them the scope of the hive until they have extended and secured 
a position; then, but not till then, they maybe contracted if 
necessary. As in contracting a swarm into little space the combs 
are liable to collapse, at no time should bees be confined too 
