February 3,1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 97 
or dust ripe pollen over the pistils. A constant circulation of dry 
warm air at this stage is very beneficial. Attend to stopping, tying, 
and thinning in the early house. Keep up a supply of ammonia 
by the addition of a few fresh horse droppings, and see that inside 
borders are well supplied with weak tepid liquid manure. Yines in 
pots should never be allowed to become dry, supplying them with 
liquid manure if needed. Yine eyes may now be inserted in pots, 
pans, or squares of turf. Ripened wood only is suitable, filling the 
pots with friable compost, inserting the buds with a pinch of sand 
about half an inch beneath the surface, and plunge in a bottom heat 
of 80°. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Orchids .—A rise of 5° in the temperature may now be given, the 
East Indian house being kept at 70° by day, allowing 5° more from 
sun heat, the night temperature being 5° to 10° lower than by day. 
The moisture must be proportionate to the increased temperature, 
admitting air in favourable weather, and so that it will become 
warmed before it reaches the plants, as cold currents coming in con¬ 
tact with the plants are very injurious. The potting of Aerides, 
Camarotis, Saccolabiums, and Yandas may now be proceeded with. 
Do not supply water for a few days prior to potting, as the old mate¬ 
rial is more easily removed from the roots than when wet. Plants 
that do not require'shifting should have as much of the old material 
taken from the roots as possible and fresh supplied. The chief point 
in potting is to drain well. Baskets must be examined, and if any 
show signs of decay transfer the plants to new ones. Many Bur- 
lingtonias, Dendrobiums, Sophronites, &.C., succeed best on blocks of 
wood, a little moss being placed on the blocks, and the plants fastened 
on with copper wire and copper tacks. The blocks must be damped 
thoroughly twiceja day at this time of year. Stanhopeas that have 
become dry should be dipped in a tub of tepid water, so that the 
whole may be thoroughly moistened. Cattleya Aclandise, C. rnargi- 
nata, and C. Regnelli should be repotted as soon as they show signs of 
starting into growth. They should be suspended from the roof where 
they can obtain a good circulation of air and have plenty of light. 
Miltonias succeed best in perforated pans suspended from the roof 
in the Mexican house where they can conveniently be shaded. For 
potting, which should be attended to when starting into growth, 
employ good fibrous peat with a little sphagnum. 
m 
Eg 
raft 
HE BEE-KEEPER. I 
ABOUT HIVES, WHICH ARE THE BEST FOR 
PROFIT ? 
“ The battle of the hives ” seems to be renewed again, to judge 
from the various deliverances on the subject which bee-keepers 
at home and abroad have recently made. Last October at a 
conversazione of the British Bee-keepers’ Association held in the 
Agricultural Hall, Islington, an interesting paper was read by 
the Rev. E. Bartrum, M.A., Head Master of the Grammar School, 
Great Berkhampstead, on the Stewarton hive. After detailing 
cases of remarkable harvests of honey obtained in one season 
from these hives, reaching, in the case of a Scotch clergyman, the 
astonishing quantity of ‘‘445 lbs. of the parent comb,” he remarks 
that “ a hive which has secured such remarkable results must have 
features connected with it of unusual merit.” These he proceeds 
to detail in order. In his opinion we find three special advantages 
dilated on, which I may sum up as follows : — 
1, The remarkable power of expansion and contraction of these 
hives, and consequently the ready prevention of swarming, if this 
be deemed desirable. 
2, The time and trouble spared in the management of this hive 
in comparison with other hives, making it notably the busy man’s 
hive. In this respect Mr. Bartrum thinks it compares most 
favourably with the ordinary bar-framed hive. 
3, The Stewarton hive winters well if only ordinary and proper 
care be taken. 
The two particulars first mentioned alone deserve attention, 
because any and every hive will winter well “ if only ordinary 
and proper care be taken.” Passing over this last, I may observe 
that the only speciality of the Stewarton hive which seems to be 
an advantage over other hives, is that'a busy man may find it suit 
him better than another sort of hive. As for the first alleged 
superiority of the Stewarton, it is more than matched by the 
power of expansion and contraction now provided in improved 
bar-framed hives. This appears to have been the general sense of 
the meeting when Mr. Bartrum’s paper came to be criticised in 
the discussion which followed. As for the old objections to the 
workability of the Stewarton, which have always deterred me 
from using them, they remain in full force, and they detract not a 
little from the benefit of the hive even to a busy man. Mr. 
Bartrum very fairly puts some of these objections forward. They 
include the difficulty of moving or removing the slides, and much 
time and trouble must be bestowed upon these. Another for¬ 
midable objection is the unsaleableness of the large supers, and 
then there is the costliness of the Stewarton in its completeness 
to be further taken into consideration. Mr. Cowan further objected 
to the screws which have to be removed before an examination of 
the frames can be made, an operation which has to be gone 
through in each body-box—no easy matter when a hive is full of 
bees ; and Mr. Cheshire pointed out the difficulty of overhauling 
a Stewarton to find the queen, which was often impossible. 
The weakness of the whole argument in favour of the Stewarton 
on this occasion appears to lie in the fact of its being compared 
with the “ ordinary ” bar-framed hive. But why this ? The 
Stewarton, being confessedly the best hive of its kind, should be 
compared with the best of the bar-framed hives to make the com¬ 
parison of any practical value. If, indeed, the Stewarton hive could 
be made generally to jield honey harvests like that mentioned in 
the case of the Scotch clergyman before alluded to we should at 
once bow to its superior merit. Nobody, however, doubts that this 
was a very exceptional case, and that it is to be explained by 
something as exceptional in the management of this particular 
stock, or in the condition of the bees themselves, or their queen ; 
nor can there be any reasonable doubt but that a superior bar¬ 
framed hive under like favourable circumstances wrnuld have 
yielded a harvest as great if not greater. See, too, how doctors 
differ ! At the same time and place Mr. White stated that, “ con¬ 
trary to the experience of Mr. Bartrum, he wished to give up his 
Stewartons, because he found they took up too much time and 
gave him too much trouble ! ” 
Leaving, then, the Stewarton hive to fight its own battle—or 
shall I say, to maintain its ground as best it may ?—I will proceed 
to contribute towards the still further improved use of the bar¬ 
framed hive a few suggestions which have occurred to me as 
the result of my experience this last summer in its management. 
In his remarks upon the superiority of the bar-framed hive in 
course of the discussion already referred to, Mr. Cheshire put his 
finger upon one of its weakest points, I mean in the ordinary use 
of the bar-framed hive, without opportunity for its expansion or 
contraction. But it is not only true that “ a principal desideratum 
in any form of hive lies in its expansibility and contractibility.” 
Something is wanted in our method of using this improved capa¬ 
bility of the hive. What that is, is suggested by him where he 
says that “the great secret of success is to increase the brood 
nest gradually, and to obtain a large quantity of bees before the 
beginning of the honey harvest.” Now a large quantity of bees 
can be obtained in a large bar-framed hive without the gradual 
increase of the brood nest. We have proved this abundantly 
here. Where I see a principal advantage in these improved bar¬ 
framed hives is in the facility afforded for contraction of the 
brood nest at the proper time far more than in its extension. 
Hitherto this has been supposed to be limited to autumn use in 
order to prepare the bees for comfortable wintering. True, Mr. 
Cheshire is aware of the advantage I speak of, and he notices it 
too in the same discussion where he says, “ Give the queen room 
enough ; but short of this, all hives should be contracted as much 
as possible when supers are put on—that is to say, when the yield 
of honey is at its height.” So far so good. But I am not sure 
that his following advice is not open to improvement. He adds 
that “all combs containing no brood should be removed. ’ On 
the contrary my advice would be, Leave all such combs, but re¬ 
move the brood combs, all save those which contain the largest 
quantity of brood in open cells and eggs, but this only at the 
crisis of the honey-gathering season. 
What to do with the sealed brood combs I will speak of in 
a future paper. I must also reserve for another occasion my 
reasons for suggesting a different treatment to that recommended 
by Mr. Cheshire. I will content myself with saying here that 
my treatment of all the strongest hives in our apiaries, so far 
as it is diverse from his, aims at stopping altogether the queen’s 
functions in the hive, and compelling the bees to devote their 
whole attention to honey-gathering. This can be done in several 
ways, but I will deal first with that which Mr. Cheshire evidently 
