February 24, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 157 
hocks, Violas, Calceolarias, and other plants requiring rich deep soil, 
should be prepared by trenching and working in a liberal quantity of 
manure. Edgings of Cerastium and other hardy plants may now be 
taken up and relaid. 
Pelargoniums should be potted and afforded gentle heat for a short 
time ; they will soon become established and make fine plants. 
Asters, Ten-week Stocks, Phlox Drummondi, Dwarf Scabious, and 
other half-hardy annuals may now be sown in pans of light rich soil 
in gentle heat, keeping them near the glass after the plants appear, 
ventilating freely on all favourable occasions. Push forward the 
propagation of bedding plants whenever cuttings are to be obtained. 
Verbenas and Lobelias when struck should be planted out in pits or 
frames. 
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CRUDE HONEY. 
Nobody doubts that there is such a thing as “crude,” as 
distinct from perfect honey, if it be meant that the honey which 
is sealed up by bees and is stored up for winter use differs greatly 
in most seasons, and at different times in the same season, from 
that which they bring in daily and hour by hour from our fields 
and woods. We do not, therefore, question a great deal that 
Mr. Pettigrew says upon this subject. We know well all the 
“facts” that he has advanced. Bees do put honey among the 
brood at first. They do not always carry it to the store combs at 
once. The supers do undoubtedly increase in weight by night as 
well as by day. All this is among the A B C of our knowledge 
about honey gathering and storing. The answer to Mr. Pettigrew’s 
questions in your last issue is simple enough. Bees, being among 
the most intelligent of insects, know how to husband their time 
and arrange their hours of labour so as to utilise to the utmost 
every available minute that is given them ; consequently, as they 
know the brevity of the honey-producing hours, they wisely give 
their chief attention to the collecting of it when it is to be had, 
and as naturally they put it into the cells which happen to be most 
conveniently at hand and nearest to the one entrance of the hive. 
Then they rush forth again to collect more, and repeat the opera¬ 
tion till the shades of evening or exhaustion of the outdoor 
supplies gives them liberty to attend to the proper storage of the 
honey harvest so hurriedly gathered in. Now comes the night- 
work, which is often as laborious as that by day. The honey is 
carried drop by drop to the suitable receptacles which have been 
prepared for it in the store combs of the hive wherever these may 
be, in supers or elsewhere. We are also perfectly aware that a 
great change often takes place in the quality of the honey itself— 
often we say, for the change depends very much upon the varying 
quality of the honey which is being brought in from the fields. 
Sometimes, especially in wet or moist seasons, when there is little 
sun, the honey is thin and watery ; at other times, and particularly 
last summer, it is brought in as “ perfect ” a sample as the best 
affords in other years. But, perhaps ordinarily, the change is very- 
considerable which takes place during the time the crude honey is 
brought in, while it remains in the open cells, and during the time 
of transfer before it is sealed up. 
Where we differ from Mr. Pettigrew is as to his way of account¬ 
ing for this change. He talks of the bees “ converting ” the crude 
syrup into honey, and he asks us to believe that in the process of 
transfer there takes place a “manufacture of perfect honey 
and by this he means, not a mere change of appearance or im¬ 
provement in quality, but a radical conversion of one substance 
into another. The former is fact; the latter we maintain is, if not 
fiction, at least “ not proven.” Mr. Pettigrew has not yet furnished 
us with any evidence of this alleged fact. Nor do we see how 
in the nature of things it can possibly be proved ; for such a fact 
would simply mean that bees have a fund or store of saccharine 
matter in their stomachs, which, like the “ doctor ” with which, as 
is alleged, wine merchants improve their poorer wines, bees supply 
the defect of quality in the sweet syrup they collect from the 
flowers, and manufacture “ the perfect honey ” of which Mr. 
Pettigrew speaks. 
Well, but how do we account for the change ? We reply that it 
seems to be the most easily accountable thing in the world. We 
are fully convinced that evaporation is the chief and perhaps the 
sole factor in the business, although it is of course possible that 
the bees may themselves reject a good deal of the honey they 
have too hurriedly collected (not that we hold such an opinion) 
during the excitement of the period of glut, and there may be 
(probably there is) some chemical change perpetually going on 
owing to the high temperature of the hive, which affects the con¬ 
sistency of the honey and even its quality. But this is very 
different from Mr. Pettigrew’s contention. 
We maintain that the great heat of the hive is quite sufficient 
to account for the change we speak of, whether it be chemically 
or otherwise affected by it. The evaporation which goes on in a 
temperature often approaching to 100° Fahrenheit must be enor¬ 
mous. Hence the watery element in the crude honey is largely 
diminished in a very short time, while the saccharine matter 
is left greatly predominant. We are satisfied with the reason¬ 
ableness of this explanation, which has often been given in these 
pages by close observers of the honey bee.— The Writer of the 
Review of “Handy Book on Bees.” 
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BRITISH BEE¬ 
KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The annual meeting of this useful Society took place at the 
National Chamber of Trade, 446, Strand, on the 16th inst. In the 
absence of the President, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Mr. T. W. 
Cowan occupied the chair. An admirably drawn-up report, which 
has been previously circulated, was taken as read, put from the chair, 
and unanimously adopted. Votes of thanks to the retiring officers 
and Committee, proposed by Mr. Littleboy and seconded by Bishop 
Tozer, and to the Council of the Royal Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, proposed by Mr. Cheshire and seconded by the 
Rev. G. Raynor, followed. 
After the election, which was in every case a re-election of officers, 
the result of the voting for the Committee was declared. Mr. T. W. 
Cowan, 195 ; Rev. G. Raynor, 188 ; Mr. F. R. Cheshire, 181 ; Rev. E. 
Bartrum, 180 ; Mr. J. Hooker, 175 ; Dr. L. Beale, 172; Mr. C. Abbott, 
143 ; Mr. Whealer, 98 ; and Mr. Jonas, 96. The last two are new 
members. The Secretary now sketched some plans of operation in 
connection with agricultural and horticultural societies, which will 
in itself prevent the Committee of 1881 from being idle. Some small 
changes were made in the rules, the most important being an alteration 
of the date from which subscriptions shall commence, this being 
formerly May 1st, but now made January 1st. Upon this matter 
the decision was not by any means unanimous. Mr. Lyon proposed 
to the Committee the offering of prizes for improved methods of 
packing honey ; and the Rev. E. Sisson suggested that amateur 
classes should be created, as the amateur had no chance with the 
professional bee-keeper and hive-maker, and that amateur hive¬ 
making should be encouraged by special prizes. Mr. Cheshire re¬ 
marked that careful observation had convinced him that in honey 
classes the amateur has nothing to fear from the professional bee¬ 
keeper and hive-maker, who was almost always in matters of honey 
conspicuous by his failure, but that he thought the suggestion with 
regard to hives was a very good one. 
After tea and coffee, the quarterly conversazione took place, when 
Mr. Lyon read a paper on 
CHEAP BAR-FRAME HIVES FOR COTTAGERS’ USE. 
Bishop Tozer, who was voted to the chair, introduced Mr. Lyon with 
some gracious remarks upon the pleasure he felt at being present. 
Mr. Lyon first drew attention to the difficulty of introducing the 
frame hive on account of its cost, referring to a list of a Scotch firm 
in which the lowest price quoted is 5s. for a complete hive contain¬ 
ing eight frames Woodbury size with a roof; adding that the 
customers of hive-makers are with rare exceptions clergymen, gentle¬ 
men of means, well-to-do tradesmen, and others who can well afford 
an outlay of a few shillings for each hive, but that the price even 
when reduced as much as competition can reduce it is for the poor 
cottager prohibitive. He suggested bought boxes as a remedy, re¬ 
marking, “ As we cannot with the means and tools at our disposal 
make our boxes, we must look about for some which have already 
served the purpose for which they were made, and can therefore be sold 
for less than the cost of making. The very essence of the bar-frame 
system is the complete interchangeability of the frames. Every frame 
in every hive in our apiary should be interchangeable with every 
other frame. It is therefore necessary in the selection of our boxes that 
they should be always without difficulty obtainable of uniform size 
and shape. 
“ In looking about for suitable boxes I have tried wine cases, brandy 
cases, and milk cases, all of which are too shallow. Milk cases, how¬ 
ever, make very good super covers or roofs. The cases in which 
preserved meat is imported are very good and strong, but unfortu¬ 
nately each packer uses a slightly different shape. The only boxes I 
have found to be always uniform are lobster boxes—i.e., boxes in 
which preserved lobster in tins has been imported. These boxes are 
18F long, V2\ wide, and 9 deep, well made of good wood planed 
outside, 1 inch thick at the ends and full half an inch at the side ; 
they have a lid and a bottom, and cost 3d. or 4 d. each. Of all the 
various shapes and sizes of hives which have been introduced the 
Woodbury having ten frames each 13J inches by inside measure, 
giving 1147£ superficial inches of comb when filled, has been found 
the most suitable for general use. The lobster box will carry twelve 
frames, each 11£ by 8£ inside measure, which gives exactly 1147£ 
super inches of comb, the same as the Woodbury. Comparing the 
