JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 16,1881. ] 
for grub and aphides, unfolding any curled leaves, and syringing 
with tobacco water, a gallon of juice being sufficient for six of water, 
adding 2 ozs. of soft soap to every gallon. As the weather is dry 
syringing will be beneficial, supplying liquid manure and mulching 
with short manure. Climbing and pillar Roses should be neatly 
tied to their supports, removing all decayed flowers. Climbers and 
other wall plants must have their growth regulated, thinning them 
where too crowded and laying in wood as necessary, giving a good 
washing with the garden engine to cleanse the foliage of dust and 
insects. 
The stock of spring-bedding plants now requires attention. Double 
Daisies, Primroses, Polyanthuses, and Auriculas may be divided and 
planted out on a partially shaded border. Cuttings of Pansies and 
Yiolas inserted on a shady border will soon root and make strong 
plants by autumn. Myosotis dissitiflora may be treated similarly. 
Prick out seedling Wallflowers, Antirrhinums, and other perennials 
intended for spring and early summer flowering. Insert cuttings of 
double Wallflowers, Rockets, and Sweet Williams on a north border 
or under a handglass. Sow Brompton and Intermediate Stocks on 
a north border. Prepare pipings of Pinks, and insert them under 
handlights. Sow Hollyhock seed in rich light soil, and prick off 
earlier seedlings. Dahlias and Hollyhocks require stakes ; any of 
the latter for showing should be trained with one stem, reserving the 
most promising. Make a final sowing of Mignonette and Sweet Peas. 
Herbaceous plants need constant attention in staking and tying 
as they advance in growth. Avoid bundling the growths, as the 
plants are never seen to advantage, the stems being drawn and many 
of the principal leaves destroyed by depriving them of light and air. 
When one stake only is employed the branches should be looped up 
separately. Before staking remove the weakest shoots, thus concen¬ 
trating the vigour in those retained. Any of the stronger growers 
will be benefited by liquid manure and a mulching of manure. Plant 
out late-sown Stocks, Asters, and Zinnias in well-enriched soil, and 
when they are established mulch with short manure. Annuals sown 
in masses in beds or borders should be freely thinned out and not 
allowed to suffer from drought, or they will grow weakly and flower 
poorly. 
Calceolarias, Yerbenas, and Violas may have their growth promoted 
and the flowering prolonged by a surface-dressing of short manure. 
Attend to bedding plants in watering, removing bad leaves and 
decayed flowers, pegging down such as require it, and secure sub¬ 
tropical plants to stakes. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Greenhouse .—Fuchsias that began to flower early should now be 
regularly supplied with liquid manure, and well syringed every after¬ 
noon to keep down thrips and red spider. Plants required for flower¬ 
ing at the end of August or beginning of September may be plunged 
out of doors in a sheltered but sunny position, keeping the shoots 
stopped, and they will make compact growth. Due attention must 
be given to training, and occasional applications of liquid manure 
will be advantageous. Cockscombs must after the flowers show be 
liberally supplied with liquid manure, keeping them near the glass 
in a pit or frame, where they can receive a little heat and abundant 
moisture. Late Balsams should be potted and grown on, as they will 
be useful late in summer. 
Petunias in small pots may be shifted into larger sizes, and they 
will be useful in autumn. Turfy loam, with a fourth of well-decayed 
manure or leaf soil and a little sand, suit them well. Avoid over¬ 
potting ; 6 or 7-inch pots are large enough. 
Yallotas should be well supplied with water and liquid manure, 
and have light airy positions, so as to mature the growth. In order 
to obtain late flowers plants may be placed out of doors in a sheltered 
position, keeping them duly supplied with water, removing them to 
a house in September or when the flower scapes appear. 
Kalosanthes may be placed outdoors in the full sun to insure the 
maturing of the growth. They must not be allowed to shrivel, and if 
in small pots they should be plunged in ashes to prevent the soil 
becoming dry too quickly. Cactuses may be similarly treated. 
Clianthus Dampien deserves a place amongst the most select plants, 
but it is impatient of being repotted after it attains a good size, and 
493 
should therefore be transferred from the small seedling pots to 9 or 
10-inch pots. Grow the plant in a pit or frame kept rather close, but 
not shaded through the summer, and in winter a warm greenhouse 
or intermediate temperature is suitable. It succeeds best in fibrous 
peat and an admixture of nodules of charcoal, and may have clear 
weak liquid manure when in free growth. A damp cold atmosphere 
is injurious, also excess of water, and if kept too hot in summer it 
falls a prey to red spider. Seed may be sown in gentle heat in 3 or 
4-inch pots, and when the seedlings are a few inches high transfer 
them to the large pots. 
ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 
In the calendar of operations for May 1 sketched in outline 
some modes by which we can most helpfully to ourselves and 
bees secure increase in the number of our colonies, but a request 
that further details should be given induces me to return to the 
subject. 
All hahitves of our bee shows are now acquainted with the 
operation of driving, constantly selected as it is for public 
display, since nothing we can exhibit to the uninitiated is more 
likely to excite astonishment, or is capable of subserving a greater 
variety of useful purposes for those who still adhere to the time- 
honoured skep.* But the manipulation of frame hives, though 
much more simple and agreeable, is not so easily made part of 
the attraction of a bee tent, and hence needs the more careful 
explanation here. 
By far the larger number of our bee-keepers are absent from 
their apiaries during the day, and to such anxiety grows with the 
prosperity of their colonies ; for the dense population of the 
pet stock on which the brightest hopes are set, and for which the 
temporary super is already prepared, is quite likely to leave for 
“ pastures new ” while we are absent and no watcher is at hand. 
That this kind of vexation can be reduced to a minimum so 
small as to be unimportant is certain, while it is also true that 
the most carefully and skilfully tended apiary may occasionally 
throw out a natural swarm quite against the will of its owner. 
In my own case this occurs about once annually from between 
twenty and thirty stocks. 
Preparation for colonising consists of two steps—the raising of 
drones in number, and the starting of queen cells. If a stock is 
deprived of its queen the oft-explained process commences of 
selecting eggs or young larvae, and then so laterally expanding 
the cell that those surrounding it are more or less obliterated. 
Doseing with immense quantities of food follows, and in due time 
(sixteen days from the egg-laying) a queen is produced ; but when 
under normal circumstances with the queen present a swarm is 
determined on, the plan differs somewhat in some cases from that 
described, for I have indubitable evidence that at times the queen 
actually lay eggs in partially formed queen cells—cells, that is, 
that have been queen cells from their foundation day upwards. 
Some who have not spent more time than myself in examining 
this matter will tell me I am wrong I doubt not, but negative 
evidence cannot disprove the positive that I have in my posses¬ 
sion. When these cells have reached the stage of sealing— i.e., 
eight days before hatching into queens, the time of departure is at 
hand, and is only likely to be naturally delayed by a condition of 
weather so adverse as to disincline bees for travelling. Should 
this be prolonged the queen cells will be torn open and the occu¬ 
pants ejected, when swarming is not likely to be again attempted 
under two or three weeks. It is true that sometimes bees, Italians 
especially, will come out before commencing queen cells, but this 
is rather the exception that proves the rule. 
Every bee-keeper knows that where natural swarming is prac¬ 
tised, piping (the call-note of the young hatching queens) may be 
heard on the eighth evening after the departure of the swarm, 
and that casting takes place, if at all, with curious regularity on 
the ninth day. The rule already given explains the cause of this, 
and also supplies us with a ready means of getting a correct fore¬ 
cast as to the intentions of our stocks. If those that are getting 
crowded are run over every four or five days the presence of 
queen cells will forewarn us, while their absence will set «s at 
rest till the next examination. The plan to be adopted if we 
desire to prevent swarming can only here be hinted. Cutting out 
* This operation has received its share of attention elsewhere in a reply to a 
correspondent, which see. 
