April 7, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
279 
filled with roots the soil must not be allowed to become dry. Keep 
the shoots well trained and tied out. Plants intended for July 
flowering should have the points of the shoots pinched out to cause 
them to break back, and if in comparatively small pots shift into 
others a size larger. Keep a strict look-out for aphides, and fumigate 
promptly upon their first appearance. Repot Fuchsias, stopping the 
shoots until the plants are sufficiently furnished, which more particu¬ 
larly applies to those required large for conservatory decoration. 
Syringe every afternoon to keep down thrips and red spider. Chrys¬ 
anthemum cuttings that were inserted late last year are now ready 
for potting off or shifting into larger pots. Employ good loam with 
about a sixth of decayed manure and a sprinkling of bone dust. 
Pinch out the points of the shoots of such as are required to break back, 
but those for specimen blooms should be stopped. Place the plants 
on ashes in a cold frame, and ventilate freely in favourable weather. 
Acacias will now be making a fine display, and must not lack water 
at the roots. When they cease blooming cut in any irregular growths, 
and if there be any white scale free the plants of it with an insecti¬ 
cide. Camellia plants that bloomed early will be growing, and 
should be placed where they can have slight shade, and a temperature 
of 55° at night and 10° to 15° advance by day. Afford plenty of 
moisture at the roots, supply weak liquid manure to plants in small 
pots. Those that bloomed at midseason will also be growing, and 
should be encouraged with moisture, shade, and a slight increase of 
temperature. Late varieties, such as C. Beali, red, and C. candidis- 
sima, white, must be shaded and kept as cool as possible. 
Epacrises that have flowered should be pruned, and if the plants 
are as large as required they may be cut back to within an inch 
or two of the old wood. These plants bear cutting-in annually to a 
greater extent than most other hardwooded plants, hence the size of 
the plants can be regulated according to the taste and requirements 
of the cultivator. If cut back freely the plants must be confined to 
comparatively small pots, or they will not thrive satisfactorily. A 
slight increase of temperature and the damping overhead from a 
syringe in the afternoon will be beneficial. 
Heaths should now be examined, training their flowering shoots in 
the position they are required to be when in bloom ; in doing which 
use as few sticks as possible—only sufficient to keep the plants in 
proper shape. Any plants required for blooming later should be 
placed in a house where they will be less exposed to the sun, but 
must only be shaded with a light material during the hottest part 
of the day. 
Ferns are now growing fast, and must be well supplied with water 
at the roots and have increased atmospheric moisture. Tree Ferns 
should have the stems syringed twice a day, being careful to see that 
the roots at the bottom of the pots or tubs do not become too dry, as 
the surface may appear wet. If the pots or tubs be small, healthy 
vigorous plants will require water twice a day. 
FI— 7 — 3 —1 » 1 . P. | , | . | . 1 . | . 1 . | | | | | . I'.'i ^ | . | . | ■ j' v‘fI . 1 . 1 . | . | ■ I ■ 
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CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS IN THE APIARY. 
APRIL. 
Few seasons would show more clearly the advantage of a special 
calendar than the present one. The lateness is here extreme, the 
temperature low, and the “ weather forecast ” not encouraging. In 
early springs Peach blossoms have been open on a south wall of ours 
on March 1st; but now, April 4th, the fully swollen buds are yet 
waiting for a change before expanding. The present danger is from 
two sources—shortness of food in the hive, and over-haste in the bee¬ 
keeper ; and that the latter is not imaginary is evident, as we have 
already been asked whether it was not fully time to force swarms 
and divide for increase. In regard to food, do not suppose that combs 
fully stored and sealed and quite outside the brood nest will keep 
bees breeding. These combs indeed are, unless used by the bees, a 
hindrance rather than a help, as they cool the colony by obliging 
the hive to be left larger than would otherwise be necessary. Such 
combs may be uncapped, when the bees will be stimulated by re¬ 
moving their honey into more central portions of the hive, but the 
majority of colonies will be found now to have empty combs on the 
outside of the cluster, and judgment will be required in determining 
whether these had better be removed or no. If empty and not im¬ 
mediately needed either for store or brood they had better be removed, 
as they actually cause a consumption of honey for heat-production 
by their presence, while as the bees increase and expand, as they 
presently will with more genial weather, they can easily be restored. 
Of course, all depends upon varying conditions. My colonies are 
now generally densely packed in seven frames, and such could not be 
contracted ; indeed, a rising thermometer will demand for them new 
frames in quick succession. 
Flour cake should still be given and the supply kept up, when 
breeding will not be relaxed ; but in the giving of liquid food during 
such biting wind as is now prevailing it is important that the supply 
should not be continued during the day ; or the bees, learning that 
store is really being found somewhere, will surely fly abroad to be 
chilled and destroyed in large numbers, while those that do return 
will do so empty and exhausted. I have the last w’eekbeen especially 
trying syrup-feeding upon two stocks, giving twenty others flour 
cake; the latter have all been quiet, flying for water and artificial 
pollen, as the weather has seemed to warrant, while the former have 
been in continued unrest. The owner of skeps should especially 
remember that as the winter has disposed of the honey of the previous 
season, while brood-raising now requires a good income to make both 
ends meet, feeding is increasingly essential in unfavourable w'eather. 
If this be forgotten the bees as the pinch comes stop raising brood, 
while they suck the juices from the larvae, and tear the chrysalides 
from their cells and eject them from the hive. When these are seen 
they are sometimes described as “ white bees but this sign of 
starvation does not present itself till immense mischief has been 
worked and the profitableness of the stock reduced probably for the 
whole season. Instant feeding is in such cases the remedy. 
Queenlessness may be suspected if stocks carry few and small pellets 
of pollen while others are busy with large well-formed loads. Should 
the owner of a queenless colony, which is also a fairly strong one, be 
also unhappy enough to possess one having foul brood, it will be 
wise to give a frame of brood to the queenless lot from some other 
healthy colony a week after destroying carefully all queen cells, and 
then caging the queen from the diseased stock upon the brood comb 
and liberating her in two or three days in the usual way. Uniting is, 
however, the best course in most cases of queenlessness. Artificial 
pollen is yet of immense service, and my bees are taking it greedily 
at every opportunity the weather gives. Water is very important, 
and much bee life is spared if the foragers have an unfailing supply 
at hand. When honey is being freely gathered it is at once food and 
drink, but in dry east winds water is essential, and the drinking foun¬ 
tain will then be the best frequented spot in the apiary. 
Those who intend raising, queens of any special race in advance of 
the usual season so as to favour pure impregnation should insert a 
frame of drone comb in the midst of the brood nest of the colony in¬ 
tended to supply the drones. Robbing is likely to occur if there be 
any untidiness with the syrup. Spilling a few drops about a hive when 
honey is scanty brings a host of inquirers, and often they get inside 
what they have failed to secure without. Contract the mouth as a 
remedy, and especially try giving to the entrance the form of a narrow 
tunnel. 
Section crates, guide combs, foundation strips, and all the para¬ 
phernalia of the busy season should be prepared at leisure while 
transferring, and all work of this kind had better be deferred till next 
month. I shall be happy to show my stocks to those who are in¬ 
terested.— F. Cheshire, Avenue House , Acton. 
THE BEES OF THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.—No. 2. 
A JOURNEY TO THE INDIES—IMPORTATION OP CYPRIAN AND 
HOLY LAND BEES INTO INDIA. 
{From the “ Ceylon Observer," January 28th, 1881.) 
It was a long journey that brought me from the island of Cyprus 
to this place. Several hundred miles of the Mediterranean Sea had 
first to be crossed, then after a short delay at Port Said the Suez 
Canal was passed, and our steamship the “ Sindh ” of Marseilles 
entered the Red Sea. Six days steadily she bore southward,. greeted 
only by shifting hot desert winds. For a time Mount Sinai looked 
down upon us, then we saw no land until we neared the Strait of 
Bab-el-Mandeb. At Aden the anchor was cast; but as our.stay was 
to be of only a few hours’ duration, I could not think of giving the 
bees I had brought with me a chance to fly, though they had “ worried 
some” under their confinement during the Red Sea journey.. I 
landed in hopes that by going to the town of Aden, some three miles 
distant, I might find some bees. I was told that it was seven days’ 
journey to the region where there were any tillable lands, and no 
one knew where there were any bees. Although our steamer, was a 
fast mail boat we were as long going from Aden to Ceylon as it often 
takes to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The journey seemed all the 
longer to me, as there were many thousand tiny voices pleading for 
liberty. The officers of the ship afforded me every facility available 
to insure the safety of my charge, but the heat of the torrid zone 
was severe, and though the shipping boxes were well provided with 
wire-cloth ventilators, nothing but a flight would benefit some of the 
colonies ; it was, therefore, a gratifying sight when the rich Palm- 
covered island of Ceylon rose as it were from the dreary waste of 
waters. 
As soon as I could I unloaded my precious freight and proceeded 
to secure a place to stand the bees for a flight. I obtained the 
