JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 21, 1881. 
320 
care that the plants have their foliage dry, repeating the operation 
the following morning or evening; afterwards the plants should be 
well syringed. Some of the advertised insecticides are easily applied, 
effective, and do not injure the foliage when the vendors’ instructions 
are carefully followed. After dipping plants they should be placed 
on their sides and freely syringed with clear water. 
Cinerarias .—Those now expanding their blooms should be assisted 
with occasional supplies of weak liquid manure. If seed is to be 
saved at once remove inferior varieties or the strain will deteriorate. 
As a rule it is best to buy seed of good advertised strains. If a few 
early plants are wanted sow a pinch of seed at once ; employ a well- 
drained pan with fine sandy soil, render the surface level and tole¬ 
rably firm, watering this an hour previous to sowing, pressing in the 
seed, and very lightly covering with Band. The pan should be 
covered with glass, placed on a greenhouse shelf, and carefully 
shaded. If the surface is found to be dry at any time water through 
a very fine-rose pot, or partially submerge them in a bucket of water. 
Chinese Primulas .—Part of the seed of these may now be sown. 
The remarks upon sowing Cinerarias are applicable to these, with 
this important difference—the pans must be plunged or stood in 
heat, nothing being more suitable than a Cucumber frame. If pots 
are substituted for pans at any time they should always be at least 
half filled with drainage. Primulas being saved for seed should be 
placed on a sunny shelf and watered when required. 
Fuchsias .—Cuttings of these strike readily enough in a frame over 
a gentle hotbed. Do not crowd the cuttings, and when struck pinch 
them back, potting off when breaking afresh. Old plants that have 
been cut back and are now starting into growth should have the 
greater part of the old soil shaken from the roots, shortening these 
and returning the plants to as small pots as can consistently be used, 
taking care to shake down the soil well among the roots ; any light 
loamy sandy soil will suit them. The plants will start more freely 
if a little heat can be given. 
Balsams .—Sow seeds of these thinly in pots or pans, and place them 
on a greenhouse shelf. Keep the soil moist but avoid saturating it. 
The seed would germinate much more rapidly in heat, but sturdiness 
should be aimed at, which is best attained by raising the plants in a 
cool house. 
Chrysanthemums .—If bushy plants of these are required pinch the 
shoots back to the fourth joint, potting off recently struck cuttings, 
giving a shift to those already singly in pots when they are pushing 
afresh. Untrained standards give the finest blooms, and this plan 
admits of a greater number of plants being grown on a given space. 
For these select and pot on the sturdiest plants, and do not pinch 
back. A cold frame is most suitable for Chrysanthemums at this 
time of year, and they may yet be propagated. 
INTRODUCING AN ALIEN QUEEN—PREVENTION 
OF SWARMING. 
I. I intend to procure a Ligurian queen, but seeing there is so 
much risk in enthroning her, how would it do to make a swarm for 
her, and so give them all strange quarters ? I could easily do this, 
as I have a straw skep I intend to keep for breeding from which is 
very strong of bees. I could drive a fair swarm from it and give it 
the foreign queen ; or shall I take the old queen from the straw skep 
and give it the new one, thereby giving me a chance of a swarm of 
hybrids this season ? 
II. I have a very strong “Woodbury” that I intend to devote 
wholly to honey-gathering ; it is at present full of frames, the oldest 
of which are two years in the hive. I have crates of sectional supers 
ready to put on ; but I am at a loss to know exactly what day to put 
them on, as I know there is danger of putting them on too soon. 
They are very strong in bees, and young bees were out some time 
ago. I have also been stimulating them with the “bottle” of thin 
syrup. Please give me a few hints how I am to keep it wholly honey¬ 
gathering without swarming.—C ombek. 
[You ask whether you can drive a swarm from a populous skep 
and give the purchased queen to it upon the old stand, or whether 
you can drive a swarm from the skep and give the new queen to the 
remaining bees upon their combs ? The answer is, Yes, to both 
queries ; but the implied suggestion that in these ways you prevent 
all risk in the introduction is certainly not accurate. The methods 
of introducing queens may be varied ad infinitum , and failure and 
success are possible with all. With the hope that the latter may be 
yours we give a few hints which may be of general interest. If you 
act upon your first-mentioned plan, “ giving the queen to a swarm 
upon the old stand,” it will not be necessary to drive a swarm at all— 
a fortunate circumstance, as driving would involve the necessity of 
seeing the queen so as to be perfectly certain that she was left in the 
skep. Although an expert may make artificial swarms at almost any 
time from March to October, it is desirable here to repeat the oft 
given warning, that those with limited experience should not attempt 
it in indifferent weather or with stocks that are not extremely strong 
in bees. Satisfied upon these points you may proceed thus : Into 
the new hive put frames of comb, filling it with them if enough can 
be spared, and then upon the morning of a day when the bees are 
flying freely the foreign mother is confined in a dome cage of wire 
cloth upon one of the combs, the skep being immediately removed to 
a new station, and the frame hive made to occupy its place. The 
bees returning from the fields with their loads will after some hesita¬ 
tion enter, but finding all changed within will quickly re-appear at 
the door to make another examination on the wing. By degrees 
they will seem to determine that their new home is better than none, 
and making the best of it will gather around the queen, deposit their 
stores, and return to the fields for more. In two days the cage may 
be removed with almost positive certainty that the queen will be 
well received. A few cautions here are important, as success depends 
upon many little details, some of which may easily be overlooked. 
1st, The cage should stand over cells containing some honey or the 
queen may suffer, but the cage on no account should have its edge 
driven into sealed cells, as the bleeding honey would smear the queen 
and possibly cause her death. 2nd, Honey should be coming in 
abundantly so as to make robbing unlikely, as the bees under the 
circumstances would probably not defend their new home. (The 
presence of brood in the combs given would save from danger from 
robbing, but it would increase the difficulty in securing a friendly 
reception for the queen, as royal cells might be started. The best 
safeguard is a good honey yield.) 3rd, The removed skep should for 
some days before the operation have been disguised, so as to give it 
the same appearance the frame hive will have when taking its place. 
A sack or horsecloth if thrown over it will assist, this being of course 
transferred to the frame hive when that is put upon the old station. 
4th, If skeps stand very near the one operated upon many bees are 
likely to seek shelter in them, so weakening the swarm and perhaps 
causing queen-encasement in the skeps. 5th, If combs in frames are 
scarce two combs will suffice if the other frames are supplied with 
foundation. As soon as the queen is accepted a sheet of foundation 
may be placed between the two combs, and as the swarm can bear 
it others should follow, the original combs passing to the sides of the 
hive. This plan with judicious feeding will soon produce a hive of 
perfect combs with a dense population. Gth, As the swarm cannot 
hatch any new bees until its twenty-third day, and as many of its 
members were old at the first, it will considerably reduce in numbers 
before that time. To prevent this a frame or so of brood and eggs 
from the Woodbury that you desire not to colonise may be given. 
Foundation will of course take the place of the renewed combs. 
Your second plan has two disadvantages and one advantage. 
Your Italian queens would be in a hive with fixed combs, giving you 
less chance of raising other queens from her, and you would be in 
danger by driving a swarm and putting it upon the old stand of un¬ 
duly weakening the skep. You must secure the queen of course, 
but a few of the driven bees only need be put with her into the 
frame hive. You must be very cautious also that no queen cell is in 
progress in your skep, or your queen stands little chance. The ad¬ 
vantage lies in this—that the old bees would go to the driven swarm, 
and the youngsters remaining could be easily induced to accept a 
mother-in-law. 
The absolute prevention of swarming can be secured by no system 
of management, but this end is generally achieved by getting a hive 
filled with brood in all stages by constant enlargement of the brood 
nest, so that after supering the ceaseless hatching of bees supplies 
labourers for the supers and space in which the queen may continue 
laying. Let the super be put on just before the bees begin to fail to 
find room for all their brood and stores, w’armly covering the former 
so that it may quickly rise in temperature, instead of being, as is too 
often the case, a means of allowing the heat of the brood nest from 
leaking away.—F. Cheshire.] 
APIS DORSATA. 
(A Translation.from the Bienenzeilung, and communicated by Alfred Neighbour.') 
Much has been said and written about this bee, the largest 
with which we are acquainted. The accounts which have been 
published on Apis dorsata are nearly all by travellers w-bo have 
chanced to see it, and who in their reports mostly refer to it inci¬ 
dentally only. Considering that these travellers were not bee¬ 
keepers, and therefore had but little or no knowledge of bees, the 
imperfect and incorrect information they give us as to Apis dor¬ 
sata is easily to be accounted for ; but this state of affairs is no 
