JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 28, 1881. ] 
343 
latter 2 feet. In warm localities the Scarlet Iiunners may also be 
sown. As before stated these may be profitably grown without 
stakes, the running growth being kept closely pinched in, placing 
the rows about 3 feet apart, and working in a row of early Potatoes 
between them. If stakes are employed the rows should be C feet 
apart, and between these two rows of early Potatoes may be grown, 
or if preferred early Cauliflowers may be substituted. The ground 
should either be trenched or deeply dug and well manured. The 
plants should on no account be crowded. Sow seed thinly in single 
drills about 2 inches in depth. Beans may be readily transplanted, 
and where chickens are troublesome it is advisable to sow thickly in 
any rough boxes and place the plants out before they have grown 
very much. 
Forming New Asparagus Beds .—It is not yet too late to transplant 
Asparagus, the young plants, which only are suitable, being best 
moved when commencing growth. It is not absolutely necessary to 
trench the ground 3 feet or even 2 feet deep, as good results are 
obtained on ordinary deeply dug soil. Neither are beds necessary, 
and if the ground is moderately rich no manure need be dug-in the 
first season. Level a well-pulverised breadth of ground, shovel out 
wide drills about 3 inches deep and 2 feet apart, and in these dispose 
the plants 18 inches asunder. When planting spread out the roots 
carefully and cover firmly. Excellent Lettuces may be grown 
between the rows during the first two years. If beds are preferred 
they may be 5 feet wide, and planted with three rows, one in the 
centre, the others a foot from the edges. Where the fruit bushes are 
widely disposed a single line of Asparagus may very profitably be 
grown between them, and single plants wherever there is a wide 
opening. Surface dressing is preferable to digging manure in deeply. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
Sowing Seeds of Annuals .—Bedding plants are very scarce, and for 
this reason annuals ought to be made to play an important part in 
the summer display. It is becoming late for sowing many kinds, but 
some seeds sown earlier have either not germinated or have been 
destroyed by insects. Mignonette is a general favourite, and will 
thrive anywhere provided it is not crowded. To economise the bed¬ 
ding plants sow Mignonette thinly throughout the largest beds or 
borders, and among the young plants place Pelargoniums, Stocks, 
Asters, and other bright-flowered kinds ; or sow patches of Godetias, 
Candytuft, Hibiscuses, dwarf Tropmolums, Scabious, Stocks, Asters, 
Clarkias, Convolvulus minor, Lupins, Love-lies-bleeding, and others, 
according to their respective heights. Wherever annuals are grown 
it will be found a great mistake to crowd them, as the majority are 
branching in habit, and if this habit is encouraged the quality of the 
blooms will be superior, and the duration considerably lengthened. 
The seeds germinate most surely on light soils, and where the soil is 
heavy it is advisable to lightly cover the seeds with a little sifted 
sandy soil from the potting shed. Make the surface even, and water 
it if dry an hour previous to sowing. Sow Sweet Peas in small 
pots or where they are to flower. Seed of Carnations, Pansies, and 
Polyanthuses for flowering next season may be sown in pans or 
boxes, and placed in a cold frame. 
is 
HE BEE-KEEPER, i 
. \i\x --a 
HOW, WHEN, AND WHERE TO USE COMB 
FOUNDATION. 
While the advocates of the skep are still tenaciously cliDging 
to the idea that their hive affords more comfortable quarters to 
its inmates than that with moveable frames—a position true at 
one time, but now most inaccurate if reference be made to the 
hive of to-day as we find it in good hands—we of the forward 
school may, for the present, be contented with the general 
admission that foundation, which we alone can use with comfort 
and the best effect, affords us an advantage which cannot be 
controverted. I need no further apology for endeavouring to 
give some hints as to the use and methods of manipulating this 
modern invention, for we are now entering upon the time when 
these half-made combs in the body of the hive have their highest 
utility. 
We have often been reminded of the severe logic of the cookery- 
book writer, who declared it to be necessary to catch the hare before 
proceeding to skin it, which seems to suggest that a few lines as 
to our selection of foundation from amongst the three or four 
varieties now in the market may not be out of place. I shall 
very briefly give the reasons for my preferences, which may have 
this recommendation, that I have no personal interest in the 
matter. All know that foundation consists of sheets of wax by 
some means impressed so as to determine the size and arrangement 
of the cells, while the sheet itself, as it is converted by the bees 
into comb, becomes the midrib of the latter, the general form and 
position of which can be so completely determined by the bee¬ 
keeper, that by the exercise of a little ingenuity the busy throng 
may be made to write their “Welcome,” or draw some simple 
device in their inimitable tracery. 
An examination of ordinary comb will show that the cells 
stand back to back, so that the centre of each cell on one side is 
over the point from which radiate the walls belonging to three 
contiguous cells of the other side, and that the edges of these 
walls are connected with the sides of the cell by three flat lozenge¬ 
shaped plates. The beauty of this plan as economising material 
and giving strength would require at least an article for its treat¬ 
ment, and it has been made the subject of more than one learned 
essay. Its value is self-evident, while a study of the case makes 
clear a number of very curious co-relations. Ordinary foundation 
imitates faithfully this natural arrangement, and combs built 
from it have the disposition of parts found in hives innocent of 
“ art and man’s device.” But the objection has been made that 
such foundation is disposed to stretch, and to prevent this a form 
has been introduced in which the cell walls are indicated upon a 
flat ground, but in the relation to one another, and to those upon 
the opposite side of the sheet, which we find in normal comb. 
This “flat-bottomed” foundation, if the stretching of the more 
accurate form had not been obviated, would have a raison d'etre, 
and it must be admitted that as the bees work it out the thinning- 
down of the sheet produces the three lozenges, though in less 
marked form than in natural comb. 
This make of flat-bottomed foundation must not be confounded, 
however, with another which marks the cell walls as the one just 
commented upon, but preserves no relation between the marking 
on the two sides of the sheet—a disadvantage from at least two 
sources, even if we leave the comparatively unimportant question 
of strength out of view. 1st, The cell ends are left unnaturally 
flat; and 2nd, In paring down the sheet the bees on opposite 
sides interfere with one another, as, if they persevered in forming 
the cell upon its true lines, the sheet would be pierced. They are 
thus prevented from utilising the wax, which in the ordinary and 
correct form supplies the material from which the cell walls are 
more or less completely elaborated. 
In very hot weather foundation in full-sized sheets, whether 
flat-bottomed or otherwise, requires especial care if stretching 
is to be prevented ; and this led to the introduction of wired 
foundation, into which thin iron wire is embedded during the 
manufacture. The promise was widely different from the realisa¬ 
tion, for this foundation, though it did not stretch, the unremovable 
wires so worried the bees that in slack times they teazed away their 
combs at the bottom in order to bare the wire, and so, if might be, 
eject it. I purchased between £3 and £4 worth of this novelty in 
order to test it thoroughly, and my condemnation is now endorsed 
by its own inventor. Any (dealers excluded) who would like to 
try it still may have a little of me in exchange for an equal 
weight of good wax. My own pronounced opinion, then, is in 
favour of the ordinary form giving the impression of the cell 
base, although upon theoretical grounds I believe this form should 
not be so distinctly angular as all existing rollers make it. This 
notice would not be complete without reference to foundation 
with a wooden midrib, which is no novelty, having been perfected 
several years since in America ; and though it has great advantages 
for combs that are subjected to continued journeys, such as those 
in hives used for explanations with a bee tent, yet it is not likely 
to be extensively used, as the bees work it less freely than they 
do impressed sheets, and if at any place they bare the wood the 
comb is spoiled. Queen cells cannot be manipulated with it; 
its cost is somewhat greater than that of wax sheet, and near the 
edges the bees cannot be easily induced to work it at all. I had 
the opportunity of seeing several of these wooden-centred combs 
in Dorsetshire a few days since. Not more than half the cells 
had been built out, aud the wood was in many places completely 
stripped of wax ; the bees had in consequence been kept to the 
central part of the combs and had been terribly reduced, being 
