332 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ April 20 , 18 S 2 . 
is easy and pleasant if the bee-master has swarm hives and supers 
enough prepared and at hand ready for use. Pad luck in bee¬ 
keeping is often the outcome of ignorance or inattention. Let us 
try to avoid the mistakes of former years, and be well prepared 
this season for all possible wants and emergencies. We may be 
quite certain that bees will make fewer mistakes than their 
masters. 
Now for a few words on supering. Last year at this time I had 
arranged to prepare for the great show at Manchester, and there¬ 
fore I ordered large and handsome bee-glasses for supering. 
Though I have made no engagements for this year, other bee¬ 
keepers may be anxious to have some good exhibits for town or 
country shows. As large bee-glasses well filled with honeycomb 
please the general public 
O well, I will here describe 
those used last year and 
those I intend to order 
this. The large glasses were 
captivating in appearance 
and greatly admired, but 
were not easily filled and 
finished. It took strong 
hives about three weeks of 
honey weather to fill one 
each ; and when finished 
they weighed 20 lbs. each 
including glass. This year 
my glasses will be smaller, 
differently shaped, and more 
easily filled. They will give 
greater facilities for the use 
of artificial comb founda¬ 
tions, which are of great 
assistance to both bees and 
bee-masters in supering. In 
the large glasses artificial foundations about 5 inches wide were 
used from top to bottom down their centres, and the swell or 
wider parts of the glasses had to be left wholly to the bees, 
giving them considerable work. The glasses we are about to 
order for this season will be 8 inches wide at the top, 5 inches 
at the bottom, and 8 inches deep (see fig. 68), in shape somewhat 
like a garden flower pot, with lids to cover them. They will admit 
foundation combs from top to bottom and from side to side, be 
more easily filled by the bees and more saleable in the market. 
I expect when full that they will weigh 9 or 10 lbs. each, glass 
included. My glass merchant in Manchester makes bee-glasses of 
any size or shape with lids to fit at Is. per lb. weight if twelve are 
ordered at once. If less than a dozen are ordered the blowers or 
workmen charge more for their work, and of course the master 
charges more for his glasses. Last year most of the large orna¬ 
mental glass supers sold at 2s. per lb. glass included. These 
particulars are mentioned that the reader may know all I can tell 
him about bee-glasses. I do not sell empty hives, or supers, or 
bee furniture of any kind. 
In using glass supers I use wood lids at first, and till the combs 
are well fastened to and supported by the sides of the supers. 
Bees can work more easily on wood than on glass, and combs 
hold more firmly to wood than glass ; but as our supers are 
narrower below than above, the combs are well supported and 
cannot fall down. When the supers are nearly filled the wooden 
lids are cut off and the glass ones are replaced. 
Amateurs who eat their own comb and care nothing about 
appearance should use wood supers, which are better and cheaper 
than glass, and far more easily managed. We use in supering 
shallow boxes emptied and sold by grocers. In using them we 
cut a hole out of the bottoms 3 inches in diameter, fill or half 
fill them with artificial foundations or guide combs, put lids on 
them, and place them on hives. Supering is made easy and pro¬ 
fitable by the introduction and use of artificial foundations ; and 
there can be no limit to the variety of beautiful designs in honey¬ 
comb that can and will be built on them in our apiaries and 
shown in our exhibitions.—A. Pettigrew, Bomclon. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Cranston’s Nursery and Seed Company (Limited), King’s Acre 
Hereford .—Catalogue of New Roses and Bedding Plants. 
J. Cheal tfc Sons, Crawley, Sussex .—List of Hardy Plants. 
James Cocker & Sons, Aberdeen .—Catalogue of Florist Flowers and 
Bedding Plants. 
W. M. Crowe, Upton, Essex .—Catalogue of Plants. 
o 
TO CORRESPONDENTS.) 
'mMMif 
*** All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. Wo 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Poultry and Bee subjects, and 
should never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended for insertion should be written on one side of 
the paper only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, 
and we do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
City Gardening (A. Z .).—We doubt if there is a manual of the precise 
nature you appear to desire, and we do not know of anything more suitable than 
a small work entitled “ Town Gardening,” written by Mr. Shirley Hibberd several 
years ago, and published by Messrs. Groombridge & Sons. “ Town and Window 
Gardening,” by Catherine M. Buckton (Longmans), might also be acceptable. 
Toughened Glass ( Alfred Taylor). —The glass to which we referred in 
our issue of November 9th, 1876, was sent to us by Messrs. Dick Radcliffe and 
Co., 129, High Holborn, London, but we do not know the names of the manu¬ 
facturers of it. 
Woodlicein Mushroom House IT. TV.).—If you place a boiled potato 
in a flower pot and cover it with moss your enemies will be sure to find it, and 
by having several of such baits and examining them frequently you may catch 
numbers of woodlice. Parsnips boiled soft, and when cold sprinkled with 
arsenic, form deadly baits. The insects appear to eat the parsnips freely, but 
only once. 
Asparagus Unsatisfactory ( F. 0. M.). —If the soil is good, and the 
plants not old, much exhausted, and “ worn out,” the plan you propose of 
resting them (not cutting), for a year would strengthen the crowns ; but with 
healthy plantations in good soil an abundance of fine heads would be produced, 
and might be cut yearly until the middle of June. If you had described your 
beds more fully we could have answered your letter more satisfactorily—to our¬ 
selves at any rate. 
“ Calvary Clover” (E. L. R .).—We do not know a plant bearing the 
above name, but probably you refer to Medicago intertexta, the Hedgehog 
Medick, so called from the spiny appearance of the clusters of fruits. This is 
a native of South Europe, and as well as several other species and varieties of 
Medicago, distinguished by the peculiar form of the fruits. It was at one time 
much grown by lovers of curiosities. M. Echinus, M. hystrix, and M. scutellata 
are all noteworthy for their peculiar fruits. The Christ’s Thorn is Paliurus 
aculeatus, and according to some authors Zizvphus Spiua-Christi, both being 
found in Palestine, and both related to our Buckthorn, Rhamnus catharticus. 
Dendrobium lituiflorum var. robustius ( Ignoramus ).—The flowers 
you send represent a good variety of D. lituiflorum, and from the description 
given of the larger pseudo-bulbs and erect or semi-erect habit we conclude 
that it is the variety described by Professor Reichenbach in the “ Gardener’s 
Chronicle ” 1877, vol. vii., page 781, under the name of D. lituiflorum var. 
robustius. It was imported by Messrs. Low from Burmah, and is distinguished 
from the type by its habit and greater vigour of growth. 
Exhibiting Pansies (F. J.). —The boxes should be painted green, and if 
quite clean, as they ought to be, they will not require to be covered with paper of 
any colour ; but each flower should be placed in a perfectly circular, stout, 
white paper collar a trifle larger than the flowers themselves, just showing a 
white margin ; this is the plan by which they are considered to look the best, 
but the collars must not be too prominent, and their edges should be quite 
smooth, not fringed in a fanciful manner, as we sometimes see them. About 
the middle of May will be a suitable time for sowing the seeds you name, and if 
the plants are properly managed they will flower at the time you require them. 
Vine Management (E. D .).—Without knowing the nature of the soil of 
the border we cannot give a categorical reply to your question. Unless the 
soil were rather light and not rich we think such a dressing of heavy manure 
was not advisable, and a covering of lighter material for protective purposes 
would have been preferable. We should remove some of the manure, or it will 
be long before the sun can raise the temperature of the soil in which the roots 
are working. Your treatment would have been right for heavily cropped old 
Vines, but young Vines could scarcely need such rich fare. Much, however, 
depends on the nature of the soil, and this you say nothing about. 
Roses not Expanding (FI. T.). —No doubt the dryness of the air of the 
house has an injurious effect on the Roses, and the plants, we suspect, are also 
deficient in vigour, or the root-action is defective. You appear to be aware 
that the house is too dry, then why keep it so ? Syringe the Roses daily, 
or twice daily, in fine weather, and sprinkle the floors and walls occasionally. 
This will not only be beneficial to the Roses but equally so to the other plants 
you name, in conjunction with judicious ventilation, and especially not having 
the house too damp when closed at night. No softwooded or free-growing 
plants succeed well or remain long free from insects in a very dry atmosphere. 
Bedding Arrangements (Amateur). —It is not our practice to submit 
methods of planting flower beds and borders, but we examine any proposed 
arrangements that are sent to us, and readily make such suggestions as in our 
opinion would, if carried out, improve the appearance of the beds. Those who 
have the beds to plant must take the initiative in the matter, and they will no 
doubt be guided in a great measure by the plants at their disposal when 
arranging their plans. Again, how is it possible for anyone not knowing the 
district, character of the soil, and whether the garden is exposed or sheltered, 
to form an opinion of any value as to whether Violas will flower continuously, 
or such plants as Coleuses and Alteraantheras flourish ? Then, again, no one can 
aid you satisfactorily in a matter of this kind without having a plan of the beds, 
or at least knowing their size. You do not even state the width of the border. 
