JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 371 
but a sudden check must be avoided by leaving sufficient for a heavy 
mulching, upon which a little litter may be placed to give it a neat 
appearance. Vines in pots for next year’s fruiting should be ready 
for shifting into their large pots, giving them generous treatment, 
and stop the points when the canes are 8 or 9 feet long. 
Melons .—The fruits on the earliest plants are becoming very heavy, 
and those hanging beneath a trellis should be supported, for which 
purpose there is nothing better than tables of half-inch deal, G inches 
square, with a hole bored in each corner. Syringe the foliage and 
walls about 3.30 P.M., and damp the floors frequently in hot weather. 
Afford water or liquid manure to the roots about twice a week. When 
the fruit gives indications of ripening lessen the supply of water at 
the roots, and reduce the atmospheric moisture, ventilating constantly. 
Attend to former instructions regarding the application of water during 
the setting period and the fertilisation of the flowers, being careful not 
to allow one or two fruits on each plant to take the lead of the rest. 
Promptly rub fresh-slaked lime into any part of the stems attacked by 
canker. Regulate the growth of young plants, removing at least every 
alternate lateral. Plants with fruit swelling in pits and frames should 
be well earthed up, the laterals being closely pinched, and where too 
crowded thinned, placing a piece of slate beneath the fruits raised on 
small flower pots. Maintain the heat at 65° to 70° at night, and 75° to 
85° or 90° by day, and employ a covering on the lights on cold nights. 
Sow seed for succession. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
Mowing should not be neglected now if it can be avoided, as a 
well-kept lawn is of great importance in any garden. Walks should 
be kept clear of weeds, being swept as occasion requires, and after 
rain be well roiled down. Any walks that are showing a discoloured 
surface, or that contain too many small weeds to be removed by 
hand, may with advantage be broken up with a hoe to the depth of 
an inch or two, and have the surface stirred occasionally during dry 
weather. This will effectually destroy any moss or weeds, and has 
a very cleansing and brightening effect on the gravel. After being 
well exposed to the sun and air for a time carefully rake it, and take 
advantage of lain to roll it down again. Coarse weeds on lawns, 
such as Daisies and Plantains, should be removed; the most expe¬ 
ditious way is to grub them up with a spade-like tool. Any dis¬ 
figurement to the turf may be rectified by a slight dressing of fine 
soil rubbed in with the back of a rake, and some fine grass seed 
mixture sown, and then well rolled. 
Roses will now require careful attention to prevent the Rose 
maggot destroying the flower buds. The bushes should be examined, 
and any leaf that from its curled appearance is found to contain one 
of these destructive pests should be squeezed between the thumb 
and finger. The cold weather has greatly retarded the growth, and 
insect pests are almost certain to prove troublesome. Green aphides 
should be destroyed upon their first appearance by dipping shoots of 
sufficient length in tobacco water or syringing them with it. 
The great business of the past few weeks has been propagating all 
kinds of plants to be used for the summer display, and glass struc¬ 
tures in most places are now full of such plants. It would be neces¬ 
sary to transfer most of these from the warm atmosphere of houses 
to cold pits or frames, and other temporary places, in order to gra¬ 
dually harden them. The hardier kinds may now with safety be 
placed under walls or other sheltered places where they can receive 
temporary shelter, so as to make room for Coleuses, Iresines, Alter- 
nantheras, and other tender plants that will require protection for 
some time longer. 
Annuals of all kinds need timely thinning. Sweet Peas, Tropmo- 
lums, Convolvulus, and Canary Creeper require sticks as supports 
by the time they are G inches high. Dust in the evening or early 
morning with quicklime, soot, or dry wood ashes where slugs are 
troublesome. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Stove .—Cuttings of Crotons 8 to 10 inches long inserted singly in 
small pots will strike freely without losing their leaves if kept close 
and warm until they have plenty of roots, and afterwards encouraged, 
they make useful decorative plants. Aralias may be treated similarly. 
The stems of the Aralias lower down, if not too hard, can be made 
into cuttings with a couple of eyes each, and buds on the harder 
parts of the stems will start, and when the shoots are a few inches 
long these can be taken with a heel and inserted in sand in small 
pots. Cupania filicifolia and Terminalia elegans are beautiful plants 
for decoration, requiring the same treatment as Aralias. Asparagus 
decumbens is fine for decoration and cutting, and the lovely A. plu- 
mosus should be grown by everyone with a stove. The bright and 
bold-coloured foliage of Acalyphas render them fine for decoration, 
cuttings of which now struck and grown on make useful plants in a few 
months. Pandanus Yeitchii is useful for table decoration. Suckers 
removed and grown near the glass soon become neat plants. Dra¬ 
caenas are particularly useful for table and other decorative purposes. 
Remove the tops of any plants that have become too tall, inserting 
them in 4 or 5-inch pots, and if kept close, moist, warm, and shaded 
will soon root and quickly form fine plants. The harder parts of the 
stem cut into lengths of about an inch and inserted in pots or pans 
will start into growth, and when rooted they may be potted singly. 
Sonerila margaritacea with white mottled leaves is one of the finest 
dwarf decorative plants, striking freely from cuttings, doing well in 
fibrous peat with an admixture of sand and a few small crocks. 
It cannot endure drought nor the direct rays of the sun. Yincas 
flower when other occupants of the stove are rather dull, and for thi3 
reason are very useful. Plants now growing freely and showing 
flower should have the points of the shoots removed to cause them to 
form bushy plants. 
Cuttings of winter-flowering plants should be inserted without 
delay. Some of the most useful are Centropogons, Thyrsacanthus, 
Eranthemums, Conocliniums, Centradenias, Sericographis, Scutel- 
larias, Plumbago, and Aphelandras. All strike freely. Young 
growths of all strike freely in gentle heat if kept moist and shaded 
until rooted. Cuttings of Begonias now struck and grown on 
through the summer make fine plants for autumn and winter flower¬ 
ing. They require to be grown in a light position and to be well 
supplied with liquid manure in preference to shifting into large pots, 
7 or 8-inch being quite large enough. Some of the best are B. in- 
signis, B. Saundersiana, B. parviflora, B. semperflorens grandiflora > 
B. Ingrami, B. hybrida multiflora, B. fuchsioides, B. Digswelliana, and 
B. nitida odorata. 
BONNER, THE SCOTTISH BEE-MASTER. 
( Continued, from page 289.) 
Profits of Bee-keeping .—Our author argues strongly in favour 
of extending the practice of bee-keeping, and gives us glowing 
accounts of what might be expected were all hives kept for stocks 
for a certain number of years. His facts, however, show that the 
average profits of bee-keeping in those days could not be compared 
with those under modern systems. He instances 30.?. to 40s. as 
what be considered large profits from single stocks in an excep¬ 
tionally good season, though in one case he says he paid £4 for a 
single hive of honey. We infer that the average profit per stock, 
taking one season with another, must have been considerably 
under the smallest of these sums. I have before me some notes 
taken from a modern Perthshire bee-keeper’s diary, which show 
that in 1878 from three stocks of bees he secured 373 lbs. 12 ozs. 
of honey, which he sold, used, or gave away to the value of 
£24 5s. His expenditure was £5 0s. Id., thus showing a profit on 
three stocks averaging £G Ss., not reckoning one stock of increase. 
The same gentleman’s accounts for 1880 show a total yield from 
five stocks of 4G9 lbs. of honey, value £38 15s. His expenditure 
was £5 4.s. 10d., giving an average on the five stocks of £G 14.?., 
notwithstanding that one swarm was lost and one stock had to be 
destroyed owing to an outbreak of foul brood. I have myself 
sold the produce of a single stock in super honey for upwards of 
£11. Though these are undoubtedly exceptional instances of 
profitable yields, I think it may be safely said that since the days 
of Bonner the average profit per stock has under modern manage¬ 
ment been at least doubled. 
The Queen Pee .—Bonner was certainly before his time in his 
knowledge of the true nature and functions of the queen. Before 
he even heard of Shirach’s discovery he practised artificial swarm- 
