88 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 12, 1883. 
kinds, or they will make' poor progress. Slugs where troublesome may 
be checked by nightly dustings of soot and slaked lime, or they may be 
trapped with Cabbage leaves. Wire netting only will keep off rabbits 
and hares, and this if unsightly may as a rule be taken up in the daytime. 
Carpet Beds. —The Sedums and Pyrethrums in particular are growing 
rapidly and require frequent attention. The flowers are usually trimmed 
off the former, and it is kept in its place with the hand shears. If 
allowed to unduly extend, Sedums most injuriously affect the growth of 
any plants near. Pyrethrums, especially where employed far dividing 
purposes, should be kept closely pinched or plucked into shape, and on 
the first appearance of the flower stems these should be pinched hard 
back. When plucking only about half the leaves should be taken, the 
aim being to secure a fine line of yellow without the stalks being un¬ 
sightly. Alternantheras ought to be pegged down, or if only too tall 
should be pinched back ; Mesembryanthemums to be regulated and 
pegged down and have the seedpods pinched off. Cannell’s Dwarf 
Ageratum is very effective and requires but little attention. Iresine 
Herbstii to be pegged down, and if growing too coarsely to have some 
of the roots severed on each side with an old knife. All blooms to be 
kept pinched off the Echeverias, as carpet beds are failures unless neat 
and regular. Mentha and other groundwork plants where too strong 
should be thinned out and well flattened with the hand. This pressing 
will also tend to establish and spread such plants where too thin. 
Budding Roses. —When the young reserved growths on the Briars 
are sufficiently matured so as to admit of the bark opening or running 
freely, budding may safely be performed. If delayed later the bark may 
cling to the wood, especially if the weather be dry, and a difficulty may 
also be experienced in separating the buds from the Rose shoots. Those 
budded early frequently form strong growths the same season ; but as 
a rule these do not equal those growths resulting from buds which have 
lain dormant till the spring. Much of our budding was performed late 
last season, and from the dormant buds we have secured exceptionally 
strong heads this season. In dry hot weather it is advisable to water 
the Briars a time or two prior to budding, and to shade the inserted buds 
with Cabbage leaves for about a week. Excellent directions, more espe¬ 
cially with regard to budding dwarf stocks, are to be found on page 493 
of the last volume of this Journal, and it only remains to be added that 
the buds in the case of tall Briars should be inserted in the young growths 
as near the main stem as possible, to which they then eventually become 
strongly united. 
Selection of Roses for Present Budding. —The prize blooms we see at 
the shows are principally obtained from the first growth from the bud, 
or maidens. Those beginners who are ambitious to compete should be 
contented with a limited selection of varieties, budding annually a con¬ 
siderable number of Briars with each, the aim being to have a number 
to choose from. In any case it is a mistake to increase the stock of 
second-rate varieties, seeing how cheaply buds of superior varieties can be 
bought. No collection should fail to include Duke of Edinburgh, John 
Hopper, Mons. E. Y. Teas, Marie Baumann, Charles Lefebvre, Maurice 
Bernardin, A. K. Williams, Etienne Levet, Alfred Colomb, Dupuy Jamain, 
Hippolyte Jamain, Charles Darwin, Annie Laxton, Centifolia rosea, 
• Capitaine Christy, Comtesse de Chabrillant, Duke of Connaught, Duke 
of Wellington, FraDQois Michelon, General Jacqueminot, J. S. Mill, La 
France, Mabel Morrison, Madame Gabriel Luizet, Marquise de Ca9tellane, 
Mrs. Baker, Prince Arthur, Sdnateur Yaisse, and Sultan of Zanzibar. 
SUPERING. 
(Continued from page 17.) 
Many beginners in bee-keeping fail to get their supers entered 
through not putting them on at the right moment. Either they 
are too precipitate or too tardy in applying them. If the super 
be put on too soon it often defeats the object in view, for it 
gives space into which the hot air from the hive can rise, and by 
lowering the temperature below causes the bees to cluster closer 
over the brood; and should showery weather approach, the like¬ 
lihood is that the bees will either not mount into the super at 
all, or use it as a place to hang idle in, as heaps of bi’ood hatch 
out and make every preparation to swarm at the first opportunity. 
Again, if the super be put on too late, the chances are that the 
bees have already started queen cells, and after clustering in the 
super for a few hours, or a day or two, they swarm, and give 
the novice bee-keeper much trouble in finding and excising royal 
cells and returning the swarm, should he determine on getting 
honey in preference to an increase of stock. The conditions 
under which a super may be put on, with the greatest number 
of chances in favour of getting it entered at once and sucess- 
fully worked out, are, first, a plentiful flow of honey from 
natural sources; secondly, warm genial weather, which will 
generally accompany the former; thirdly, such a mas3 of bees 
in the hive a3 to cause evident want of extra room. 
When bees crowd out on the floor-board or over the outside 
of the hive they are generally in a state to build comb. We 
speak of bees idling under such conditions, but we have often 
thought that they are in such a state that they cannot work, so 
far as to the in-gathering of honey, pollen, and water. The 
food they take, subjected to the high temperature of the hive, 
is rapidly converted into wax, and they are so overburdened with 
this secretion that they cannot fly far and wide. We noticed a 
few days ago that the large floor-board over which a huge cluster 
of bees had been hanging round a straw skep was covered with 
minute sparkling flakes of wax, which glittered like mica. We 
collected a quantity of these flakes, and also examined several 
bees from the heap, all of which had scales of wax exuding from 
the segments of the abdomen. These bees, according to our 
own ideas, could not work in the fields, whereas natural condi¬ 
tions were all in a ripe state for comb-building. Yet the cottager 
to whom the bees belonged was losing the valuable opportunity. 
They have neither built super combs nor swarmed, for during 
the last few days unsettled weather has drawn them into the 
hive again; the golden opportunity has passed (at least for the 
present), and their owner has neither surplus honey nor addi¬ 
tional stock. 
There are many ways of getting bees to enter supers when 
enticement is required to supplement natural conditions. A few 
pieces of fresh clean comb with a little honey in them will 
cause the bees to mount eagerly into the super; and, once there, 
they will be induced to commence operations instead of content¬ 
ing themselves with carrying the honey down below. When 
putting on supers to bar-frame hives we extract as much heney 
as possible from the surroundings of the brood-nest. The bees 
at once set to work to repair the dilapidations, and by cleaning 
out the cells swallow much honey, which is rapidly converted 
into wax, and the foundation guides at once offer in the supers 
a suitable place on which to work and use up the newly-formed 
wax. When placing supers on skeps (all natural conditions as 
above mentioned being present) we have taken off the caps from 
as much stored honey as we could get at with a thin sharp knife, 
and this has had the same result as in the case of extracting 
from the frames in the modern hives. 
When bees first enter supers and a sudden change in the 
weather brings wet and cold, unless supers are intended for 
exhibition, and therefore subject to rules as to the mode of 
filling, we have kept the bees at work on the combs by the appli¬ 
cation of a little syrup in a feeder placed over the super, giving 
access to the syrup only through three pin-holes. This has been 
employed in comb-building, and on more than one occasion tided 
us over two or three days, during which the bees would have 
certainly retired below. We have always found it difficult to 
get bees to re-enter a super having once deserted it. We would 
use a word of caution as to the syrup dodge of retaining bees in 
a super. The smallest quantity should be given at a time, or 
some might be stored, and the supply stopped at once when the 
return of warmth and sunshine renews the natural flow of 
honey. We have again sometimes drummed bees up from a 
skep into a super, and succeeded in retaining them there. 
Above all let two things be borne in mind—natural conditions, 
as stated above, must be present when the super is placed over 
the hive, and once the bees are in it, it must be kept as warm as 
possible. Glass, to our mind, should be avoided; bees show a 
decided disinclination to accept it, and its cold nature is in every 
way detrimental to comb-building.—P. H. P. 
STRAW STEWARTON HIVE. 
Yotjk correspondent, “A Novice,” does not quite understand the 
description given of the straw Stewarton hive, and seeks answers to the 
following questions :— 
1, What is the width and depth of the rims ? Hive-rim and super are 
all 15 inches wide inside. The rim is 1 ^ inch deep, the straw sewed to 
the rim 12 inches, and the super 3§ deep. 
2, Are the rims grooved for the first roll of straw ? No ; they are bent 
and made like riddle rims, about three-eighths of an inch thick, pierced 
with holes an inch apart for cane-stitching. The bars are let into the 
rims just level with their tops, or, in other words, to the depth of the 
thickness of the bars, but quite across the edges to the outside of the bars. 
3, Should the straw lid be flat on the bars or raised in the centre, so 
that the bees can walk over the bars ? My lids are slightly rounded, 
though they were ordered to be made flat. 
4, Are the bees sure to build on the bars ? Twenty of these hives have 
been filled here with swarms, and in no one instance have we found the 
bars disregarded, or the combs built from the crown-lids, or any attempt 
made to cross the bars. In this respect all has gone well so far. 
As the supers are of equal width with the rims and hives, and made to 
fit both top and bottom of the hive, it is easy to use a super for feeding 
purposes by slipping it in either above or below the hives. If used 
above a dish of syrup could be placed on the bars, and if used below the 
dish should be placed on the floor board. The Stewarton hives offer 
many facilities in bee-management, especially in supering. We like 
