August 80, 188S. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
195 
arrives. After potting, syringe frequently in order to keep their foliage 
fresh, and water carefully until their roots are growing freely. Use for 
a compost good fibry loam ; if light, add a little clay that has been 
pounded into dust, a seventh of decayed manure, a 6-inch potful of bone 
dust, and the same quantity of soot or wood ashes to each barrowful of 
soil; a little coarse sand may also be employed with advantage. 
STIMULATIVE FEEDING. 
Mr. Joseph Cook, the great Boston lecturer, says that 
nursing children can be dme scientifically. A great deal in 
the apiary can be done scientifically, and when it is so done 
it is done with advantage. But much feeding is done un¬ 
scientifically, without thought or advantage. Many hives in 
many places require feeding up for the winter at the present 
time. Hives not taken to the moors have not laid up much 
.stores—they have not winter food enough, and require feeding. 
How can they be fed with advantage ? No point in apiculture 
is more important than that of having hives—I mean stock 
hives—well filled with young bees in autumn, for these outlive 
the winter and see hatches of spring brood come to life and 
activity. Hives made strong in autumn by additional young 
bees from honey hives, or by hatches of brood, are strong in 
winter and spring, and can be depended on for great results. 
Sound practice or true science in feeding bees aims at the 
production of brood. Early feeding is resorted to when pollen 
is abundant. Syrup continuously given when pollen is plentiful 
stimulates bees to breed, and if some large cakes of brood ai - e 
produced and hatched in August or September, our bees will be 
pretty secure against weakness in early spring. As soon as it is 
evident that some autumn feeding will be necessary it should be 
■commenced, for it is more easy to keep queens laying that have 
not stopped than it is to make those that have stopped recom¬ 
mence laying. All autumn feeding should be finished not later 
than September. When breeding is aimed at it should be done 
ns early as possible, and continuously. Feeding for storing 
purposes merely in autumn should be done as rapidly as possible, 
for continuous feeding keeps bees in motion and causes them to 
consume more food. The more rapidly winter food is given to 
bees the quieter they sit, the less they consume; but while 
warmth is in the atmosphere and pollen is in the flower, 
stimulative feeding is most likely to be successful in the 
production of brood. 
True science in full play seeks large hives and strong ones. 
By increasing the strength of hives in autumn we add to the 
value of them and the comfort of the population. 
Some bee-keepers, or rather one class or school of them, try 
to improve the condition of their hives by contracting their 
space during the autumn and winter—that is to say, by shutting 
-olf and outside the line of the bees’ action so many bars of comb. 
The hives are thus contracted and made less so many months of 
the year, autumn and spring at any rate. Whatever end this 
practice may serve it does not strengthen the population of 
hives; it does not increase their number of bees in autumn, and 
that is a point of prime importance. Far better fill a good-sized 
house with bees than break it up or break it down by con¬ 
traction for the comfort of a smaller number. I have never 
been able to see anything scientific in the practice of cutting 
up and contracting hives in autumn. Advanced apiarians who 
follow the swarming system of management strengthen their 
stocks in autumn by adding to them the populations of other 
hives. In good seasons the honey hives make the others strong, 
and in poor seasons the bees of the weak hives make the strong 
ones stronger. By ever adding to the strength of our hives, we 
thus keep within the lines of safe and successful practice.— 
A. Pettigrew. 
SADDLER’S TABLET CANDY—FLOUR CANDY. 
As I am a sugar-boiler by trade I hope I may be able to 
make it plain to every bee-keeper how to make this excellent 
bee-food. To 7 lbs. of sugar—Dutch crushed is the best—add 
6 gills cold water and a teaspoonful cream of tartar; put it in 
a brass or copper pan, and stir it occasionally to melt the sugar; 
do not stir any after it comes to the boil, but see that the sugar 
is properly melted. Boil it until when taking a little out with a 
spoon and putting it among cold water it will form a soft ball 
between your fingers ; set it to cool till it is lukewarm, and get 
ready as many broth-plates as you will require to hold it; 
put a sheet of paper into each plate, grease the paper if you 
want it to come off. Then take a stick and stir your sugar, 
work it on the side of the pan until it turns white or “ greasy,” 
as confectioners term it, then empty it into your plates and 
allow it to cool. To make flour candy add half a pound of peas- 
meal before you commence to stir it. But it will not need to be 
quite so high boiled if you are to add the flour; do not add the 
flour before you boil it unless you want it to boil on the fire; 
and before you take a second boiling be careful to wash all the 
flour out of your pan. Mr. Hewitt advises the use of salt, but salt 
will not kill the grain of the sugar so well as cream of tartar, 
and unless the grain is properly killed bees carry a lot of the 
large grains of sugar out and it is lost. In using these cakes all 
you have to do is to lift the quilt and place one on the top of 
the bars, or with skeps set them on top with a hole cut to let 
the bees get at it. I sell a large quantity of it to bee-keepers 
here, and have used little else for the past four years. Last 
September I took all the honey from a stock covering twenty- 
eight Woodbury bars, and gave it 27 lbs. of tablet at three times, 
two cakes lbs. each time, and in spring it was very strong and 
only needed 2 lbs. of cake. 
I am convinced that if the above tablet is made as I have 
directed, it is only to be tried to bring it into general use. 
Putting it on the top of bars in autumn serves two purposes— 
viz., for food, and as a passage for the bees from one comb to 
another, and that in the warmest part of the hive.— Jas. 
Saddler, 31, East High Street, Forfar. 
P.S.—No honey here this year yet, top swarms starving.— 
(.British Bee Journal.) 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
W. Cutbush & Son, Highgate, London, and Barnet, Herts.— Catalogue, 
of Bulbs. 
Harrison & Sons, Leicester.— List of Bulbs. 
Louis de Srnet, Ledeberg-lez-Gand, Belgium.— Supplement to the General 
Catalogue. 
B. S. Williams, Upper Holloway, London.— Bulb Catalogue. 
James Veitcb & Sons, King’s Road, Chelsea.— Catalogue of Bulbs 
(illustrated). 
W. Webb & Sons, Wordsley, Stourbridge.— Catalogue of Bulbs (illus¬ 
trated). 
Joseph Schwartz, Route de Vienne, Lyon, France.— Catalogue of Boses. 
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. We 
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 Bee subjects, and should never 
•end more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended 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. 
Books (F'. F., Euston Road). —There is no work published on the subject 
you mention. (T. D.). —Our “Garden Manual,” price Is. 6<L, post free 
Is. 9 d., we think answers to your description of being “ cheap, compre¬ 
hensive, concise, and practical.” (Windsor). —Anew edition of the “Fruit 
Manual ” is in preparation, and will be published as soon as possible. 
(La France). —As a “ large and complete” work on the subject, “Vines and 
Vine Culture ” by Mr. Barron surpasses all others, and can be had from 
this office, price 10s., 10s. 6d. post free. 
American Blackberries ( Rosarian ).—The Parsley-leaved Bramble that 
has been mentioned approvingly in the Journal is one of the best we have 
seen. This is not the time for procuring plants, and those who have them 
for sale will act wisely by advertising them during the planting season. 
We never recommend dealers. 
“ Jeregabseybacki” (A. II.). —We do not know a plant bearing the 
above name, but it resembles some of the native names of the Japanese 
Maples, of which numbers have been imported of recent years, and one firm 
sends them out under the native titles. 
Leaves for Skeletonising (Elgie). —One or two of the specimens you 
require would not be readily obtained in the manner you suggest. We 
will first see what we can do in the matter, and you shall hear from us in 
the course of a week or two. 
