November 17,1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 459 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Stove. —Gardenias to flower through the winter'months, having 
completed the growth and set their buds, will need a brisk heat 
of 70°, the plants being placed as near' the light as possible. With 
a sufficient stock of plants the fine fragrant flowers of these plants 
can be had all the year, but at no season are they more prized than 
in the winter. G. intermedia is the most useful and free-flowering. 
G. Fortunei also has large flowers, indeed the largest, but they are 
not so abundant as in G. intermedia and G. florida. Plants of 
Eucharis amazonica which have been rested for about six weeks, 
after completing growth, must be" placed in briskj. k heat and well 
supplied with water to enable the plants to throw up the flower 
scapes at once, to ensure flowers for Christmas and the new year. 
Bouvardias to flower freely through the winter months require a 
brisk heat and plenty of light. Plants that are'fpartially deciduous, 
such as Allamandas, Clerodendron Balfourianum, Aristolochias, 
Combretums, and Bougainvilleas, should be [dried off, but it is not 
advisable to allow the wood to shrivel. Stephanotis willl’also need 
to be kept dormant by dry treatment, not suffering "even if the 
leaves become a little soft, buUthey must not be allowed to shrivel, 
or they will fall off and impair 'the health of the plants; similar 
remarks applying to Medinillas and Hoyas. Plants of Aphelandras, 
Francisceas, Luculias, Ixoras, Ipomcea Horsfallim, Tabernsemontanas, 
and others of an evergreen character, or flowering during the winter 
months, must not be kept so dry, but have a sufficient supply of 
water to keep the foliage in good condition. 
Ferns .—The temperature should be such as to induce rest in the 
plants, and the moisture proportionately reduced. Varieties of Adi- 
antum, Pteris, Ac., most in demand for decoration and cutting, 
usually appear in the fernery in' numbers, and these when large 
enough should be potted in thumb pots, employing loam with a 
fourth of small crocks, which prevents the soil becoming sour and 
induces firm growth. Where the plants are not sufficiently nume¬ 
rous spores must be sown. 
BEE FARMING. 
“ Can you tell me how to get information on bee-keeping on a 
large scale to make an income of, say, £300 a year on the average ? 
Where is it carried on in Great Britain and America ? What are 
the profits ? And all other information useful to an inexperienced 
person who contemplates it as a livelihood?—W. M. B.” 
Extraordinary as the above inquiries may seem to njfany, they 
are no doubt the lawful issue of much of the gushing matter pub¬ 
lished in various books and journals by enthusiastic or interested 
writers. Occasional profits of hundreds per cent, are taken as 
fair proofs that bee-keeping must be an eminently profitable and 
safe pursuit; but taking our uncertain climate into account, it is 
doubtful if on an average of years bee-keeping in this country can 
be relied on as affording more than a fair ordinary return for the 
labour and capital invested. Under other conditions, such as 
obtain in more favoured climes, experienced persons have made 
handsome profits ; but with the memory of certain notable fail¬ 
ures still fresh, we can do no better than warn “ W. M. B.” against 
indulging in such airy visions as his queries involve. To be plain 
with him, we would say that his project is an impossible one 
under his conditions. No “ inexperienced person” need attempt 
things on such a scale with any hope of success. 
At the same time there is no reason why, under other conditions, 
even an “ inexperienced person,” provided he be possessed of 
capital, brains, and perseverance, may not succeed even better 
than “ W. M. B.” hopes to do. I am at present engaged in advising 
in a case that will illustrate. A shrewd commercial gentleman of 
means, casually called on to market honey from a certain favoured 
island, after two years and certain inquiries concludes that it will 
pay him to start a large apiary in the same locality. He sensibly 
takes the best advice he can obtain in his neighbourhood, and 
resolves to put the whole concern into the hands of the most suc¬ 
cessful practical bee-keeper whose services he can procure. Such 
a one I have just engaged in the person of my neighbour Mr. W. 
Mann, whose name is favourably known to the readers of this 
Journal—a bee-keeper who has both brains and hands, understands 
all about bees, queens, and honey, can make all his own gear, keep 
his head in every emergency, and has been a most successful honey- 
taker for many years. Unless “ W. M. B.” is prepared to under¬ 
take a few years’ training in the practice of bee-keeping, so as to 
get the needful experience, he must be prepared to entrust the 
management of an apiary to some such expert as I havej men¬ 
tioned. That is a first condition towards the £300 a-year. 
In the next place a suitable locality must be selected. I much 
fear the British Isles must be reckoned at best only a second-rate 
one. No doubt in certain seasons an apiary of a hundred stocks will 
yield the desired income in almost any county in England, Scot¬ 
land, or Ireland ; but such seasons are the exception. So far, then, 
as this kingdom is concerned, we would say, “ Go slowly.” If go 
he must, “ W. M. B.” should select the best known honey locality— 
such as County Waterford, in Ireland. I visited it in 1879 on a 
tour of observation, and, after seeing the length and breadth of 
the three kingdoms, I concluded CountyAVaterford, specially the 
neighbourhood of Clonmel, the best honey locality I had ever seen. 
Messrs. White & Son, Grocers, Waterford, told me they had sold 
40 tons of drained native honey in 1878, and I believe they sold 
30 tons this year. Taking into account the miserable system of 
bee-keeping that produced such results in the case of only one 
house, I have no hesitation in recommending the neighbourhood 
as the best in these islands. The enterprise I have already 
referred to is, I consider, safe as far as this point is concerned ; 
the locality selected is all that could be desired. 
“ W. M. B.” may rest assured that American bee-keepers have 
their difficulties as well as we. Although Harbison of California 
has more than once harvested over 100 tons of honey in a season, 
even there there are poor seasons, of which the past has been one, 
so poor that many stocks died of starvation. The eastern States 
suffer dreadfully from winter death, and the southern have not 
been fully proved. 
In the next place bee-farming must be conducted according to - 
the system most suitable for the locality. A style of hive must be 
chosen, the dimensions of which, form of frame, and general adap¬ 
tability, are according to certain laws known only to the ex¬ 
perienced, and varying with the locality and the object aimed at— 
viz., comb or extracted honey. To save labour and multiplication 
of appliances only extracted honey or only comb honey should be 
worked for, according to prices, risks of transit, &c. As meeting 
the case of a warm climate where swarming is difficult to control, 
the apiary I have referred to is to be run wholly for extracted 
honey, the price of which, even on the spot, is so good as to make 
it greatly preferable to a necessarily smaller quantity of comb 
honey with all its risks in tJtesit. 
Such are a few of the poinfflbwi which “ W. M. B.” or others like- 
minded should post themselves. The fullest information on bee¬ 
keeping on a large scale can only be obtained by perusing such 
works as “ Cook’s Manual” or “Root’s A B C of Bee-keeping,” 
American books sold by George Neighbour j& Sons, 149, Regent 
Street, and other hive-dealers. 
Should “ W. M. B.” propose to manage his intended apiary him¬ 
self, dispensing with the services of an expert, he cannot do better 
than commence with three or four stocks in his own neighbour¬ 
hood, and by practice and reading he will in the course of a year 
or two be in a position to judge for himself regarding the practi¬ 
cability of his larger proposal.— William Bait, Blairgowrie. 
CLARIFYING HONEY. 
In taking honey it is desirable to save it from the taint and 
stain of farina. It is rather difficult to do this without loss of 
honey, as both honey and pollen are found together in the central 
combs of a hive, often in the same cells. If the honey be taken 
from the combs by pressure, and then run through a bag of muslin 
or cheesecloth, the danger of having the honey made impure by 
farina is great, and if the combs are broken by using a knife, and 
placed in a bag or strainer without pressure, the danger of having 
impure honey is greater in our opinion. Pure honey has not the 
taint of farina. If the cells of farina be broken by pressure or by 
cutting in taking honey there will be some contamination—the 
colour°and taste of the honey will be both injured. We desire 
quality rather than quantity. Many combs with farina in them 
are placed aside for feeding purposes. Some weeks ago a gentle¬ 
man in Lincolnshire offered to sell me a hundredweight of honey 
in bottles at a reasonable price. Knowing the gentleman had an 
extractor for taking the honey, and believing that his was good and 
pure, I ordered twenty-eight bottles of 4 lbs. each of honey. The 
honey arrived, and I found it to be a mixture of clover and ketlock 
honey injured by farina. If the honey had been purely taken it 
would have been very good. Doubtless the bees gathered both 
sorts simultaneously, and thus mixed them. Let me here say that 
in 
-KEEPER. 
■JpG 
teslas* 
m 
HE BEE 
