Angust 28, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
203 
advantage to late varieties, as VValburton Admirable, Princess of Wales, 
&c., but midseason varieties, unless the weather be very unfavourable, 
willjripen their wood without such aid. 
Figs. — Early-forced, Trees in Pots. —The second crop of fruit having 
been gathered the trees will need cooler and drier treatment to secure 
thorough maturation of the wood, especially the points of the young 
shoots that will produce ripe Figs next April and May. If the foliage 
has become infested with spider or other insects to which the Fig becomes 
a ready prey when ripening off a second crop, their destruction must be 
rendered complete by the free use of the syringe or garden engine, and 
the application of insecticides when scale has obtained a footing on the 
trees.^ It is imperative that this matter be attended to so as to have the 
trees in a clean healthy condition and the foliage ripened in good con¬ 
dition. The season has been so favourable for forcing operations that 
the wood is in capital condition ; hence the roof lights may be removed, 
which is preferable to taking out the trees, or, where the roof lights are 
fixed, the trees may be stood outdoors as advised in a former calendar. 
Succession Houses. —Those houses in which the second crop is ripening 
will now require careful attention. The fruit as it approaches maturity 
will be greatly improved in colour and quality by full exposure to light 
and a free circulation of dry warm air by night and day, but a check to 
the flow of the sap must be avoided by a due supply of moisture to the 
roots, feeding weakly trees with tepid liquid manure. This should be 
supplied on fine mornings when external conditions will admit of full 
ventilation, as condensed moisture is at all times, but particularly in late 
summer, unfavourable to the ripe fruit. As shoots that have reached the 
full extremity of the trellis become clear of fruit, and successionals require 
the space, they may be cut out to let in light and air to those retained, 
but the points of the latter must neither be stopped nor drawn down 
from the glass. 
Cherry House. —The roof lights should be removed so as to admit of 
the trees being wholly exposed to atmospheric influences. If, however, 
this be impracticable the house should be opened fully, and kept so con¬ 
stantly, and in this case neglect not to give the necessary syringing to 
keep the foliage clean and healthy, and on no account must there be any 
deficiency of moisture at the roots. Until the buds are well developed 
and the leaves naturally assume a mature state, keep the roots well 
moistened and the foliage as clean as possible. Trees in pots will be 
stood outside in a sunny position, and have the pots protected from the 
direct rays of the sun, duly supplying with water, and syringing occa¬ 
sionally so as to keep the foliage clean and healthy. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Clerodcndron fallax. —This is one of the most beautiful stove or 
intermediate house plants that can be grown, for its large heads of bright 
scarlet flowers can be had during every month in the year. This can be 
accomplished by sowing a little seed every two months, and growing half 
the plants under stove and the remainder in an intermediate temperature 
for a time, so that they will come into flower successionally. At no 
season are they so valuable as during the autumn, winter, and spring 
months, for their bright flowers at that season are very striking. Plants 
that have been raised for this purpose will now be ready for 5-incb pots. 
Employ as compost good loam, one-seventh of manure and sand. The 
soil should be pressed firmly into the pots, so as to induce a sturdy dwarf 
growth. If any of the plants are inclined to flower too early to be of 
service, pinch out the point, and compel them to break again into growth 
and flower some weeks later. This should be avoided if possible, for the 
beads of bloom are never so large. When the pots are full of roots feed 
liberally, in order to sustain the health and vigour of the plants. This 
plant is much more serviceable and easier to manage when grown from 
seed than cuttings. If seed is sown at the present time and the plants 
grown on afterwards in brisk heat, they will come into flower at a time 
when they will be most valuable. 
Clerodcndron Balfourianum, —Plants that are intended for forcing 
early into flower will, by this time, have produced good firm wood. They 
should be grown fully exposed to the sun, and in a somewhat cooler and 
drier atmosphere than that maintained in the stove. When the wood is 
thoroughly ripe water should be gradually withheld from the roots, so as 
to induce them to rest early, which is the secret of success in early forcing. 
Plants that have been grown from cuttings and are now in 6-inch pots, 
especially for spring flowering, will scarcely be so well ripened as those 
from which the cuttings were taken. These should be assisted in every 
possible way by feeding, and the shoots of the plants must be close to the 
glass, fully exposed to the sun, for unless the wood is firm and well 
matured a good crop of flowers cannot be expected. A batch of the 
pure white double sweet-scented C. fragrans will come in useful if rooted 
at once in 3-inch pots and allowed to flower in them. This plant is very 
shy-flowering, and will persist in flowering unless very much confined at 
the root. 
Greenhouse Rhododendrons. —These are very useful plants, but not so 
well or generally cultivated as they deserve to be. To keep them in the 
greenhouse the whole year round is a great mistake, for when free and 
healthy they are liable under such treatment to burst again into growth 
instead of forming flower buds. As soon as growth is completed they 
should be gradually hardened and placed outside, in a shady position at 
first, or the sun will brown and disfigure the foliage. It is a wise plan as 
growth approaches completion to harden and expose them gradually to 
more light and air, until they can be finally placed outside to set their 
flower buds and to ripen and mature their growth. By this means a 
greater number of flowers will be produced, and dvrarf compact plants in 
comparison to what they would be if kept inside the whole year. The 
shoots that fail to flower generally become straggling, and in time have to 
be cut hard back. As soon as it can be perceived which shoots will not 
flower they should be shortened to firm wood, and they soon burst four or 
five growth buds, which can afterwards be readily regulated by pinching, 
so that the shoots which flower will have a chance of starting freely away. 
Most of the varieties break freely if the shoots are twisted or bent back- 
w'ards, especially those of which Princess Alice is a type. This is one of 
the sweetest and most useful of Rhododendrons, and will bear gentle forcing 
to bring it into flower during early spring. Those having plants that are 
not outside should harden them and place them outside for the next two 
months, or until the approach of frost. These remarks apply to young 
vigorous plants, for old plants that have firm hard wood and confined at the 
roots usually make short sturdy growth and flower freely. 
Gladiohis ColvilU alia. —The Bride, as it is now known, is a charming 
variety for cultivation in pots either for cutting or conservatory decoration. 
Bulbs that flowered early in pots, if they have been taken care of, should 
now be potted, and will flower again as freely as newly purchased bulbs. 
A number of bulbs should be placed in each pot in any good moderately 
rich soil. After potting cover them with 2 or 3 inches of ashes outside or 
in a frame to prevent watering until they commence to grow and root. 
Late batches should be potted as soon as the roots can be obtained and 
plunged in ashes outside, where they can remain if needed through the 
winter. If not covered too deeply and the growths issue through the ashes 
frost will do them no injury, for they are perfectly hardy, for when wanted 
for late flowering the bulbs are better outside during the winter unless a 
frame can be devoted to them, but this is not necessary when they are 
wanted only to precede those in the outside borders. 
THE BEST HIVE. 
A CHAPTER FOR BEGINNERS. 
The numerous queries on bees and which is the best hive is evi¬ 
dence that many people are perplexed in this matter, and to aid them 
I will state a few facts. The first thing to decide upon is what sort 
of bee should be kept. In consequence of so much foreign blood 
being imported, and the difficulty to preserve the purity of any variety, 
it will be wise not to select any particular sort until some experience 
is gained with the variety common in the district. Afterwards a trial 
of others may be made, and may be found an improvement if care 
is taken to introduce queens of the new variety to all stocks, these 
queens to be raised from original queen under the most natural cir-^ 
cumstances possible. The bee-keeper must now forget all that has 
been said for or against these varieties and test them for himself. I 
have just come home from a moor where there are iipwmrds of 400 
hives. The best in every respect is one of the Ligurian queens sup¬ 
plied by Messrs. Neighbour last autumn and mentioned by me in a 
previous letter. They refute the opinions that they do not store 
surplus honey nor work upon Heather, for there they were doing both, 
and if I could believe ray own eyes to a far greater extent than any 
other, which were working well from cveiy conceivable shape and 
form of hive. 
Were I only beginning bee-keeping instead of being compelled to 
almost discontinue it, and with the knowledge I possess, notwith¬ 
standing all that is said in favour of frame hives and against straw 
ones, I would be content wuth a large per-centage of straw and Stew- 
arton hives. Frame hives I would have, but not to the exclusion of 
straw hives nor to the overwhelming of the Stewarton that has been 
proven so long to be the best for quantity and quality of honejq 
hence has yet to be surpassed. During the past two weeks I have 
during my peregrinations examined several thousand frame, straw, 
and Stewarton hives. K the results are to be taken as a criterion 
as to which are the best hives, then to the two latter does the palm 
belong. In one moor I saw straw hives tiered to 5 feet in height, 
including the supers, which are now nearly completed. The weight 
of the whole, unknown to me, must be great. Stewartons were there 
too, seemingly, as aspiring as the more rustic straw ones. All, if this 
weather continue for ten days more, will tell a tale. In private 
apiaries, where the Stewarton is the favourite, the breeding boxes 
were surmounted with supers containing from 50 to 200 lbs. of the 
finest quality, which is always the case where supers are well raised 
above the brood nest, and that of sufficient size to obviate the neces¬ 
sity of excluder zinc, or queen being crowded out of brood nest, 
stimulative feeding, or the use of the extractor at any time. While 
it is yet premature to give the weights of hives now at the moors I 
may be permitted to quote one instance out of many in 1879. A 
bee-keeper started the season with four straw hives ; by the month 
of September he sold £28 worth of honey, selling it at Is. per lb., 
and had a large quantity for home use, besides increasing his stocks, 
which were left very heavy. Two of his top swarms were in doubled 
