September 4, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
227 
good display be expected from them. No greater mistake could be made 
than sowing seeds thickly in drills or otherwise, and allowing the seed¬ 
lings to become drawn and weakly. The plants should eventually be trans¬ 
planted to their flowering quarters with a good ball of soil about their 
roots, or they may not get established before very cold weather sets in. 
Freely thin out the lines or patches of Forget-me-nots, Saponarias, Silenes, 
Limnanthes, Nemophilas, and any hardy plants that may be sown, and 
prick out the thinnings on good light soil. These may not make much 
further progress as far as top growth is concerned, but they will root 
afresh, and the thinning-out will thus admit of all being readily trans¬ 
planted when the time arrives for filling the flower beds for the winter. 
Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks .—It is getting late for layering the 
two former, but it is yet possible, owing to the extra warm state of the 
ground, to successfully layer a few of each. Commence by loosening the 
soil about the plants with a fork, and if at all dry give a good soaking of 
water ; then surround them with a depth of about 3 inches of good 
sandy loam, with a little leaf soil added, making this rather firm. Trim 
or strip off the lower leaves of the growths to be layered, then at a con¬ 
venient distance from their bases half cut through their stems just below 
a joint; next cut them upwards through the joint, and carefully but firmly 
peg down into the new soil. It is at the half-severed and split 
joint where the roots will form, and care should be taken to keep this 
uniformly moist and sufficiently buried. Pipings or side shoots of Pinks 
are best taken off, lightly trimmed, and dibbled in firmly in handlights 
placed near a north wall, and partially filled with good sandy soil, but 
those taken off at this time should be given a little bottom heat. All the 
rooted plants of the commoner or hardiest kinds of Carnations, Picotees, 
and Pinks, including early-raised seedlings, may well be permanently 
planted at once, and they will then become established before the winter 
and bloom well next season. They delight in well-enriched deeply dug 
soil, and in all low-lying or badly drained positions should be planted in 
beds raised well above the ordinary level. We usually plant them about 
12 inches apart each way. All the choice or delicate sorts, as well as late- 
raised seedlings, should be potted or boxed off, and winter in dry and cold 
frames. They must be protected from severe frosts, but not “ coddled.” 
Saving Seed of Annuals .—The present season has been exceptionally 
favourable for seed-saving, and many will collect some of various kinds 
who are not generally in the habit of so doing. Much judgment, how¬ 
ever, must be exercised in the matter, or next season they may find they 
will have a much poorer variety than usual. The commoner or rather 
inferior kinds are the most free seeders, and these the professional seed- 
grower weeds out as much as possible, or otherwise they would spoil the 
stock. We prefer to purchase Stocks, Asters, Zinnias, Dianthuses, Scabious, 
single Dahlias, Lobelia, and Phloxes, these from a good source invariably 
proving superior to our own saving. The seed-pods should be collected 
directly the seeds are changing colour and before much rain has fallen, 
laid on paper on dry shelves, and cleaned and stored as soon as thoroughly 
ripened. 
PEA.CTIOAL HINTS TO BEE KEEPERS. 
The sudden change of temperature from 80° to 55° during 
the day reminds us that manipulation with bees becomes more 
and more difficult every day, while exposing the combs but for a 
few seconds will incite robbing, and may end in a general melee 
amongst apiaries even at a considerable distance. No time there¬ 
fore should be lost in getting all necessary driving and depriving 
to a close. Whenever robbers are suspected to be about, the 
manipulated hive should be taken indoors and operated on 
there, in an apartment with but one window (or if two, one to be 
darkened). After the manipulation it must be opened so that the 
bees will escape to their original site on which the hive will have 
been again placed. The best time for manipulation is between 
the hours of 1 and 3 p.m. Great care should be ta' en neither to 
expose sugar nor portions of honey or comb. What bees would 
pass unheeded during fine weather when honey was plentiful 
will now be readily and greedily appropriated by them, giving 
them a vicious temper and a desire for more, which causes 
great and often irreparable loss. Straw hives standing bare 
often cause much robbing; so it is advisable, not only for the 
resent but for the future well-being of the bees and profit to the 
ee-master, to have all hives carefully sorted and arranged for the 
winter at an early date, and left unmolested until the spring. 
RE-QUEENING HIVES. 
Although queens are sometimes safely introduced shortly after 
the deposition of the reigning monarch with the hive full of eggs 
and brood, still it must be borne in mind that there is always a 
risk for the safety of the queen under these conditions. The 
only safe way to introduce is after the bees have no power to 
raise a successor, and the alien queen caged over or amongst the 
bees for forty-eight hours. I always introduce queens from 
over the top of the bees in such a manner and in such a cage 
that I can witness the action of both; and until I cannot discover 
a single crooked back, when I know that they are fraternised, do 
I allow them to meet, admitting the one to the other quietly and 
almost imperceptibly. 
A successful plan of introduction is to take a piece of honey¬ 
comb, or, even better, brood comb, and cage the alien queen with 
a few attendants, though perhaps better alone over the bees. 
This gives the queen the scent of the hive she is to be introduced 
to, and the bees hatching wall require no reconciliation, but take 
to her at once without inquiring whether she is their mother. 
Meanwhile the bulk of the bees will be prepared to accept her 
from those that have been paying court to her through the cage, 
and which have communicated her presence to those below. 
QUEENLE3S HIVES. 
It is generally understood that hives which carry pollen are 
in a normal state and possess a queen, but this is not always the 
case, and beginners are apt to be deceived. A practical bee¬ 
keeper can often tell at a glance on a fine day whether a hive is 
in a normally prosperous condition or not, but sometimes the 
best are cheated. Where the queen is a drone-breeder time will 
soon decide by the presence of drones which queen should at 
once be removed and superseded by a fertilised one. Where the 
slightest doubt exists as to the presence of a queen an examination 
should at once be made, and a queen added in every case, using 
the necessary pi-ccautions. A sure sign of the w’ant of a queen 
is when bees are observed to crow'd out and loiter at the entrance : 
if the ear is placed close to the hive an irregular and disconsolate 
hum will be heard. The want of a queen may occasionally cause 
the loss of a hive, but cai'elessness in manipulation and feeding 
may ruin the whole apiary. Nor is inattention to make the hive 
comfortable with freedom from damp and moisture, and well 
ventilated less destructive, so particular attention should be 
given to these hints, and remember the greater the quiet and 
rest from now till March the greater the success is likely to be 
When the young bee-keeper finds advice of a conflicting nature, 
let him remember there is but a step between the right and the 
wrong way, and on that little depends the success or failure. 
He must therefore under these difficulties think and act for him¬ 
self, putting the thing to the test, and discover which is right 
and which is wrong. At all times put most stress upon that 
teaching that asserts and is in accordance with the nature and 
instinct of the bees. In another article I will show under what 
treatment and management the bees have been profitable or 
otherwise at the Heathei*.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
PEOCEEDING AT AN AMERICAN BEE-KEEPERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
At the Marshall County Bee-Keepers’ Association, on July 5th, essays 
were read and discussions ensued. 
REQUIREilENTS IN MODERN BEE-KEEPING (MR. PUTNAM). 
A good bee-keeper always needs skill, but in the changed conditions 
of modern bee-keeping a different kind of skill is needed from that 
required by our fathers and grandfathers. This is more largely the case 
in the West than in the East, but true in both places. Formerly it was 
mostly manual skill in the u.se of simple implements, such as the straw 
skep and the common box hive; but now the apiarist needs to know 
how to adjust his hives and care for his bees in order to produce the 
greatest profits. 
Bees properly handled call for little manual expertness to manage 
them ; but to manipulate the present implements requires a degree of 
mechanical skill that a large proportion of our bee-keepers do not 
pos.sess. 
Every careful observer must recognise the fact that the lack of skill 
in managing and caring for his bees is one of the most potent sources of 
loss to the apiarist. We have known one man to care for 100 colonies as 
cheaply as another one would thirty colonies—the former buying and 
using only what was really needed, while the latter bought more than he 
could use, thinking that the supplies produced the desired results. 
‘ Economy is wealth” is an old adage, but it does not apply to api¬ 
culture with more force than to anything else ; and to be too economical 
does not pay any better than being too extravagant. Using only what is 
needed, and no more, will produce the best results. 
According to appointment, Mr. J. W. Sanders then read the following 
essay, entitled 
THE NECESSITIES OP MODERN BEE-KEEPING. 
We think that the firtt thing in order to become successful is to use 
a hive that is plain, cheap, simple of construction, and easy to manipulate 
for all purposes. We want a hive which contains moveable frames in 
the brood-chamber, and one that is similar to the other hives in the same 
apiary. Then we can exchange the combs or frames from one to 
another whenever necessary, which we find is often the case where wo 
have a number of colonies to look after. A moveable-frame hive also 
allows us the privilege of examining a colony whenever it is necessary. 
Where we allow natural swarming it is best that we examine the 
