296 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 25, 1884. 
I have a wooden bee house 12 feet long on its front side. On this 
side it holds four hives, each containing twelve to fifteen frames 
“ standard ” size. The hives are placed in a row equal distances apart, 
I foot back from the front of the bee house, and on tabling 2 feet above 
the ground. Opposite each hive in the bee-house front are four holes 
II inches long by 8 inches deep. Immediately inside this, between this 
and the hive, I have a boxed-up entrance porch. I put a piece of loose 
glass on the top and a wooden hinged lid. The hive front is placed 
against the back of the porch, and a hole is made in the back of the 
porch to correspond with the hive entrance. The bees fly right into the 
porch and go into their hive. I can look down through the glass at the 
top at them. If I see fighting or robbing I move the hive sideways an 
inch or two, and the entrance is made smaller. 
In winter I keep two hives with bees in them inside and opposite the 
bee-house front, and two empty hives, placed alternately. I call these 
A and A' with bees in them, and B and B' without bees. They are 
placed thus (see drawing). The swarms (two or three) from A are put 
into B, also those from A' into B^. I have a covered passage between 
the entrance porch A and the entrance porch B 4 inches wide and 1 inch 
high. The bees seem to go backwards and forwards, but I never see 
fighting. I think probably there is less disposition to fight because B’s 
bees have originally come from A. 
In autumn, as I do not wish permanently to increase my stock, I join 
B to A, B^ to A^, or vice versa, as I think most desirable at the time. Of 
course there are supers on in summer, which are all removed in autumn. 
If I join B to A, both queens being equally prolific, I think A’s queen 
most likely to live, because she and her bees have been less disturbed 
than B’s queen, which with her bees have been taken out of their hive. 
Before I commence operations I take the glass off and both entrance lids, 
and move A back an inch from its entrance porch, so as to allow bees 
tumbling outside the hives to find their way in more easily. I also put 
a piece of perforated zinc between B’s entrance and its entrance porch, 
so as to keep the outside bees from coming in while operations are going 
*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. 
Lord Grosvenor Apple (B. G .).—An old and esteemed correspondent of 
the Journal asks if you will kindly allow your name and address to be sent 
to him. If you comply oblige by sending them to us, and the matter shall 
be attended to. 
Datura Stramonium (F. B., Hants ).—The plant of which you send a 
specimen, that has come up in the kitchen garden, is the Thorn Apple, Datura 
Stramonium. The plant is occasionally found wild in Britain, having escaped 
from the gardens, and its habitat is generally among rubbish and on dung¬ 
hills. It is easily known by its large oval seed-vessels, thickly covered with 
stout sharp spines. The whole plant has a disagreeable, nauseous, and heavy 
odour, particularly when bruised, and an acrid bitter taste. It loses much of 
its odour by drying, but retains its properties. When taken internally in 
moderate doses it causes numbness, vertigo, dimness of vision, dilation of the 
pupils, produces a slight delirium, intoxication, and forgetfulness, and these 
effects pass off in five or six hours ; but if the quantity taken be large, then 
all the symptoms of poisoning are presented, as heartburn, intense thirst, a 
feeling of strangulation, delirium, madness, convulsive movements, and 
on. Having put all the brood combs from B into A. I remove hive B 
from its place, leaving the perforated zinc against the entrance porch 
aperture. I put the lid on to a hive and watch the result. The bees in B 
entrance notice that their queen is gone, and in a very few minutes, if 
she in A hive find that out, in one second they turn their heads up the 
passage and begin to rush up. I have seen no fighting; the bees in A 
entrance receive them with joy, and all is right. If the B queen is still 
about the honeycombs in B hive I should shake them over the top of a 
comb, but I have not yet experienced any difficulty; and even if she 
were lost I feel sure the B bees, not being able to get to their own hive, 
would go along the passage to their own brood in A. 
This year I found A with its young queen in a prosperous state and 
full of brood. Its drones were killed. B had done well in filling a 
super, but its drones were very numerous, and there was only a com¬ 
paratively small quantity of worker brood, but there was no drone brood, 
so I concluded there was an old queen. As an experiment I joined A to 
B ; it was quite satisfactory. In half an hour the bees set to work at 
the drones, and at no time have I seen greater vigour than was shown 
on this occasion. I felt sure the old queen, or B’s queen, was destroyed, 
and that A’s queen reigned supreme. 
In my bee house I have a wooden shutter to open and shut, and to 
give light to the top of the bee hives when opened up. The rest of the 
place being dark, stray bees soon go out and go to their entrance porch. 
I find that after joining two hives in this way that in two days the 
B bees fly to the A entrance at once. At first they come to their own 
entrance, but soon find their way up the passage.—A Dumfriesshire 
Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
John Hey & Co., 4, Station Street, Huddersfield .—Catalogue of Bulbs. 
John Kennard, Old Kent Head, London, S.E .—List oj Horticultural 
Sundries. 
Hogg & Robertson, 22, Mary Street, Dublin .—Catalogue of Hyacinths and 
Tulips. 
E.Webb & Son,'W’ordsley,Stourbridge.— Catalogue(f Seed Corn (illustrated). 
Hooper & Co., Covent Garden, London .—Catalogue of Bulbs. 
paralysis ; congestion of the brain ensues, symptoms of inflammation are 
manifested, and death follows in twelve or fifteen hours. M. Orfila states 
that Stramonium acts with more force on the brain than Belladonna, and 
produces more furious delirium. Stramonium smoked like tobacco is a 
popular remedy for the cure of asthma. Its use in this way has been 
derived from the East Indies, where other species are used for this purpose. 
It is the root and lower parts of the stem which are so employed, and the 
smoke excites a sense of heat in the chest, followed by copious expectoration, 
and sometimes attended with temporary vertigo and drowsiness. The seeds 
have the same nauseous bitter taste as the leaves, and in them Brandes 
discovered an alkaline principle, called Daturia, combined with an excess of 
malic acid. It is in the form of colourless crystals, inodorous, and when 
first applied to the tongue is bitterish, but afterwards of the taste of tobacco ; 
its action is poisonous. 
Woodlice in Mushroom Bed (E. Watson ).—Your only safe plan is to 
entrap the pests. There are various ways of destroying them, the most 
wholesale plan being to place some pieces of boiled potatoes near to the 
places they infest and cover with a little hay, and in the morning pour 
boiling water over the hay, so that the baits must be laid where no injury 
will accrue to the Mushrooms by the scalding water. Another plan is to 
wrap a boiled potato in a little hay very lightly, and place in a flower pot 
laid on its side near to where the woodlice congregate or commit their depre¬ 
dations, and the following morning shake the pests from the hay, in which 
they will be secreted about the bait, into a bucket of boiling water. Repeat 
for a time, and the pests will be reduced so as to do very little injury. 
Parsnips boiled nearly soft, cut into slices, and dressed with arsenic form 
deadly baits. These, if placed where the insects abound, will reduce their 
numbers considerably. It is, of course, necessary to so place the poisonous 
baits that no accident can possibly arise by their misuse. 
Extending Vine Border (J. P .).—We should make the addition at once 
to those Vines from which the fruit has been cut; but if the border space to 
be occupied exceeds G feet, we should only extend the border half the distance 
this year, completing it another season. Chop down the edge of the existing 
border until you find the roots, and if a few of these are cut smoothly off no 
harm will be done, but probably the reverse, as it will result in a multiplica¬ 
tion of fibres. We should mix no manure with the loam if it is good; if poor, 
an addition of a seventh part of well-decayed and partially dried stable 
manure would be advantageous. To each load of loam you may add a 
bushel of crushed bones, with about two bushels each of crushed lime rubbish 
and wood ashes. The soil should be worked well to the face of the border. 
