884 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 23, 1884. 
because she had sold her bees for coin. Well, she bought clothing to 
the value of the money, and so eased her superstitious mind. 
Below are given the two balance sheets of last year, and this ever- 
to-be-remembered red letter year for bee-masters in most districts ; but 
in Cheshire the spring was bitterly cold, and the winds cut ofl: many a 
bee from the shelter of the hive by its pitiless blasts, at one time very 
seriously reducing the population of many hitherto strong stocks. 
May came with bright sun and little rain, but still the wind came 
with relentless energy from the coldest quarter. During the first 
weeks glass supers were placed on my three stocks (one a swarm last 
year), and were filled by the end of the month, notwithstanding the 
often untoward state of the weather and the oDen honey less bloom. 
With June came a great change, and now was a great hum of content 
heard in all the hives, and the moisture ran out of the doors and 
trickled in a continueus stream down the boards, giving warning of 
swarms soon to issue from the crowded stocks. 8uper piled on super, 
however, averted the swarm, and secured me a magnificent harvest 
of honey both in glasses and sections ; 150 lbs. from three stocks is 
the result of this year, and one small artificial swarm. Every pound 
of honey sold fetched Is. 3^Z. per lb. from grocers in a neighbouring 
large town, and so, besides what was given away, a handsome sum 
was reached, sufficient to pay the rent of many a home in country 
districts, and so add comfort to those who need it most—the poor. 
My stocks were in such small hives that thinking them too small, 
this year 1 have driven the bees, and with others purchased from 
ditferent sources I have formed strong stocks in larger and better 
made hives, wherewith another year, if no mishap befal, to gather 
the honey from the sweet flowers and to fertilise the bloom, and so 
enhance the harvest of fruit while taking from the blossom their 
hone}', instead of letting it waste. 
1882-3. 
£ 
d. 
£ 
8 » 
d- 
Stock 
• • • 
... 1 
0 
0 
Honey sold... 
... 1 
17 
0 
... 0 
12 
6 
Value of swarm ... 
... 1 
0 
0 
... 0 
10 
0 
Bar hive 
... 0 
12 
6 
£2 
17 
0 
• • • 
... 0 
6 
0 
Skeps 
... 0 
3 
0 
Sugar 
... 0 
7 
0 
Boxes 
... 0 
6 
0 
Boards 
... 
... 0 
3 
0 
£4 
0 
0 
N.B.—This year the season was bad, and I had not got my stocks into 
good condition, owing to purchasing them so late in the year. 
1883-4. 
Current Expense. 
Sugar 
Bottles 
Supers 
Sections 
Sundries 
£ s. d. 
0 7 a 
0 4 0 
0 6 0 
0 4 0 
0 5 0 
Honey sold... 
£ 8. d. 
7 12 0 
£16 6 
Nett profit 
... £6 5 6 
1884-5. 
£ 
8 . 
d. 
Section crat.s ... 
••• ••• ••• 
• • • 
... 0 
12 
0 
Hive . 
• • • 
.. 0 
5 
0 
••• ••• ««• 
• •• 
... 0 
4 
6 
Bees . 
• • • 
... 1 
12 
6 
Feeders. 
• • • 
... 0 
6 
0 
Box 
. 
.. 0 
4 
0 
Fumigator 
••• 
... 0 
4 
0 
Sugar . 
... 
... 1 
10 
0 
£4 
18 
0 
Here, then, is the result of a very short experience ; but it may, 
indeed, be one of some little use to those who, like the writer, were 
novices in this, the most interesting of all country pursuits. The 
most casual observer will see by a brief glance at the foregoing sheet 
that the capital account now stands at £8 18.s., and that the nett 
profits of the two years amount to £9 2s. %d., so that a very handsome 
sum has been culled from the various flowers that during the spring 
and summer months have opened and died away without having 
given any more practical good to man (save their beauty and their 
fragrance) than what the bees have saved to him. Fjom other 
blossoms, too—those of Apple and Pear, Plum, &c.—the honey and 
the pollen have both been freely gathered ; and here man has reaped 
a double good, for the honey is secured for his future use or profit, 
and the crop of fruit of every kind has no doubt been vastly increased 
by the honey bee flitting from flower to flower. Let bee-keepers 
always at an early season look to the hives that are another year to 
store honey, and see that they are strong in bees and stores. Then 
may they await with confidence the winter and the spring, and reason¬ 
ably expect a good return from their pleasing labour.—T. Marriott, 
Sandhach. 
QUEENLESS HIVES. 
“G. F., Glenbrydati,” wishes to know the cause of his bees leaving 
their hive between September 2ud and the 1st of this month. It is quite 
evident that the hive has been queenless for some time, and very probably 
has been infested with robbers. The killing of the drones may have been 
done by either the robbing bees or by the others, as the absence or pre¬ 
sence of drones at this time of year is not a sufficient proof of the presence 
or want of a queen, even though no brood or eggs are to be found in the 
hive. We have to seek for other signs of the want of a queen in a hive— 
by the bees’ general inactivity, never going in search of water, and carry¬ 
ing but small pellets of pollen, and their continual crowding about the 
doorway, always acting on the defence, but slightly less fierce than a hive 
with its queen. Bees in the immediate neighbourhood are always on the 
alert to find queenless hives ; when this is observed the bee-keeper should 
at once satisfy himself as to the fact. 
In regard to hives being queenless that have no eggs but lots of drones 
now. Had I taken the advice given by a contemporary as to this, I would 
have had only three hives in my possession, because nearly all my hives 
now (15th October) have numbers of drone.®, yet I am sure that I am not 
in possession of a single queenless hive. On the other hand, some queen¬ 
less bees near me killed every drone months ago. Then bees will some¬ 
times, to appearance, use rather roughly drones when they are perhaps 
thought by the bees to be rather sluggish at the time when a young queen 
is on wing. This is sometimes taken by inexperienced bee-keepers that 
it is the general onslaught. In conclusion, I may say that two years ago 
I had plenty of drones in several hives with breeding queens at the end 
of December.— A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
R. Pannett, Chailey, Sussex.— Catalogue of Pelargoniums and New 
Fuchsias. 
Thomas Rivera & Son, Sawbridgeworth. 1884 .—Catalogues of Fruit 
Trees and Poses. 
J. Cheal & Son, Crawley, Sussex ,—Catalogue of Fruit Trees, Trees and 
Shrubs. • 
L. Delaville, 2, Quai de la Mdgisserie, Paris .—Catalogue of Bulbs. 
Edmund Philip Dixon, Hull and Burton Constable .—Catalogue of Trees 
and Shrubs. 
John Kennard, Swan Place, Old Iv nt Road, London, S.E .—List of Horti¬ 
cultural Sundries. 
D. Cannon & -E. Brace, Salbris, Loir et Cher, France .—Price List of 
Forest Trees. 
* 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. \\’’e 
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 rel.fl¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the pajier 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return reiected communications. 
Treatment of Primulas and Bog Plants {Palustris). —The Piimulas 
you name can be wintered in a greenhouse or frame, but P. rosea is frequi ntly 
left out in the rockery all the season without any protection. The soil 
should never be allowed to become dry, but care must be exercised to avoid 
rendering it excessively W'et. The bog plants may be allowed to become 
partly dry during the winter, as they do not need to be submerged. 
Osiers (J. E. IL). —We do not know to which species the names you 
quote ref r. The purple Osier, Sali.v purpurea, is grown for fine basket 
work, as a'so is Forby’s Osier (S. Forbyana); the Bed Osier (S. rubra) grow¬ 
ing much stronger, and is used for baskets of a larger and coarser descrip¬ 
tion. Cuttings of this year’s wood a foot long or more inserted half their 
length at the present time onwards through November will root freely. As 
there are withy beds in Susse.x we advise you to inspect them, and you 
might gather useful information from their owners, and probably obtain 
the cuttings you need. 
Passiflora Jam {Jam). —The fruit of Passiflora edulis, which is purple, is 
eaten as a dessert fruit, and may be also made into jam in the same manner as 
Plums are preserved. The fruit of the hardy Passiflora coerulea, which is 
yellow when ripe, is not eaten. The fruit of Passiflora quadrangularis—the 
Granadilla—is very large, greenish yellow, and is usually eaten with wine 
and sugar. 
Seedling Roses (A. Bye). —We think your Rose well worth growfing with 
the object of fully testing its merits. As autumn blooms the floweisare 
good ; their fault is a lack of smoothness at the edges of the petals, but this 
