494 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 27. 1884. 
EPUEIOUS HONEY. 
As it is customary with most, if not all, honey-producers in America 
to label all tins, jars, and all packages of honey with the name of the 
apiary, the proprietor, and his address, “ A Yankee Reader ” will feel 
greatly obliged if "A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper” will kindly give the 
name and address or whatever there may be on such tins of the so-called 
“ Orange Blossom Honey ” (see page 361) which he affirms is a poisonous 
compound of glucose highly flavoured and coloured. 
“A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper” is very unkind and unjust in his 
remarks, as he at one stroke stamps all Yankees as frauds, humbugs, and 
swindlers. Such honourable men as L. L. Langstroth, the veteran 
Huber of America, who gave “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” the bar-frame 
for his Stewaiton hive. Professor A. J. Cook, A. I. Root, L. S. Newman, 
G. M. Doolittle, Hethrington, Muth, Grimm, Grimby, Given, Hutchinson, 
D. A. Jones, and a host of others through the length and breadth of the 
land are not so mean as to offer an adulterated article and palm it off as 
“ Orange Blossom Honey ” or any other honey. 
If “ Z fLanarkshire Bee-keeper” cannot furnish such names or address 
that will give a clue to the guilty party, I shall conclude it is as much a 
Scotch or English as a Yankee fraud. “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” 
evidently knows what “ Orange Blossom Honey ” is. As he says that it is 
sold in tins as such, there need be no difficulty in distinguishing 
between it and the genuine. Now if he has genuine “ Orange Blossom 
Honey ” (and such an article there is) it is a Yankee production never 
found on the moors of Lanarkshire, and very different from Heather 
honey or any other ; but “A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper” presumes Heather 
honey is the only genuine honey. It possibly is in Scotland. In America 
you can have genuine samples and quantities of Orange Blossom Honey, 
Basswood, White and Red Clover, Mountain Sage, Horsemint, Canadian 
Thistle, &c., &c. Now as all these and several other grades of pure 
honey (as genuine as the beef and Wheat and flour so many Scotch and 
English eat, imported from America) can be purchased here at and 
per pound, who would trouble to make a compound of glucose, &c , 
and to offer it as any one sample of this, that, or the other honey ? Now 
I happen to know a producer and dealer, whose name is mentioned above, 
who has shipped several hundred pounds weight of honey to England, 
and a more honourable and just man is not known in Lanarkshire in 
Scotland, or England. 
Now if “A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” would only acquaint himself 
with the Yankee bee-keepers in their advanced methods of apiculture 
and read their bee journals, their volumes of bee lore, essays, and papers 
read at State conventions by great and experienced men, instead of 
setting the whole fraternity of British bee-keepers against them, he and 
all readers of the Journal would greatly benefit by such action. Know¬ 
ledge is power, and America is the largest honey-producing country in 
the world, and every kee-keeper in the United Kingdom should know the 
source of England’s supplies of honey, both home produce and imported, 
as well as meat, corn, fruit, and the thousand and one things she must 
import.—T, 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Arthur Jefifkins & Co., Westerham, Kent.— General Catalogue. 
Wrench & Sons. Ipswich, and 57, Holborn Viaduct, London.— Illustra¬ 
tions of Conservatories. 
Richard Dean, Ranelagh Road, Ealing. —Catalogue of Potatoes. 
* All coiTespondence 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. AYe 
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.it- 
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 paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return reiected communications. 
Books (Farqukar tj’ Co). —You will find Mr. D. Thomson’s “Handy 
Book of the Flower Garden,” published by Messrs. Blackwood & Sons, a 
full and reliable work. As a small treatise “ Flower Gardening for the 
Many,” pubUshed at this office, post free 4^A, is useful. 
Properties of Grapes ( T. G.). —We do not know that the varieties 
named possess any especial qualities differing from ordinary Grapes. The 
juice of sweet Grapes consists of a considerable quantity of Grape sugar, a 
peculiar matter of the nature of yeast, and a small portion of extractive, 
tannic acid, bitartrate of potassa, tartrate of time, common salt, and sul¬ 
phate of potassa, the whole suspended or dissolved in a large quantity of 
water. Sour Grapes contain in addition a peculiar acid isomeric with the 
tartaric, called paratartaric acid. Grape juice, therefore, embraces all the 
ingredients essential to the production of the vinous fermentation, and 
requires only the influence of the atmosphere and a proper temperature to 
convert it into wine. 
Heating Greenhouse {J. A. S., Burg St. Edmunds ).—A gas-heating 
conservatory boiler has been advertised for some weeks past in the Journal, 
and with pipes from this boiler properly arranged a small conservatory can 
be well and safely heated. If you send a plan of the house or state the 
length of piping needed to the advertiser your letter will have attention and 
the cost of the apparatus obtained. 
Gros Colman Grapes (.4 Lady Gardener ).—We fear you cannot do 
anything now to improve the flavour of the fruit. If you had given 
“ plenty of fire heat ” sooner, so as to have had the Grapes weU ripened by 
the end of September, they would in all probability have been of much 
better quahty. This Grape is often inferior when grown under cool treat¬ 
ment and ripened late in the season, but grown in a house in which 
Muscats ripen well Gros Colman is usually of good quality. 
Heating Greenhouse (if. K .).—Three rows of 4-inch pipes would 
suffice for your purpose. Fawkes’small work on heating would probably 
be of service to you. It can be had from this office, post free, for !«. l<f. 
Rhea (P. G. F.). —Some information respecting this plant was com- 
mimicated to the Society of Arts a short time since by Dr. J. F. Watfon, 
and no doubt you could obtain the particulars required by application to 
the Secretary, Mr. H. Trueman Wood, 18, John Street, Adelphi, London. 
Insects on Brussels Sprouts {Ilattewell). —Aphides have been unusually 
prevalent this year on Brussels Sprouts, Savoys, Cabbages, and most other 
plants of this family, in consequence, no doubt, of the remarkably dry 
season. The frost will destroy the insects, which are not likely to do any 
further injury. 
Anemones Gro-wing {Idem). —It is quite natural for Anemones to grow 
at this season of the year when the tubers have been left in the ground. 
These growing plants are rarely seriously injured in winter, and almost 
invariably flower well in spring. Your plants in window boxes wiU be 
quite safe, and those in pots will succeed in a cold frame, ventilated abun¬ 
dantly during all favourable weather ; but would in all probability be 
better planted out in clumps, not dividing the plants separately. 
Tomato Plants Decaying (77. G. B .).—Undoubtedly your plants are 
diseased, but we are without sufficient data to enable us to account for 
their unsatisfactory condition. Are they exhausted by heavy cropping ? 
Are the roots active and carefuR}^ attended to in watering ? Have the 
plants been allowed to grow freely, and then had much of the growth cut off 
at once in pruning ? Has liquid manure been given in excess ? Any 
mistakes of the nature indicated, or a combination of any of them, would 
contribute to the collapse of the plants. The temperature of the house, too, 
may have been too low occasionally, and you will not err by raising it 5°, a 
little more rather than less if the atmosphere is moist. 
Concreting "Vine Border {D. E .).—As the soil rests on gravel we should 
not think of concreting the border. There is no necessity whatever for 
doing so. The roots may be kept near the surface by mulching the border 
heavily in summer to keep the soil moist near the surface. The roots wiU 
remain where the food is if it is a condition to be appropriated, which it is 
not if the soil be dry. They 'W'ill only go into the gravel if they cannot 
find the moisture they need in the better soil above it. Cut down the 
young Vines now to the extent desired, and plant when they commence 
growing in the spring, in the meantime keeping them cool and the soil 
moderately moist, as allowing the roots to become quite dry is in¬ 
jurious. 
Insects on Cytisus {I. E.). —The|spray sent is seriously infested with 
mealy bug that already appears to have done much injury, and it will be well 
if the plant is not beyond recovery. Cut off all such portions as you have 
sent and burn them, then forcibly syringe the others with strong warm soap¬ 
suds, in each gallon of which half a wineglassful of petroleum has been mixed 
by violent agitation, also continuing the agitation all the time the solution 
is being used. It will be advisable to spread a mat or something on the 
border, or an inch of dry sawdust to prevent the soil being saturated ; for it 
must be understood that a mere sprinkling will be of no use, but the mixture 
must be used unsparingly and -w'ith all the force that can be applied to the 
syringe. Give a thorough syringing with pure water an hour afterwards, 
and do not allow the sun to shine on the plant until the foliage is dry. 
Syringing Fruit Trees {Idem). —We do not remember receiving an 
inquiry from you on this subject. It is an excellent plan to syringe trees in 
houses with a solution of Gishurst compound, nicotine soap, tobacco water, 
or other approved insecticide just before growth commences, and again 
before the flowers expand. The trees are then usually clean until after the 
fruit is set, and after that they may be kept so by the free and systematic 
use of pure water. We never fumigate houses in which fruit is grown for 
the sufficient reason that it is not necessary to do so, the trees being kept 
clean by the use of the syringe. Some persons do not appear as if they 
could use this valuable article and true gardener’s friend effectively. They 
squirt about in an indiscriminate manner, and think they have done their 
duty ; but that is not syringing. Our remarks are now general and founded 
on the fact that we have had more difficulty in teaching inexperienced young 
men to syringe well than to make them expert in the use of any other 
implement. Judging by the splendid crops of fruit, and the clean trees in 
Mr. Rivers’ orchard houses at Sawbridgeworth, there is no practical difficulty 
on the point to which you direct our attention. If there is scale or mealy 
bug on your trees syringe them with the petroleum mixture at once. 
Physalis Alkekengi {Dr. Brodie ).—The fruit appears to be that of the 
species named above, which is known in the United States as the Straw¬ 
berry Tomato, and is eaten both cooked and raw. Several other species of 
Physalis yield edible fruits, which are chiefly valued for their oiuretic 
properties. 
Japanese Chrysanthemums {A Young Beginner). —You cannot do 
better than note the varieties that j ou will find in the reports of the shows 
during the irext few weeks as having been staged in the winning stands. 
The following, however, are good :—Elaine, James Salter, Fair Maid of 
