December 18, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
559 
four or five months in better condition and at less cost has inspired con¬ 
fidence in a system which gives relief and rest to the Vines, whilst it sets 
a house at liberty for other purposes and relieves the attendant of much 
anxiety. Of late Grapes Gros Colman is one of the most remarkable to 
grow and keep. It requires a long season of growth, colours after the 
foliage is ripe, and has soft fleshy stalks which are liable to decay, hence 
it keeps best in the driest and warmest part of the Grape room, and is 
one that improves with keeping, parting with the earthy flavour that 
some detect in it. To do it well its roots should be inside and be started 
not later than February, and it will then ripen by September. Similar 
remarks apply to Gros Guillaume, which also requires a long season of 
growth. 
Young Vines in Pots. —Those intended to be grown into fruiting canes 
may be cut back to an eye from the base, dressed with styptic and placed 
in a cool house ready for starting in January. Single eyes should also be 
placed in small pots singly or in turves, and kept cool for two or three 
weeks before they are placed in bottom heat. 
Mailing Borders. —Where young Vines have to be planted in spring, 
advantage should be taken of fine weather to have this compost mixed 
and the borders made ready for their reception. The top 3 or 4 inches of 
a pasture taken off with its turf, where the soil is a light loam, and if of 
a calcareous nature all the better. This is chopped up roughly, adding a 
tenth of old mortar rubbish or chalk broken up similar to road metal, a 
twentieth of charcoal, and a fortieth each of charred refuse and half-inch 
bones, the whole thoroughly incorporated. If the loam be of a heavy nature 
increase the quantity of old mortar rubbish to a sixth, the charcoal to a 
tenth, charred refuse to a twentieth, and the bones to a thirtieth. Good 
clear drainage is the first essential. If the situation be low keep the 
border well above the surrounding level. Have drains of 3-inch pipes 
not more distant than 12 feet, and if the bottom of the border or excava¬ 
tion be wet and soft, concrete it with lime concrete 6 inches thick, and 
let this have proper incline to the drains, which should be laid in hollows 
prepared in and above the concrete on purpose, the concrete being placed 
so that it falls to the drains. The drains should have proper fall and 
outlet. A foot of drainage is necessary, placing the roughest at bottom 
and finest at top, securing with a thin layer of turves grass side down¬ 
wards. In high and dry gardens outside borders may be 3 feet deep at 
the front of the house, and 6 feet wide to begin with, but the inside 
borders should be made first, and the openings to admit of the roots 
passing to the outside walled up, so as to confine the roots in the first 
instance to the inside border, and 6 feet width is sufficient for it in the 
first instance. If the roots are not confined to the inside and kept there 
until the full extent of the border is occupied with roots, the Vines will 
push roots more freely into the outside border in the first instance, pre¬ 
suming them to have the run of both, and it is difficult to induce them to 
root inside afterwards. In low damp situations afford 6 inches more 
in depth of drainage, and 2^ feet depth of good compost will be 
sufficient. 
In constructing vineries the front wall should be kept well up, or 
rather the house should, so that the border will be high and dry, and from 
the front of the house to the front of the border should be a good fall of 
about 1 foot in 6 feet, so as to allow of the wet being thrown off when 
covered with lights or shutters. A little extra first expense in making 
the walls higher would have the result of satisfactory crops, and be a 
great saving in the end, as a low border is irremediable, and is an evil 
that might be overcome by a little timely attention in first cost, and be 
the truest economy in the strictest sense of the term. The border should 
only be put together when the weather is dry, with no more treading 
than to make it even, making it higher than the contemplated level to 
allow for subsiding, which it should do if time will allow before planting, 
and must not be pressed down unless the compost is in good working 
condition. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Boses. —Varieties of Hybrid Perpetuals in pots that are wanted in 
flower as early as possible in the season may be pruned without further 
delay. These should be kept perfectly cool for a week or ten days after¬ 
wards, and then may be introduced into any light airy structure where 
the night temperature is kept from falling below 45°. A good place for 
them until they have fairly commenced growth is a vinery or Peach 
house just closed for starting. Under these conditions the plants will 
soon start into growth if syringed once or twice daily when the Vines or 
Peach trees are done. If previous directions have been attended to the 
soil vvill be full of white active roots, and in order to retain them in this 
condition the soil must not be allowed to become dry or they will be 
seriously injured. The soil about their roots should be kept as nearly as 
possible in an intermediate state of moisture. Later batches intended for 
flowering in succession during the spring may now be pruned and housed 
in any cool airy structure to be ready for starting at any time. These 
must not suffer by an insufficient supply of water at their roots ; in fact, 
in no stage should the soil be allowed to bicome dust dry. Those intended 
for late flowering and just to precede those growing outside in the borders 
should be left outside, plunged, as long as possible until severe weather 
compels their removal to cold frames. These plants when protected must 
have as much air as possible, and should not be pruned before the end of 
February. 
Prunuses. —The double forms, such as P. sinensis flore pleno, are very 
useful for decoration early in the season, and can be readily brought into 
flower by the aid of a little warmth. Those plants that made their growth 
early under the influeace of light, air, and heat, and were then placed out¬ 
side to thoroughly ripen, are in a very forward condition this year. 
Plants still outside are now showin their flower buds, and would come 
forward rapidly in a close moist atmosphere ranging from 45° to 50° a 
night. All the plants intended for forcing should have the protection of 
glass where frost can be excluded from them, for it is not safe to leave 
them outside any longer. Plants rooted last spring that have not attained 
a size sufficiently large for forcing and are still outs de should be pruned, 
transferred into 5-inch pots if they need it, and plunged in cold frames 
for the winter. These if allowed to start into growth naturally will make 
valuable plants for decoration an®ther jear with from four to six shoots 
varying in length from 14 inches to 2 feet. A suitable compost for these 
plants is good loam, one-seventh of manure, and a little coarse sand. If 
the soil is in a suitable condition for moisture when potting, and the pots 
are plunged covering their rims, no water will be needed before the spring. 
Hellehorus niger. —tJood strong clumps studded with flower-buds may 
now be lifted with roots, and either potted or placed in boxes, and intro¬ 
duced into gentle heat to bring them into flower. The flowers of these 
plants are very useful for cutting to fill small vases, and as they flower 
most profusely during the dark sunless days of winter they well repay 
any little trouble that may be required in their cultivation. The clumps 
are best placed in boxes and the space between them filled with soil; 
and if they are not forced into flower in strong heat, and cared for after¬ 
wards by protection in a cool house until they are thoroughly hardened 
and can be placed outside, they will prove serviceable for another year. 
If forced in strong heat they are useless, and, after flowering, should be 
conveyed to the rubbish heap. Clumps outside may be protected^ with 
handlights or an old frame, for the purpose of forming a succession to 
those lifted. It is important the plants are protected by glass or other 
means when their delicate flowers are wanted spotlessly white. Heavy 
rains destroy the purity of the flowers, in addition to splashing them with 
soil. 
1 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
. I ■ I ■ I. I ■ I - I ;t -. I -y: 
PEACTIOAL BEE-KEEPING FOR BEGINNERS. 
Feom many inquiries by beginners in apicultui’e I find that a 
few hints in the rudiments of bee-keeping would not only be 
desirable, but are absolutely necessary to enable them to make 
a fair start. I will therefore endeavour to assist them, and lay 
before them a few points which should aid them to attain the 
object of their pursuit. 
When a swarm of bees is allowed to take its own course in 
the building of combs in an unrestricted space larger than their 
needs require, the form taken is always approaching that of a 
cone, and always deeper than it is wide at its inverted base, thus 
fu ly establishing and confirming the fact that oblong hives are 
a mistake. Then there is another very important thing that 
bees dislike—a vacant space, especially overhead, and they will fill 
space above rather than extend their combs either downwards or 
laterally, especially in cases where there are bees sufficient in 
numbers to be able to extend combs in any direction. Where 
there is a paucity of bees their powers of extension are very 
limited. During the “ Battle of the Hives ” in these pages long 
since, “ A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper ” fully demonstrated that 
the form of a hive materially affected the bees, and decided its 
prosperity or otherwise, but as I have stated, that perfection in 
a hive is impossible. Under these circumstances we have to 
adopt a medium course, selecting and retaining those things 
which suit the nature and instincts of the bees, and which offer 
to the bee-keeper the greatest advantages in manipulation, and 
securing with least expense the maximum quantity and finest 
quality of honey. 
These advantages are to be found in the Stewarton hive. 
This, however, with the majority of swarms is even a little too 
wide, but were it made less it would have to be made deeper ; a 
fault, though, not against the bees, because it is as natural for 
bees to ascend as it is for water to find its level by gravitation. 
The hive would then, however, be more difficult to manage, so 
the medium course is in this case found advantageous, while 
outside cases are in every respect superior to the often unwieldy 
double-cased one, the merits or its demerits of which 1 need not 
enter upon at present, the object of this article being to explain 
apiculture in a rational and profitable sense. The bee-keeper 
should bear in mind that 14 inches in diameter is the maximum 
width these hives should be inside. They will find in them, too, 
great advantages in the horizontal section not required for 
wintering, but containing honey easily fed back by simply placing 
them beneath any stocks strong enough to take it up, after which 
these combs being hermetically sealed and stored in a dry place 
are of great benefit to swarms the nest season. 
When we see a tradesman executing some work in a better 
way and with fewer tools than his neighbour, we at once conclude 
that he is a superior workman, and the same thing applies to 
bee-keepers. A good example is seen in supering. While one can 
keep his supers free from brool and discoloration without 
