JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
V; 
68 
[ July 20, 1882. 
slight pressure on the sides of drones will often cause like protrusions and in¬ 
stant death. A sparrow or swallow may have caught the drone in its bill and 
dropped it. If you catch a drone between the finger and thumb and apply a 
little pressure a protrusion will instantly appear, killing the drone. 
Uniting Bees (J. (?.).—You ask if it “is advisable to unite the bees of one 
stock from which the honey has been taken to those of another stock for pre¬ 
servation, and what method should be followed in doing so?” The bees of a 
honey hive united to a stock for keeping make it very much stronger, and the 
practice of uniting swarms in autumn cannot be too strongly recommended. In 
uniting bees it is an advantage when both lots stand next to each other in the 
same garden. The bees of the honey hive are first driven into an empty hive, 
fed, and allowed to settle. About an hour before the union be attempted the 
stock hive should be fed by sprinkling a pint of syrup over the combs and bees 
of the stock hive. At the end of an hour both swarms are full of glee and in¬ 
disposed for quarrelling, and thus they are put off their guard. In this state 
and as this time the hive to receive the bees should be inverted, and the bees of 
the empty hive cast into it by a violent shake or thump, all placed on one board, 
and the work will be done in most cases without the loss of a bee. The work is 
more easily done than described. In the hands of an expert bee-keeper this 
method seldom fails, but inexperienced men sometimes fail in their efforts to 
copy this plan, and fighting may result. In all cases it is well to be prepared 
with some rag or brown paper dipped in a weak solution of saltpetre and dried. 
A few puffs of smoke of such rag blown amongst the bees thus united so terri¬ 
fies them that they cast away their fighting propensities and seek safety any¬ 
where. Another mode is to drive the bees out of the stock into an empty one, 
and cast the bees of the honey hive amongst the combs and let them have full 
possession for about an hour ; then cast the bees back to their own hive. By 
this method both swarms are placed at a disadvantage, find that they are not 
at home, and have nothing to defend. When both swarms are driven into 
empty hives the oldest queen should be destroyed before the swarms are cast 
together. Some bee-keepers in uniting swarms drive both into empty hives and 
cast them together on a sheet in front of the hive to receive them, and thus 
they unite in running into the hive. All the systems now mentioned will 
answer if the work is well done. Adopt that which you think you can best carry 
out. 
COVENT GARDEN MARKET—July 19th, 
The continued wet weather has impaired the quality of soft fruit. Prices 
remain substantially the same as last week. Grapes remain as before, but good 
samples of Peaches and Nectarines are still in demand. 
FRUIT. 
8. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
8. 
d. 
8. 
d. 
Apples. 
J sieve 
0 
OtoO 
0 
Grapes . 
lb. 
i 
6 to 4 
0 
box 
i 
6 
2 
0 
Lemons. 
case 
20 
0 
30 
0 
Ditto . 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Melons . 
each 
2 
0 
4 
0 
6 
0 
12 
0 
Nectarines. 
dozen 
4 
0 
12 
0 
Chestnuts. 
bushel 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Oranges . 
100 
4 
0 
6 
0 
Currants, Black.. 
£ sieve 
5 
6 
6 
0 
Peaches . 
dozen 
4 
0 
12 
0 
,, Red.... 
\ sieve 
4 
0 
S 
0 
Pears,kitchen .. 
dozen 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Figs.. 
dozen 
4 
0 
0 
0 
dessert. 
dozen 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Filberts. 
lb. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Pine Apples, English tb. 
3 
0 
4 
0 
Cobs. 
100 lb. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Strawberries ... 
lb. 
0 
6 
i 
0 
Gooseberries .... 
i sieve 
2 
6 
0 
0 
Walnuts . 
bushel 
0 
0 
0 
0 
VEGETABLES. 
s. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
dozen 
2 
0 to 4 
0 
Mushrooms 
1 
Otol 
6 
Asparagus. 
bundle 
3 
0 
0 
Mustard & Cress .. punnet 
0 
2 
0 
8 
Beans,Kidney .... 
100 
1 
3 
0 
0 
Onions. 
3 
6 
0 
0 
Beet, Red. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
pickling ... 
0 
0 
0 
5 
Broccoli. 
bundle 
0 
9 
1 
6 
Parsley. 
doz.bunches 
3 
0 
4 
0 
Brussels Sprouts.. 
i sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Parsnips .... 
1 
0 
2 
0 
0 
6 
1 
0 
Potatoes .... 
0 
0 
0 
Capsicums. 
100 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Kidnev. 
0 
14 
0 
Carrots, new. 
bunch 
0 
6 
1 
0 
Radishes.... 
doz .bunches 
1 
0 
0 
6 
dozen 
2 
0 
3 
0 
0 
4 
0 
6 
Celery. 
bundle 
i 
6 
2 
0 
Salsafy. 
1 
0 
0 
0 
Coleworts_doz. bunches 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Scorzo'nera . 
1 
6 
0 
0 
each 
0 
4 
0 
6 
Seakale . 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Endive. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Shallots. 
0 
3 
0 
0 
Fennel. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
0 
Spinach .... 
3 
0 
0 
0 
Garlic . 
lb. 
0 
6 
0 
0 
Tomatoes .. 
. lb. 
0 
6 
0 
8 
Herbs. 
bunch 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Turnips, new 
. bunch 
0 
6 
0 
0 
Leeks. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
4 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
MAXIMUM PRODUCE OF FARM CROPS. 
has been favourable, to understand also as nearly as possible 
under what condition of the land and other circumstances such 
crops have been raised, such as the sort and quantity of seed 
sown. Unless we are assured of the various matters connected 
with our productions we cannot estimate how much of the success 
attending certain crops are the result of accidental circumstances 
over which we may have had little or no control, because, with 
all the experience which some of our oldest agriculturists possess, 
we cannot always accept their statements as satisfactory unless 
we get a full and fair description and detail connected with any 
unusual result in crops offered to our notice under the head of 
Agricultural Maxima. We therefore ask our readers to consider 
how far the greatest crops of any variety of farm produce which we 
may set forth for their consideration exceeds their own crops. 
A comparison may be made of the circumstances attending 
both the produce offered for notice as a maximum, and the 
result of practice under somewhat similar conditions of soil, 
climate, tillage, manure, and variety of production in other 
respects; and we feel that under such circumstances benefit will 
arise in various ways which would never, or seldom, occur unless 
statements of unusual crops hacTriveted attention to the subject. 
We are ready to admit that various great products of the farm 
crops have been generally owing to the concurrence of extra¬ 
ordinary natural circumstances acting on good ordinary farming, 
rather than to any special effort on the part of the cultivator— 
that, in fact, they have happened rather than been sought; and 
we might suppose that these instances of maximum crops were 
of little or no interest to the home farmer. But we view this as an 
unwarrantable conclusion ; for although they may frequently 
come unsought, yet they will be found sometimes to be the result 
of efforts of a new kind adopted by intelligent, practical, and 
persevering men, and it is only by examination of the circum¬ 
stances out of which they have arisen that we are likely to find 
the causes of our ordinary as well as our extraordinary successes. 
Notwithstanding that some particular instances may at first sight 
seem of little lasting service, yet it is clearly on the multiplication 
of them that our expectations of increasing agricultural progress 
are most reasonably built. It is also plainly observable that it 
is the good cultivator only who gives full scope to the natural 
influences when they happen to be especially favourable. 
On the ground, then, of the probability of their usefulness, we 
shall proceed with our instances of agricultural maxima. The 
following record we quote from an essay published in the Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1859, and given 
by Mr. John C. Morton, the subject being “Agricultural Maxima.” 
The object of the writer has, it is stated, been simply to place on 
record a number of well-authenticated occurrences of the kind, 
whether explained or not by such history as is given of them. 
The first record is a most remarkable history, which has probably 
never been paralleled, and may therefore be accepted as a genuine 
agricultural maximum. It relates to the year 1814, and is authen¬ 
ticated by trustworthy eye-witnesses. Mr. William Cubitt of 
Bacton Abbey, North Walsham, well known in Norfolk as an 
energetic practical agriculturist, writes as follows: — “I now 
send you a short history of an extraordinary field of Wheat, 
and also a communication on the subject from the owner and 
We hold the opinion that it is essential to the home farmer 
that he should understand the limits within which the produc¬ 
tion of agricultural crops are confined, or in other words how 
much it is possible to grow of the various crops under the 
most favourable circumstances of soil, climate, cultivation, and 
manuring. If this limit is undefined, the question of tillage and 
manuring must to a certain extent be also hazardous and un¬ 
certain ; and although this is actually the result in various 
instances, it may be well, through the fact of certain crop3 
having been extraordinary in those seasons when everything 
occupier of the land, George Wilkinson, Esq., whose veracity may 
be relied on—‘ This field, situated in the parish of Haisborough, 
about four furlongs from the sea, contains 5a. lr. 38p., and is a 
good loamy soil resting upon a strong subsoil, but sufficiently porous 
not to require draining, and suitable to every kind of cropping.’ 
In 1843 it was sown with Peas, probably preceded by Wheat. In 
the autumn it was sown with Spalding Wheat, about 3 bushels 
per acre. It came up thickly, and in the following spring and 
during the summer it presented an unusually luxuriant appear¬ 
ance, particularly so when fully shot into ear, so much so that 
