330 . JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. c October s, 1882 
winter flowering by liberal treatment during summer, and fully ex¬ 
posed, with the flowers pinched off, and supplied with liquid manure, 
should now be placed in a light airy house with a temperature of 
45° to 50°, in which they will bloom freely. 
Abutilons now are so numerous and varied in colour as to be quite 
useful for winter flowering. Young plants struck in spring and 
grown on through the summer will be stout well-furnished plants in 
6 -inch or larger-sized pots, and with a little extra warmth will bloom 
through the winter, being alike useful for furnishing and for afford¬ 
ing flowers for cutting. Weak liquid manure should be afforded the 
plants, with a light position and a temperature of 50° to 55°. 
'1® 
* ' * | | | | | | m | a | a | , I'a'l's |a|a| »T! T •" | ■ 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 1 
- V/sZtA 
THE STEWARTON AND THE BAR-FRAME HIVE. 
The Stewarton hive had once and for many years an enlightened 
and able advocate and patron in the person of the “ Renfrew¬ 
shire Bee-keefer,” and since his retirement no one has come 
to the front to take his place. This I regret much, for the prin¬ 
ciple of the Stewarton hive cannot be too well known, and there 
are reasons for thinking that its advocacy at the present time 
would be valuable to a great number of apiarians. Many people 
like to follow the fashions and go with the majority. They readily 
spend their money for things last out, hence new inventions are 
the order of the day. Many bee-keepers are going to extremes 
just now. The bar-frame fever is reaching to its height. Dealers 
and hive-makers seem at their wit’s end to get something fresh to 
offer for sale. Old hives receive new and various shapings and 
remodellings in their reproductions. The markets and sljow tables 
are full of novelties. For many years I have privately advised 
many bee-keeping friends to introduce to their apiaries the bar- 
frame hive and give it a fair trial; nay, I have been anxious to 
see this hive spread over the land and become well known, believ¬ 
ing that when this happens we shall have a reaction, and see men 
trusting less to hives and more to their own management. To 
those who follow the fashions bee-keeping is rather an expensive 
recreation. This statement is made, not with a view of disparag¬ 
ing any kind of hive or any system of management, but simply 
to let the readers of this Journal know that novelties are not 
always improvements, and that changing from one system of 
management to another is not the shortest road to success. The 
fact that so many bee-keepers are seeking new hives and new 
ideas proves that the past has not been successful and satisfactory ; 
indeed, we all know that those who follow others are always 
behind. 
Now let us examine the principal feature of the Stewarton hive, 
which is one of surpassing excellence—namely, its constructive 
arrangements for supering. The arrangements to this end in all 
other hives that we have seen are faulty and inferior if compared 
to those of the Stewarton. The Stewarton hive is made of wood 
in several parts, octagonal in shape and 14 inches wide. The 
several parts consist of three breeding boxes, each 6 inches deep, 
and three supers the same width 3 or 4 inches deep. All are 
made with bars across their tops, from which the combs are built. 
There is no crown board, so that if all the six boxes were placed 
on one another we could see through the skeleton from top to 
bottom down through every bar. If a swarm of bees were cast 
into an empty Stewarton they would not know where to settle 
and begin work ; the hive being without crown-board, the bees 
could get out at the top as well as by the door. But there are 
slides used in the Stewarton hive which answer the end of a 
crown-board, and these slides are made to run in grooves in the 
cross bars of all the sections of the hive. This is a wonderful 
arrangement, well contrived, but difficult to explain to those who 
have never seen a Stewarton hive. If we begin to people a Stew¬ 
arton two breeding boxes only are used, the slides going between 
the bars of the uppermost box. If the third breeding box be 
used it is placed underneath the others, and the slides remain as 
they were. When supering begins the slides are withdrawn from 
the breeding box and placed between the bars of the euper, and 
if a second and third super be used the slides are moved to the top 
one, or crown of the hive. 
This simple description of the hive is imperfect, the hive itself 
being so unlike all other hives. But the reader will see that the 
Stewarton hive complete with three supers piled on the breeding 
boxes is about 30 inches deep, giving the bess free access to every 
part of every section of the hive from bottom to top. The leading 
or main principle of the hive now becomes apparent—namely, the 
absence of crown-boards or partition walls between breeding 
boxes and supers. This is the great characteristic of this valuable 
hive. The bars of all the sections being filled with combs, the 
interstices between the bars run from bottom to top, and thus the 
hive is without complications, and the bees have no hindrances 
when at work. In such a hive bees are capable of doing much 
work and amassing great stores of honey. Have we no fault to 
find with the Stewarton ? None with the principle or distinctive 
feature of the hive, which is its peculiar adaptation for supering, 
and none with its size and shape. But I disapprove of wood as 
materials for hives of all kinds, and the Stewarton is made of 
wood. By reading the report of the Bee-keepers’ Association I 
learn that an attempt is being made to introduce the Stewarton 
principle on the straw hive. If the attempt be successful—and 
there is no reason to think otherwise—the straw Stewarton, in my 
opinion, will be the hive of the future. I hope the hive will 
appear and be sold at a moderate price, and never be patented. 
The prices asked for some hives are exorbitant and far beyond 
their value. When I was in Scotland lately, and travelling 
through a bee-keeping county, the train by which I was travelling 
halted for an hour at a railway station near which a first-rate 
straw-hive maker lives. I found him and family eugaged at their 
work, making at the rate of about four hives a day, or say twenty a 
week. I asked if he was constantly employed in making common 
straw hives. He said “ Yes.” The hives he was then making were 
14 inches wide—just the width of the Stewarton hive, and they 
were so well made and so low in price that I ordered a dozen of 
him. I am quite certain that straw Stewartons can be produced 
at prices low enough to tempt even cottagers to use them. 
The Stewarton hive can be managed on both the swarming and 
non-swarming systems, and its mode of enlargement is far more 
likely to prevent swarming than the mode of supering through a 
hole on bar-frame hives about 3 inches wide. This hive has no 
separate apartment, all the work is done in one room, and when 
enlarged the outer walls are simply elongated and the roof raised 
a storey higher. But why object to the wooden sides of the present 
Stewarton hive 1 Wood is not a proper material for hives. It 
may answer well enough for summer, when bees can drive out the 
moisture of the hive ; but in spring, autumn, and winter they 
have not the power of doing this, and therefore the moisture 
condenses on their wooden sides and rots the combs. When men 
have a little more experience wood will go out of fashion and 
straw will be employed. No less than seven prizes were offered 
for straw hives at the last show.—A. Pettigrew. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
V. H. Hallock, Son, <fc Thorpe, Queen’s, New York.— Catalogue of 
New Plants. 
Jacques Yigneron, Orleans, France.— List of Roses. 
Cranston’s Nursery and Seed Company, King’s Acre, Hereford.— 
Catalogues of Roses and Forest Trees. 
E. Webb & Sons, Wordsley, Stourbridge.— Illustrated Catalogue of 
Seed Corn. 
William Rumsey, Waltham Cross.— Catalogue of Roses, Trees, and 
Shrubs. 
_ t 
TO CORRESPONDENTS 
\mmmihiwr 
%* 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. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Poultry and Bee subjects, and 
should never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended 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 rejected communications. 
Lemon (J. D .).—The fruit you have sent is not the same as the kind that is 
imported, but the plant has probably been raised from seed saved from an 
imported fruit, seedlings being subject to great variation. The variety does 
not, at least as represented by the fruit you have sent, possess any merit. 
Peach, and Nectarine (C. A. J .).—The aspect you name is suitable for 
the trees, and you cannot probably plant two more useful varieties than the 
