JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 9, 1882. ] 
435 
ficial. and should be practised annually when the roof lights are 
moveable to secure the thorough moistening of the borders by the 
autumn rains, perfect rest for the trees, and the cleansing of them 
from insect pests. Where the lights are not moveable admit air both 
top and bottom to the fullest extent, and be careful not to allow 
the soil of inside borders to become dry. 
THE ART OF BEE-KEEPING. 
INTRODUCTION. 
We may safely assume that no apology is required for the issue of 
a new series of papers on the art of bee-keeping, seeing that in prin¬ 
ciples and practice it has of late made such astonishing progress that 
works on the subject are considered behind the times, though only a 
few years old. The advances in the art since the introduction of the 
moveable-comb hive by the late Mr. Woodbury in England and the 
Rev. L. L. Lang3troth in America, with the succeeding inventions 
of the honey-extractor, comb foundations, and sectional supers, 
mark the last quarter of a century as an era of revolution in bee¬ 
keeping ; and signs are not wanting to indicate that we have now 
at length reached a stage of practical unanimity and fixity of opinion 
as to the main principles of the art. To embody these principles in 
a succinct form, and to indicate the methods employed by the most 
successful of modern bee-keepers, will be the aim of these papers. 
Bee-keeping has for thousands of years been one of the most 
attractive of rural arts. Poets have sung its praises and philo¬ 
sophers have studied its mysteries for many ages. To this day 
many are attracted to it more for the pleasure it affords, and the 
marvellous exhibitions of animal instinct it yields, than for the pro¬ 
fit it undoubtedly gives to those who know how to turn these 
instincts to account. It is an art that lies within the reach of all 
who delight in rural employments and recreations, from the student 
of physiology to the plodding country cottager. It has been suc¬ 
cessfully practised by delicate women as well as by robust men. It 
has absorbed the attentions of many whom it has attracted from 
listless apathy or misspent time and talents, and it has been a source 
of increased comfort in the circumstances of many whose great con¬ 
cern is how to get “ ends to meet.” 
We do not, however, urge the universal adoption of bee-keeping 
as a sure and easy road to wealth; for, being an art that requires 
perhaps more than the usual application of intelligence and in¬ 
dustry, it will be readily understood that it numbers among its 
practisers the successful and the unsuccesssful, the latter of whom 
are perhaps oftenest heard of. What we do urge is that all who have 
a suitable situation for a few hives, with the necessary habits of 
industry and attention and a little time to spare, should make a 
fair trial of the pursuit; and what we do promise to all who enter 
the pursuit with spirit is that they will find attractions to fascinate, 
make discoveries that will cause wonder, have their habits of obser¬ 
vation cultivated and quickened, find scope for invention, ingenuity, 
and fertility of resource ; and all these combined with the material 
gain that adds to the attractions of the table and the weight of the 
pocket. 
HISTORY OF THE ART. 
Our limits forbid us to do more than state the fact that the 
ancients are known to have kept bees in a domesticated state more 
than two thousand years ago, and that probably much in the same 
fashion as is common in eastern countries to this day. Hives were 
made out of hollowed logs, or, where timber was scarce, of cylinders 
of clay or of wickerwork plastered with clay. Such hives are still 
used in the East, where it never has been the practice to kill the 
bees in order to get their honey. These logs or cylinders are 
placed in a horizontal position, and the honey taken at certain sea¬ 
sons from the end most distant from the entrance. The natural 
tendency of bees to store their surplus at a distance from the 
entrance is thus taken advantage of. In the Russian log hives 
another advance is made, based on the tendency of the bees to 
store above as well as beyond the brood nest. Tho hives are 
raised a little at the back, and thus the certainty of finding 
virgin comb at the further end is increased. There is evidence 
in ancient chronicles and among the daws of our Anglo-Saxon 
forefathers that bees were at one time altogether wild in this 
country. Previous to the eighth century they were classed with 
foxes and others as incapable of private ownership. Whoever 
found them in the woods was entitled to their honey and wax. The 
honey was highly esteemed as an article of food, and was largely 
used in brewing mead and in medicine. The wax was in great 
demand by the clergy, who taught that bees had been sent from 
heaven because the mass could not be celebrated without wax, and 
under their influence they were gradually domesticated, being kept 
in hollow logs or hives of bark (Lat., llvsca). Hence a hive of 
bees was called a “rusca” of bees, a word surviving to this day 
as a name for a straw skep. As bees now came to be looked on 
as property, the law recognised the right to a wild swarm as belong¬ 
ing to the person on whose land it had settled for three consecutive 
nights. If he failed to discover it within that time the finder had a 
right to 4 d., and if that sum were not paid he might claim the 
swarm. At that time a rusca of domesticated bees was valued 
at 24 d. 
Under the stimulus of a demand for honey and wax we find 
great lords, about the middle of the tenth century, having leo ceorls 
specially detached to attend on the bees, and the slaves gradually 
becoming serfs who paid their feudal lord a fixed amount of the 
produce of their hives. About this time also the name “ rusca ” 
often gives place to the Anglo-Saxon word beo cist (bee chest), or 
the Latin word alvearia, which marks an advance from mere shells 
of bark to more regular hives. Domesday Book mentions them 
repeatedly, and they were even tithed as valuable property. 
Comparatively little progress was made in bee-keeping until the 
close of the last century, when the discoveries of Francis Huber 
afforded the ground for a great advance. Previous to this, the 
natural history of the bees, and especially of the queen, was very 
imperfectly understood. Huber was the first to announce the true 
nature of the three classes of bees found in a hive—the queen, 
workers, and drones. The German Shirach and the Scottish 
Bonner discovered the method of causing bees to rear queens at 
pleasure. At a later date Dr. Dzierzon and Baron Berlepsch esta¬ 
blished the fact of the parthenogenesis of queens—that is, of the 
power they have of producing male progeny while still in a virgin 
state. They also proved that queens mate in the open air, and 
that within from two to twenty or thirty days of their birth. The 
impetus thus given to bee-keeping was followed, as has already been 
mentioned, by those welcome mechanical aids, the bar-frame hive, 
comb foundation, &c., which have brought bee-keeping to the posi¬ 
tion of a science. This sketch would be imperfect without at least 
a mention of those agencies of the present time for the diffusion of 
knowledge in bee matters—viz., bee journals and associations. 
These are now established in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, 
America, and England. In England nearly every county has its 
association, and Scotland and Ireland have several, most of these 
being affiliated with the great central association of British bee¬ 
keepers, whose head-quarters are in London. Simultaneously with 
the establishment of associations have come those interes'ing and 
instructive exhibitions of honey and appliances, now the order of 
the day, by a visit to which a beginner will learn more in an hour 
than he could formerly have done by reading and practice for a 
season. As a result of this revival of neglected industry, honey 
and honeycomb are fast becoming articles of regular commerce, and 
no difficulty is found of disposing of them at remunerative prices. It 
is still to be desired that the remnants of the ancient and cruel 
system of destroying the bees to get their honey should be rooted 
out of many places where they still prevail. The better way, how¬ 
ever, makes such rapid progress, that within a few years the brim¬ 
stone pit may reasonably be expected to become a thing of the past, 
and the more cleanly and convenient products of the modern system 
take the place of the doubtful mixtures of honey, brood, and pollen, 
so often inseparable under old methods of routine.— William Raitt, 
Blairgowrie. 
(To be continued.) 
BEES, BEE APPLIANCES, AND HONEY AT 
THE DAIRY SHOW. 
JUDGES’ REPORT. 
The unfavourable weather that prevailed in June and July, the 
two months during which the bee-keeper usually gathers the great 
bulk of his harvest, has this year told sadly against the supply of 
honey, so that the classes for sections and honey in jars was not so 
well filled as on former occasions. The quality, however, was good, 
and the interest of the public in the bee department generally was 
remarkable, large numbers visiting this part of the Show every day, 
and making careful inquiries of the Assistant Secretary, who was 
daily in attendance. 
There was a good competition for the best bar-frame hives not ex¬ 
ceeding 15 j. and 10s. Gd. in price. The first prize in the former class 
was awarded to the Standard Reversible Hive, exhibited by Mr. Blake 
of Dallinghoe, Suffolk, and is certainly cheap at the price. This hive 
is divided into two compartments. The front compartment contains 
ten frames of the standard size, which are reversible. There are.two 
moveable sides or dummies. The partition is a fixed frame, inch 
thick in the centre, on which is suspended a bar-frame, started with 
