November so, 1882 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 509 
The old mulching material should be removed from the border, and 
fresh material supplied to the extent of 3 inches thickness of partially- 
decayed manure. Later houses should also be cleansed, and every¬ 
thing needed done, so that a start may be made at the proper time. 
Ventilate freely in favourable weather, closing during the prevalence 
of frost. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Orchids .—Most of tbe occupants of the East Indian house will 
now be resting ; and though less moisture must be provided, it must 
not, nevertheless, be entirely withheld ; but as the temperature in the 
morning is rising, as it should by nine o’clock, water must be sprinkled 
over the paths and between the plants, and any plants requiring 
water must be given enough to keep the sphagnum damp. All water¬ 
ing and syringing must be completed before noon, so as to insure the 
house becoming dry before the temperature is lowered, for a cold and 
wet atmosphere is provocative of disease. During warm foggy 
weather the houses should be kept comparatively dry, the ventilators 
being kept close, and no more opening of the doors allowed than is 
absolutely necessary ; but a little air may be given on fine days to 
prevent the temperature rising too high. Cattleyas and Dendrobiums 
except such as are on blocks or newly imported, should not receive 
any water at their roots. Any plants of Dendrobium nobile that 
have completed their growth early may now be placed in the East 
India house, and if damped lightly on fine days they may be had in 
flower by the new year. Very little water should be given at the 
roots until they begin growing. Let all plants coming into flower or 
producing their spikes be thoroughly exposed to the light, otherwise 
they are likely to become blind or the buds to drop before expanding. 
Pilumna fragrans grandiflora is one of the most desirable Orchids, 
flowering during the winter months. Plants in flower may be re¬ 
moved to a drier atmosphere. Miltonias may be repotted, shallow 
pans being most suitable for their growth, being well drained, as they 
require liberal supplies of water. 
The Pleiones that have flowered and require larger pots should 
have all the old material removed from their roots. They will thrive 
in almost any light compost, equal parts of turfy loam and peat, 
also leaf soil, old cow dung, or peat and sphagnum. The pots or 
pans should be well drained, placing some sphagnum or rough 
peat over the potsherds. Bring the compost to within half an inch 
of the rim of the pot, place the pseudo-bulbs an inch apart, covering 
the old roots with half an inch depth of the compost, watering very 
lightly until the roots start into growth. To grow Vanda cserulea 
satisfactorily it should be placed in the Cattleya house. It thrives 
well in lumps of fibrous peat with the whole of the soft matter 
shaken out of it, the fibre being loosely worked in amongst the roots 
in a basket. It likes plenty of light, and should be suspended about 
a foot from the roof, and needs very little water at this season. 
Odontoglossums requiring larger pots may be shifted, taking care 
not to disturb the roots more than can be helped. They succeed best 
in equal parts of fibrous peat and sphagnum, with a free sprinkling 
of sand, thorough drainage being indispensable, as they require a 
very liberal supply of water. The period at which any plants com¬ 
mence growing is the best time to repot them. Plants of these that 
are growing freely require a good supply of water—a good damping 
overhead on fine mornings with a syringe or fine rose, using tepid 
rain water for the purpose. Anaeotochilus will now require careful 
treatment. Where grown in frames or under bellglasses a little ven¬ 
tilation must be provided, and the glass kept clean, in fact wiped 
inside every morning. Very little water will be required the next 
three months, just sufficient being given to keep the sphagnum a 
little moist. Slugs are great devourers of these plants. They should 
be sought for every night. 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
The Suljjhur Pit .—Many years ago I condemned the practice of 
killing bees by sulphur, spoke and wrote of the great value of bees 
in autumn taken from honey hives, and of the easy and simple 
process of driving them from one hive to another. Since that time 
many thousands of swarms have been saved and profitably utilised. 
The other day a letter was received from a bee-keeper in Aberdeen¬ 
shire which touches this matter of driving. The writer says, “ It 
is now twelve years since you first taught us how to drive bees; 
my first attempts at this work were comical enough, but now I can 
handle bees with ease and without fear. And in this locality we 
can get women, wives, servant maids, and little lassies to drive bees 
from hives and neatly take their honey; men of all classes can of 
course do this work.” For this little picture of Scottish life in 
Aberdeenshire we are indebted to Mr. Shearer of Cairnie. Probably 
no man in Great Britain has saved so many bees from the brimstone 
pit as Mr. Thomas Addey of Epworth, Lincolnshire. For many 
years, during the months of August and September, he has ttavelled 
over a large tract of country, gathering up the condemned bees, and 
selling them as an article of commerce. One year he told me he 
took three hundred swarms. One autumn I had more than 100 lbs. 
of bees in twenty swarms from Mr. Addey. Every pound of bees 
includes about five thousand, so that in the 100 lbs. I got five 
hundred thousand bees in one season to enrich and strengthen my 
hives. One season a Somersetshire bee-keeper ordered 10 stones 
(140 lbs.) of Mr. Addey, and I believe he obtained them. This 
year I have bought 40 lbs. of Mr. Addey and 40 lbs. from another 
bee-keeper ; many other apiarians are supplied with driven bees 
from Epworth. Mr. Addey informs me that he visited the Lincoln 
Bee Show this autumn, and there saw something that so disgusted 
him that he hopes never again to see anything like it. I presume 
he refers to the manipulating processes seen in the bee tent, which 
w r aste and destroy so many lives. 
Of the 80 lbs. of bees I bought in October last, 40 lbs. were used 
in strengthening my stocks, and 40 lbs. were used in creating fifty 
more stocks. Swarms thus saved and put into empty hives and fed 
with sugar syrup invariably become my best stocks ; they always 
do well, and can be trusted for early swarms. The six now created 
are models of perfection. My experience with such stocks rebuts 
the thoughts and statements of some writers that bees cannot live 
without pollen. Though our models of perfection have little, if 
any, pollen in them, I can predict with all the possible certainty that 
they will be healthy and strong in numbers for five months to 
come. If such excellent stocks can be created from bees in October, 
and weak hives made strong, -why kill them by sulphur ? 
Do bees remove eggs from one cell to another? —Yes, certainly. 
This I have known and witnessed for fifty years. I have often 
seen eggs laid by queens before being removed from the.r hives set 
in other cells after their removal, and have known such eggs 
become queens, thus proving that they were not the eggs of fertile 
workers. Queen-excluders, then, so much talked about at present, 
cannot be of much use ? No, they are valueless ; for if bees deter¬ 
mine to breed in any part of a hive queen-excluders will not prevent 
them. Last September a correspondent of a journal wrote that one 
of his hives lost its queen when the combs were filled with honey, 
brood, and eggs. Be removed a frame of honey and gave the hive 
a frame of empty comb in its place. The hive was examined four 
or live days after, when there were found several queen cells on the 
empty sheet of comb. As it contained no eggs when placed in the 
hive he saw that the bees must have taken them from one comb to 
another. Eight queen cells were erect d and filled on the empty 
sheet. He adds, “ There can be no mistake about this, for I took 
the empty frame from my honey room where it had been laid six or 
seven weeks.” If more evidence be wanted it may be found in the 
fact that in many instances—I might venture to say in all instances 
of breeding in supers—the bees first prepare the cells for the recep¬ 
tion of eggs ; and experienced men on examining supers can tell 
where the eggs will be deposited. Bees are the masters and deter¬ 
mine these matters themselves without consulting queen or queen- 
excluders. It will be well for bee-keepers to remember these facts. 
Are young queens letter than old ones ? —Yes, in the sense that 
a young horse is more valuable than an old one ; for though an old 
horse may be able to do as much work as a young one it decreases 
in value every year. As queen bees live four years only, they de¬ 
crease in value year by year. But is it not true that old queens 
lay fewer eggs than young ones ? If so, at what age do they 
begin to lay fewer eggs ? The prevailing idea that the fiist year 
of a queen bee is her best may be correct; at any rate I have 
no disposition to question it, but we know that some queens are 
very prolific and remain fertile till they reach the allotted span of 
life, and till within a few days of their end continue to fill their 
hives with brood. Some queens fail sooner and become less prolific 
in the third year of their age, and during the breeding season their 
abdomens seem less expanded than younger queens. As queens 
advance in age their abdomens become darker in colour; and in 
