December 21, 1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 579 
careful not to cause a sudden reduction of temperature. As the 
growth advances increase the temperature gradually to C5° by night, 
and when in flower a night temperature of 70° may be maintained. 
Disbudding should be done when the shoots are about an inch long, 
reserving the strongest and best-placed near the base of the spur ; 
and in the case of short-jointed young rods it will be necessary to 
remove some of the buds, so as to keep them 12 to 15 inches apart on 
each side of the rod. In disbudding it is well to bear in mind that 
Black Hamburghs, Frontignans, Sweetwaters, and Muscadines pro¬ 
duce finer bunches from young rods than on old spurs ; hence, 
where the Yines give only small bunches a young rod should be 
originated from the base of each Yine, training these for the first 
season between the older ones, and at each annual pruning the spurs 
on the old rods should be cut away as far as the young rods are 
intended to hear, and in the second or third season the old rods may 
be cut out. In this manner the house is furnished with young 
vigorous wood, to the permanent advantage of the Yines, and with¬ 
out loss of crops. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Roses are never more valued than during the winter months. To 
insure this it is essential to have a good supply of Tea varieties 
carefully prepared in summer, and to prevent interruption in the 
supply it is necessary to have a light well-ventilated house to grow 
them in, as they will not come on quickly enough in an ordinary 
greenhouse temperature ; 50° at night and 5° more in the daytime is 
however, quite enough for them. Let them have a light position 
with ventilation upon all favourable occasions, but avoid subjecting 
them to currents of cold air after they have made young leaves, as 
they will be liable to attacks of mildew. 
Plants of Stephanotis floribunda that are not too vigorous in 
growth produce the greatest quantity of flowers, and as the flowers 
are valued for cutting and are very useful in winter and early spring. 
Plants that have made an early growth, been well exposed to light, 
and kept somewhat dry for a time, will be furnished with a quantity 
of well-ripened shoots that have shown flower spurs in autumn, 
having them now fresh upon the plants. Such subjected to a night 
temperature of 65° to 70° and 5° more by day, will soon develope the 
flowers. If the soil be dry give a good soaking, but do not syringe 
them much. Plants having the wood well ripened but not furnished 
with bloom spurs should be syringed once a day ; they will commence 
gro wing immediately, and the wood being well ripened will show 
bloom at the second joint of growth. Plants in small pots should 
not be repotted now, but supplied with liquid manure, deferring pot¬ 
ting until after flowering, when it can be done before the summer 
growth is finished. 
Bougainvillea glabra produces a quantity of flowers for cutting, 
and is an excellent companion to Stephanotis both as regards variety 
of colour and duration. Plants that have had the wood well ripened, 
kept dry, and rested for about a couple of months, on being well 
soaked at the roots will commence growth immediately, and be in 
bloom in about eight weeks. All the weak shoots should be cut out, 
as the flowers are only produced from the strong wood. 
p.-T- r- r-i. i • i • i -i • i -1 • i -1 - i*-! • t -1 • f. i • i -1. i - 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
,~| - , -I . I,. I-,-.., 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
Hiving Smarms. —It is fortunate for bee-keepers that swarms 
on leaving their parent hives generally alight on trees, bushes, or 
hedges, and remain there for a while ; but nobody can tell why 
or for what purpose they alight on such places, nor how long they 
would remain there if left to themselves, but wise and experienced 
bee-masters hive their swarms as soon as possible after they settle 
in clusters. The position and surroundings of swarms determine 
the mode of hiviDg them. If a swarm settles in the thicket of a 
hedge a hive is placed over and as near to it as possible, that the 
bees may run up and into it. If a swarm alights on a branch of 
a tree and hangs from it the bees are easily shaken into a hive. 
If an apiary is surrounded by lofty trees swarms often alight near 
their tops and are inaccessible. Last year I had many swarms 
that alighted on the tops of trees beyond the reach of the longest 
ladder in the neighbourhood. In such cases the branches had to 
be cut 10 and 12 feet below the swarms and gently guided down 
to the ground, and there the bees were hived. When swarms 
settle on the trunks of thick trees it is often difficult to hive them, 
as they may decline to run into hives propped up or tied above 
them. If the swarms are near the ground and will not run into 
hives we sweep the whole swarm to the ground and place a hive 
over them. In all large apiaries a few pieces of comb well 
cemented to a small board tied to a long stick or pole should be 
kept for use in hiving swarms. By holding this board so as to 
touch the swarms as soon as they settle the bees begin to cluster 
round the combs, and by making well-known sounds entice their 
companions to leave the branches. By using such boards swarms 
in almost every conceivable place may be reached, carried to the 
apiary, and there hived. These boards should have a few small 
pieces of comb cemented on both sides. 
The Size of Hives. —This is a point of great importance but 
difficult to determine. How many eggs do queen bees lay ? Are 
the hives capable of enlargement i Is the apiary managed on the 
swarming or non-swarming principle ? Is it run or comb honey 
that is aimed at i Queens have been known to lay three thousand 
eggs in a day, but two thousand may be considered a fair day’s 
average production of eggs in the height of the season. If hives 
are small half the eggs laid by the queens cannot be set or utilised. 
There is not room for them, even if not a cell were used for honey 
and pollen. In good honey seasons about half the combs are 
used for honey and pollen, thus contracting the breeding spaces 
in hives of considerable dimensions. Small hives, then, are a 
mistake, and may be considered outside the sphere of intelligent 
and thorough-going practice. A gentleman in the neighbourhood 
of Wrexham wrote a few weeks ago to ask if lG-inch hives were 
not too large for that locality. We answer that if honey or profit 
be the object sought hives less than 16 inches are too small for 
any locality. A gentleman at Wimbledon told the readers of the 
Journal that he took 100 lbs. of run honey from a 20-inch hive 
one season. Hives 16 inches wide and from 12 to 14 inches deep, 
containing from 2000 to 3000 cubic inches of space, are what I 
generally use and recommend. They are small enough in good 
seasons and large enough in bad ones. In honey seasons these 
capacities are not so great as their capabilities : they have to be 
enlarged by supers and ekes. 
Can a District he Overstocked with Dees ? —Yes, however rich 
the pasture may be. But very few districts, if any, in Great 
Britain are overstocked. In poor localities bee-keepiDg does not 
pay, and few hives are kept there. In better places for honey, 
where bee-keepers are well instructed and successful, we have seen 
the list of apiarians enlarged and the number of stock hives 
increased, but many beginners on being stung once or twice 
become afraid of bees, sell their stocks, and give up the trade. 
Many more people would keep bees but for their stings ; but 
probably if bees had no stings their number would rapidly de¬ 
crease, their treasures are so coveted by men, vermin, or small 
animals, and their bodies by birds. That we have honey bees at 
all amongst us is probably owing to the fact that they have 
stings and know how to use them. The question of over-popu¬ 
lating a district with bees is a difficult one to deal with. Some 
American apiarians reckon that from 100 to 150 hives are enough 
to keep in one place, and if more are kept the pasture would be 
insufficient. The bee-keepers of this district (Bowdon) have about 
one hundred stock hives ; in my native place (Carluke, Lanark¬ 
shire) about the same number were usually kept, but I have not 
heard complaints made in either place about overstocking. In 
both places strong hives in honey weather gather 5 lbs. each per 
day. But it is reasonable to say that the fewer hives are kept in a 
given place the richer the pasture will be, because fewer visits will 
be made to the flowers. Bees go a mile and a half from home 
for honey and work over all the fields, orchards, and woods within 
such circumference. If bees have not flowers enough within a 
mile and a half of their hives they should be removed to other 
pasture two or miles distant. Large apiaries should be at least 
three miles apart. The introduction of Alsike Clover and the 
quantity used in Cheshire instead of the red Clover has greatly 
improved the pasture of bees in this neighbourhood, and pro¬ 
bably in others as well. Unfortunately we have no Heather near 
Bowdon, the Glossop Moors being twenty-five miles distant, and 
Delemere Forest about twenty. Heather is so rich in honey, 
and yields it so fast to bees in August and September, that it 
is all but impossible to overstock a good Heather district during 
these months. 
Under-feeding or Spare Diet. —We have been told that on the 
gravestone of the late President Lincoln it is stated that “no man 
ever regretted eating too little.” This may be true or otherwise, 
