July 15, 1880. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Cl 
sion tickets. All communications to be sent to—T. R. Cucksey, 
Chichester , Sussex. 
VARIETIES. 
Gloucestershire Poultry Show.—A first and most success¬ 
ful show of Poultry and Pigeons was held in the Town Hall of 
Newnham, Gloucestershire, on Thursday in last week. The poultry 
numbered 125 pens; the Pigeons, which were very superior, nearly 
250 pens. The Carriers, Jacobins, and Dragoons were particularly 
good. The Judge was Mr. O. E. Cresswell, who had travelled without 
halt from Naples to fulfil his engagement. 
- Martins’ Nests.— A correspondent, L. Cherry, asks if any of 
our readers can recommend any means to prevent the martins build¬ 
ing under the eaves of houses. 
- The Antler Moth.—T here has been a swarm of this insect 
in Tatton Park, Knutsford Park, which has destroyed every blade 
of grass over a great extent of ground. The rooks have now attacked 
them and are rapidly destroying them. This insect is known to 
entomologists as Noctua graminis, and is particularly plentiful in 
Sweden, Norway, and Northern Germany, where it does great injury 
to the meadows. It has been stated on very good authority that at 
one place in Bohemia two hundred men were once employed for four 
days in removing the caterpillars from sixty bushels of soil, twenty- 
three bushels or 4,500,000 of the grubs being collected. Dressing the 
land with lime has been recommended as a means of destroying them, 
but rooks and crows appear the most efficient for the purpose. 
- Royal Agricultural Show. —The forty-first annual Show 
of the Royal Agricultural Society now being held is considered one 
of the finest of the Society’s provincial exhibitions. The Show was 
held in the same locality twenty-five years ago ; but whereas fifteen 
acres of land then proved amply sufficient for all requirements, sixty 
acres are now comprised within the enclosure occupied by the imple¬ 
ments and stock. Placing last year’s Exhibition, which partook of an 
international character, without the category, the show of stock is 
the largest yet held, with the exception of that at Bedford six years 
ago. The total number of animals in the stock yard this year is 1581, 
against 1354 at Bristol in 1878, and 1305 at Liverpool the year before. 
The entries for the Kilburn Show were almost double this number. 
There are 487 horses, 434 cattle, the same number of sheep, and 146 
pigs. The implement yard is less extensive than formerly, the exhibits 
in this department having fallen off very materially, owing mainly to 
the wide distinction that is now drawn in the Society’s charges for 
shedding between bond fide agricultural articles and implements not 
exclusively for use in agriculture. The display of seeds is most 
imposing, such celebrated firms as Messrs. Suttons, Carters, and 
others, putting forth their full strength. The total value of the 
prizes this year is £5700, of which over £1000 has been contributed 
by the Carlisle Local Committee. The Council have arranged with 
the Aylesbury Dairy Company to repeat on each day in the week the 
display of the various systems of butter-making which excited so 
much interest at last year’s Show, and the programme also includes 
occasional demonstrations of bee management. 
- Instruction in Agriculture. —The Committee of Council 
on Education, South Kensington, have issued the following memo¬ 
randum :—It having been represented to the Lords of the Committee 
of Council on Education that many parts of the kingdom are still 
in ignorance of the system of aid to the formation of classes for 
instruction in the principles of agriculture afforded by the Science 
and Art Department; that the supply of teachers who have obtained 
the necessary qualification to earn payments on results is very 
limited ; and that a strict adherence to the rules of the Science 
Directory, which require that in order to obtain aid classes must be 
under the instruction of such teachers, would entail the delay of a 
year in the commencement of classes in this important subject, My 
Lords decide that Secs. 34 and 36 of the Directory may be relaxed 
for this year in the following manner :—My Lords will be prepared 
to consider an application from any committee formed in accordance 
with Section 10 of the Science Directory, to grant a temporary quali¬ 
fication to any person selected by it as fitted to teach the principles 
of agriculture, and, if such application be found satisfactory, will 
permit the teacher to earn payments on the results of the examina¬ 
tion in May, 1881, on the condition that this provisional qualification 
shall then determine, and that the only teachers who can after that 
date be recognised as qualified to earn payments on the results of 
their teaching in this subject will be such as have complied with the 
ordinary rules. In making the application the committee must 
show that there is no technically qualified teacher in the locality 
who could be employed to instruct the class, and also state the 
grounds on which the proposed teacher is considered to be really 
capable of giving instruction in agriculture, by his knowledge of 
chemistry and other sciences bearing on the subject. 
- The Harvest in Russia.—A recent telegram informs us that 
as a consequence of the defective harvest prospects the question is 
discussed of forbidding the export of Wheat partially, if the defi¬ 
ciency be confirmed in the south of Russia, and a general restriction 
if the deficiency extends to other parts. Founded on reports from 
forty-eight provinces, this year’s crop is estimated to be 39,717,300 
quarters less than that of 1878. 
ARTIFICIAL COMB FOUNDATION. 
Having had considerable experience the last three seasons in 
the use of artificial comb foundation, and the subject having been 
frequently referred to in this Journal, I wish to state my ideas on 
the subject. I have found it alone uniformly successful when 
used simply for guide comb. For this purpose it is invaluable, 
nor does anything equal it, not even bee-made comb saved for 
the purpose however carefully introduced. Chiefly it is useful 
as guide comb in bar-framed hives. 1 find that a strip of it the 
whole length of the bar, and well cemented by running a slender 
stream of hot melted wax on both sides of the strip, is a specific 
against irregular combs. Every bar should be so treated, the 
comb foundation being put exactly in the centre of the bar the 
whole way. Nor do I find any “ sagging ” if it be not more than 
inch deep, or at most 2 inches. That this small piece of guide 
comb is an immense help to the bees will be acknowledged at 
once, when it is observed that an ordinary Woodbury bar-frame 
with a piece only 1| inch deep will give over two thousand cells. 
I have tried whole pieces applied carefully according to the 
directions of experts ; but, whether so applied to the bar or in 
ways of my own devising, they will sag and twist about, and in 
very few instances have I been even tolerably successful with any 
pieces larger than those mentioned above. I should never think 
of employing them in any other way, least of all to tempt bees 
to work upwards. In former days, when I worked bellglass 
supers, I generally gave my bees some clean pieces of their own 
comb to start with, which I contrived to fix in such a way that 
a bit of the comb ran downwards through the hole into the hive 
below. This set them to work immediately, but I always found 
that when they had built up the comb a few inches into the 
bellglass it soon toppled over according as the weight of honey 
introduced became too heavy. This would happen even though 
the ingenious architects were most careful to broaden the base of 
their structure pyramid fashion. I used to enjoy watching the 
clever way in which they set to work to remedy the mischief ; 
first by removing the superabundant honey so as to lighten the 
weight, and then by most ingenious buttressing of the fabric. I 
have long ceased to use these bellglasses because of the great 
labour and inconvenience to the bees which they occasioned, the 
slipperiness of the glass being one great evil. For profit wood or 
straw are the best materials for supers. 
I have recently had very interesting evidence both of the 
value of artificial comb foundation and of the great help it affords 
the bees. A fine swarm issued from a Woodbury soon after twelve 
o’clock yesterday. It was hived in a similar box with bar-frames, 
eight of which were furnished with the strips of guide comb as 
described above. Here were given them foundations of about 
16,000 cells. The day was splendid, and, as the hive was put in 
place of the parent Woodbury, of course nearly the whole adult 
population was at work in the course of the afternoon and this 
morning (June 26th). In the afternoon of yesterday I examined 
the old Woodbury, took out every comb, and cut away as many 
as eleven royal cells. This done I set the hive over the box occu¬ 
pied by the swarm. So they passed the night. At eleven this 
morning I again took off the parent Woodbury, and, after remov¬ 
ing the box containing the swarm, replaced the Woodbury as it 
was before the swarm issued. The swarm-box was next examined, 
every bar-frame taken out, and the bees shaken down from each 
bar upon the Woodbury’s top with all its holes open. This done 
I replaced over it two Lee’s supers, in which the bees had been 
