August 5, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 129 
to them several times during the day. As they grow, and are capable 
of consuming more, they are fed upon barleymeal and tallow greaves, 
mixed together with the water in which the greaves are boiled.— 
( Cassell's Illustrated Booh of Poultry.) 
- The Practical Treatment of Sewage. —A correspondent 
informs us that “ last week a party of 140 gentlemen visited the 
sewage works of the Native Guano Company at Aylesbury. A series 
of demonstrations were given, showing the practical working of 
the ABC system, with which considerable satisfaction was ex¬ 
pressed.” 
- Hop Intelligence. —The plantations are making fair pro¬ 
gress, and good-sized Hops may be seen in the earlier descriptions. 
The later sorts have thrown out strong laterals, which are fast break¬ 
ing into burr, and the progress of the mould has been to a great 
extent checked, although in some few grounds it is making sad havoc. 
The foliage is clean and of good colour. Altogether prospects augur 
a somewhat large yield, while the quality can scarcely fail to be 
superior if the weather continues favourable. 
- Agricultural Prospects. — The Mark Lane Express of 
August the 2nd states :—“ Prospects this week are decidedly gloomy 
throughout the country. The continued rains and heavy storms 
have laid the grain crops, where they are at all thick, on the ground, 
and the Barleys especially have been greatly injured. As might 
have been expected from the excess of moisture at this time of year 
there are now complaints on every hand of mildew, and a 1 blighted 
appearance ’ is very noticeable in many districts. Harvest, which 
would have commenced during the first week in August, has been 
retarded by the weather, and the absence of bright sunshine is now 
working great mischief amongst the grain crops. Some Oats have 
been cut, but the crop is not well spoken of. Some Peas have also 
been cut, and, together with the Bean crop, they are as a rule 
reported favourably. Root crops are making a rapid growth of 
leaves, but fine weather is needed to enable them to form good bulbs ; 
and the constant rains have given the weeds an insurmountable 
advantage over the hoe. The hay crop has been irretrievably ruined ; 
one-third spoiled in the field, one-third spoiled in the stack, and the 
remaining third spoiled before it is cut, as put by one of our corre¬ 
spondents, is, we fear, but too true a statement of actual facts. A 
large acreage of meadow grass now lies on the ground unfit for any¬ 
thing but litter. From Herefordshire we have accounts of liver fluke 
amongst sheep to a very serious extent; in other respects stock are 
reported as healthy, and doing well on abundance of keep.” 
- Sale of Shropshire Sheep. —Hr. T. J. Mansell’s annual 
sale and letting will take place at Dudmaston Lodge, Bridgnorth, 
Salop, on Monday next, August 9th, when twenty-three shearling 
rams, forty-five shearling ewes, and thirty stock ewes will be offered 
at public auction by Messrs. Lythall & Mansell. The shearling rams 
and ewes are principally got by County Member (winner of first prize 
at the Exeter meeting of the Bath and West of England Show ; first 
prize at the Shropshire and West Midland Show, 1879, and champion 
prize for the best ram in the yard ; first prize at the Worcester meet¬ 
ing of the Bath and West of England Society; and first prize at the 
Shropshire and West Midland Show, 1880) and Pride of Mcntford, a 
ram bred by Mr. Minton, by Calcot, and the sire of Dudmaston Hero 
(winner of first prize at the Worcester meeting of the Bath and West 
of England Society : first prize at the Shropshire and West Midland 
Show ; and champion prize for the best ram in the yard). 
PURELY MATED QUEENS. 
Since the introduction of Italian bees much effort has been 
put forth in the endeavour to have the young Italian queens mated 
with pure Italian drones, resort being had to attempts at fertilisa¬ 
tion in confinement, isolating the queen, rearing stocks on islands 
and other out-of-the way places, and a common plan being to 
dispose of as many of the black queens and drones in the vicinity 
as possible. Much money and labour have been expended in 
these directions with not always satisfactory results, and it is out 
of the reach of a large majority of bee-keepers to obtain purely 
mated queens in these ways ; hence they have to run their chances 
by raising as many pure drones as they can in their own yard. 
This will go a great way towards the desired object, but we can 
still add much more that is within the reach of all bee-keepers. 
But we will begin back at the start and see how best to accomplish 
this. The time taken to raise a queen from the egg to hatching 
is sixteen days, but they are many times raised from eggs already 
hatched as workers before the bees take them to raise queens of ; 
hence some queens are hatched in eleven or twelve days. These 
young queens usually do not make their fertilising flight under 
five days old, and we should have had plenty of drones flying 
from our best Italian stocks by the time these young queens are 
ready for their bridal trip. Drones and young queens usually fly 
from one to three o’clock in the afternoon. Now we want to 
get the start of these black and hybrid drones if we can, so about 
half-past ten or eleven o’clock in the forenoon we will go to our 
stocks containing young queens of the right age, and also to our 
pure Italian stocks from whose drones we wish to breed, take 
off the caps of the hives, then the quilt or honey board, and 
thoroughly sprinkle each stock with very thin warm honey, or a 
like mixture of sugar syrup, and close the hives at once. In a 
very few minutes the air will be filled with bees, drones, and 
young queens (if of the right age) rushing out of the hives like 
a pack of schoolboys at recess, and making about as much noise 
too, the worker bees to hunt around for that inflow of warm honey, 
thinking perhaps that the flowers have got tired waiting for the 
tardy bees, and are bringing it to the hives, roots, plants, honey 
and all; the drones and young queens hearing the noise want 
to know what it is all about, and come out to have a “ finger in the 
pie ” too ; and as there are but few drones flying at this part of the 
day your chances for purely mated queens are tenfold greater, 
and too, with drones raised from the most prolific queen, whose 
bees are the hardest workers. This plan followed up day after 
day till all the young queens are mated will well repay all extra 
trouble in bringing it about.— Wm. M. Kellogg (in The Prairie 
Farmer). 
THE BRITISH BEE-KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
FIRST NOTICE. 
In now giving an analysis of the Exhibition of this Association our 
object will mainly be to direct attention to those novelties which in 
our opinion may be hoped to hereafter contribute to the comfort of 
the bee-keeper and the productiveness of the bee. The schedule was 
divided into thirty-six classes, and drew together 220 entries ; but 
this number hardly represents the total, since in hives the Committee 
had stipulated that duplicates were to be shown prepared as for 
summer and winter. The show of honey, as we remarked last week, 
was of wonderful quality, and the whole Exhibition a decided 
success. 
Glass 1, stocked frame hives, two exhibits, neither possessing any¬ 
thing very noteworthy. No. 1 had in front a moveable grating for 
preventing the blue tit from feeding on bees in winter. This is of 
course old. The surplus boxes were placed around the stock. The next 
three classes contained good Ligurian, Carniolian, Cyprian, and Holy 
Land bees. The two latter attracted most attention, because of them 
we know the least, and many will say of the last 11 the less the better ” 
when they know their tempers. Class 5, observatory hives, two entries. 
Mr. Abbott (silver medal) showed a considerable improvement upon 
his observatory of last year, which was then crude and unsatis¬ 
factory. The hive consists of an oblong box of plate glass, the 
length of which is considerably greater than the contained frames 
require. The roof of glass does not rest on the sides, but between 
the two; there is an eighth of an inch space through which the 
frame ears, made of tin plate, pass. Handling these we can slip 
the frames backwards and forwards the extra length of the 
hives. Such was the arrangement last year, but we have now 
an addition which makes a new thing of it. The glass roof, 
instead of being in one, consists of strips running the way of the 
frames, and between these strips we have again one-eighth of an 
inch space. On the top of the frames are three eyes placed in line 
near its centre, and a tool is provided not unlike a bradawl, the 
blade of which has been bent to a right angle near its middle. The 
frame to be examined is pushed until it stands immediately beneath 
a roof slit; the tool is now passed through the eyes, and becomes a 
pivot on which the frame can be revolved, and when parallel with 
the hive side it can, by drawing the tool along the slit, be placed 
against the glass and inspected. It does not appear to us that plate 
glass is essential on more than one side, wood replacing the rest, and 
so reducing cost. Mr. Scott (bronze medal) staged a hive consisting 
of frames and bees in separate cases with glass sides, sliding in close 
contact on a lidless box. The separate cases have no bottoms and 
do not touch the floor, so that bees can pass from one to the other 
while heat is economised. Class 6, best hives.—Messrs. Neighbour 
were placed first with a hive having a straw crown board in three 
pieces, while its principal feature is a plan for preventing or passing 
round frame ends during winter. The frames must be removed, 
and afterwards placed across the hive for the purpose. Second was 
Mr. Abbott with a section crate as an overhead traveller, a plan 
which would, we think, hardly work. Third Mr. Holland. The 
section crate has permanent separators—a considerable defect, as 
