October 7 , 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 341 
Vine and Fig tree for an absolute and sure harvest. It is hardly 
necessary to state that only such men as have never tried farming 
take this view of it. Those who have made the experiment, whether 
they have been successful or not, will tell you that Nature, though 
a good mistress, needs much coaxing, and will not be wooed by 
proxy. The farmer’s life, with all its boasted independence, has yet 
its many disappointments, and is made up of constant watchfulness. 
He must know the signs of the sky and be able to judge of the season’s 
progress. He must know something, if only in a rough practical 
way, of botany, chemistry, meteorology ; and more than all this, he 
must work—work with head and hands, work in all weather, whether 
he feels inclined or not, for weeds will not stop growing, nor crops 
cultivate themselves to humour his idleness. Only such farmers as 
will accept these conditions can be successful, and only such men 
give dignity to the agricultural interests. 
FIXING FOUNDATION IN FRAMES. 
BEING in Kent for a few days’ holiday, myself and son went 
by train to Sevenoaks, and inquired for the residence of J. M. 
Hooker, Esq., which we found. Mr. Hooker was at home and 
took us to his apiary, where we had the pleasure of looking over 
several of his stocks of bees. They were in fair order, and the 
combs were beautifully straight, no curling at the corners, as 
some have said, happened in theirs ; he told me that he had fixed 
the foundation (Raitt’s) in the saw cut in the top bar, and kept it 
about a quarter of an inch from each end and about half an inch 
from the bottom, and the combs were worked out splendidly. 
There was no other means employed to keep them straight ; they 
were simply hanging from the centre of the top bar, where they 
were held perfectly tight. We assisted in taking off sections and 
extracting the honey from one stock that had given over forty 
sections, and altogether we passed a very agreeable afternoon 
among his bees, which just suited—A Warwickshire Bee¬ 
keeper, Weston, Leamington. 
TREATMENT OF FOUL-BROODY STOCK. 
I POUND some time since that one of my stocks (Ligurian) had 
foul brood. Before the disease appeared the bees had been fed 
with syrup medicated with salicylic acid. The diseased cells are 
so scattered among healthy brood that to cut them out would be 
to destroy the combs. The combs, &c., have been sprayed with 
salicylic acid solution without producing any apparent effect. I 
have two black stocks, each of which is perfectly healthy and very 
strong, as is the diseased one. All my hives, frames, &c., are new. 
I should mention that there are no bees kept within several miles 
of my apiary. What is the best course of treatment under the 
circumstances? Has the apparatus for the cure of foul brood, 
described in the report of a conversazione of German bee-keepers, 
page 170, Journal of Horticulture, been tried in England, and if 
so what are the results ? — Omega. 
[At this advanced period I should advise, as the stock is very 
strong, that the bees be made into a swarm by shaking them from 
the combs on to a board upon which a propped-up skep stands. 
After twenty-four hours they might safely be transferred to a 
spare hive furnished with, say, six combs, to which they should 
now be confined for the winter. The brood in this way would be 
lost, but all chance of transference of contagion would be gained 
by the sacrifice. To save the brood the bees must for a time be 
separated, the queen going to the new hive while a detachment 
remains to act as nurses. When the outside air is low in tem¬ 
perature the considerable increase of surface brought about by 
division would cause, in my opinion, a greater diminution of vital 
energy and breeding power than could be compensated by the 
addition of all the bees obtainable by the hatching of the amount 
of brood the stock could now be supposed to possess. 
It is during the breeding season that foul brood makes head¬ 
way ; and were it not that other stocks, your own and those of 
your neighbours, are likely to suffer from the continuance of the 
disease in their midst, we should rather counsel discontinuing 
feeding, and removing the brood combs as the bees hatch from 
them. These can either be destroyed or treated, as every diseased 
cell now declares itself. During the depth of winter all will re¬ 
main in statu quo, and with returning spring you may find the 
stock free of disease. If, however, it should again manifest itself 
the weather will be in favour of your dealing with it. 
1 have used a home-made form of the German vaporiser in a 
case of undoubted foul brood which had made but very slight 
progress. The salicylic acid was put into a tinned iron vessel 
somewhat like an ordinary retort with very short leading tube. 
The latter was passed through the opening in the quilt into the 
hive containing the whole of the combs, which were placed fully 
double the normal distance apart. The salicylic acid was vapo¬ 
rised by igniting methylated spirit in a small iron dish beneath the 
retort. In a short time the bees were returned to the combs and 
the operation repeated after a few days (about five). In addition 
all the grubs attacked were removed by a small stiff sable brush 
dipped in salicylic acid solution. The disease disappeared. 
The only precaution seems to be rendered necessary by the 
inflammable character of salicylic vapour. It burns almost like 
olefiant gas. The vapour as it enters the hive diffuses, and cools 
and condenses into minute crystals, which are wafted like dust 
moats into every crevice and cranny, and penetrate the whole hive 
in a manner much more complete than could be effected by spray¬ 
ing. The vaporised acid is extremely suffocating, and if inhaled 
causes slight chest pains for some time after.—F. Cheshire.] 
COTTAGE BEE-KEEPING.—No. 6. 
After the lapse of several months I resume the subject of 
cottage bee-keeping where I left off. I brought my simple in¬ 
structions up to a point which might well be postponed, as all I 
had left to say had chiefly to do with autumn preparations for 
coming winter. 
If what I said in April has been attended to, all hives of bees 
intended to stand over as stock for the future will be now in first- 
rate order. After such a summer as we have had in these parts 
there cannot be a poor stock of bees that requires any consider¬ 
able feeding ; still, as these remarks may be read where the honey 
harvest has proved a failure, let me advise every bee-keeper who 
has any reasonable doubt as to the sufficiency of food in any of 
his hives to lose not a day in giving them what they require. For 
my own part I like to make assurance doubly sure, and always 
make a point of giving my hives all round a pint or so of strong 
syrup when the last warm days of the waning autumn are come. 
Then the bees will not have far to seek their food if any lengthened 
period of sharp frost should set in. How often does it happen 
that a hive well supplied with food in the remoter parts of the 
combs is found to have perished because the poor insects were too 
chilled to fetch it into their central nest? Now whatever is given 
them in late autumn is sure to be stored in their very midst. 
As for modes of feeding, there are all sorts of ingenious devices in 
use, but none is simpler or better than top feeding over the central 
hole. Any kind of wide-necked bottle inverted over this hole will 
answer the purpose. A bit of leno should be tied over the mouth 
of the bottle, and then set the latter just over the hole with a bit of 
perforated zinc between it and the bottle. I hold a small jug or 
cup in my left hand, and invert the bottle into this first to catch 
any of the syrup which the sudden jerk may dislodge from the 
bottle, and when it ceases to drop it is quietly put over the hole. 
If there is no central hole at top of the hive (as in the case of the 
common skep) a deep soup plate full of syrup and covered thickly 
with straws can be set under the hive in a shallow eke of straw or 
hoop of wood, which must be the exact size of the skep. A pound 
of syrup or more can be thus given every evening after a warm 
day with the least possible trouble. 
We are now come to the time when all extensive feeding should 
be in full operation ; let not a day be lost. As for the supplemen¬ 
tary feeding just referred to, it may be postponed to the last week 
in October, or even in mild situations till the beginning of 
November. 
Let me again earnestly recommend a saving of all bee life by 
driving out the populations of all stocks that are goiDg. to be 
plundered, and joining them to the nearest stock to the right or 
left of where they stood. I gave full instructions how to do this 
last April (page 287), and need not repeat it here. 
And now a few words about the wintering of hives. See that 
they are each and all thoroughly clean and dry, free from all cob¬ 
webs and woodlice, and warmly covered with any available mate¬ 
rial which will effectually keep off drip and damp. . Hives are 
well wintered on their summer stands if proper care is taken to 
protect them from damp and high winds and the attack of their 
various enemies. None of the latter are more injurious than mice, 
and as these vermin can most easily enter any straw hive we have 
found in this one evil a sufficient reason for the disuse of straw; 
but care must be taken that all entrances to hives, of straw or 
wood are so narrowed as to allow in the dead of winter for the 
passage of only half a dozen bees abreast of one. another, say 
l^- inch wide and not more than three-eighths of an inch deep. 
“The other day I mentioned the case of a Dartmoor woman who 
plastered irp her bees during twelve weeks or more from the latter 
part of December to the middle of March. Without exactly 
