308 
JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
£ September 30, 1886. 
limit for queens to mate I would years ago not have had a single bee, and 
this year is no exception. My latest queens were hatched on the 22nd 
of August, and it is now the 20th of September, and every one of them 
seems as anxious to fly and mate as they were a few days after hatching, 
but not one of them has yet mated. The weather has been very unfavour¬ 
able, but Saturday, the 4th September, was a charming day, and now I 
observe the queens are making numerous flights, but commonly early in 
the day, between the hours of 10.30 and 12 noon, when few drones are 
abroad ; but their flights were not always at so early and so unfavourable 
a time. 
Of drones there are plenty in the hives. One contains a fertilised 
queen and the other an unfertilised one. The drones of the former, strange 
to say, fly an hour or two earlier in the day than those in the latter. 
Both hives have been well fed to keep the drones vigorous, and when 
that is done they are left unmolested until the young bees begin to hatch. 
This is usually the signal for drone slaughtering, unless in cases of immi¬ 
nent want, when the drones are sometimes hunted out before the queen is 
mated. The queen of this hive was not fertilised until she was between 
five and six weeks old. The singular thing is, Why are the drones of a 
hive having a fertilised queen more vigorous and fly more abroad than 
do those having an unfertilised one, and even better fed ? I have 
always looked upon it as the reverse, and we have often observed it so ; 
but there is a question of greater importance which I have never seen 
mentioned. We all know that there is a limit to a queen mating, and it is 
her nature to change and preclude the possibility of that ; but we have 
never heard it mentioned that the drone may also become sterile after a 
certain age. I cannot say that is the case, but facts point to that being 
so. A few years since similar late queens missed the drone, although the 
weather was beautiful. Most of them had commenced laying, but all the 
cappiDgs of the cells were prominent, indicating clearly the sex beneath. 
In vain did 1 wait, expecting some of them would produce workers. One 
after the other I reluctantly killed and dissected, but not until I came to 
the last one or two that had not laid any eggs did I find evidence of 
impregnation. In the two last it was so imperfect that to have allowed 
such queens to have lived would have been but disappointment, and not 
until death had taken place could it be known whether a queen is fertilised 
or not. Sometimes we have a knowledge of the state of a queen from her 
appearance, but not always. 
I remember the late Mr. T. W. Woodbury raised the question as to 
the temperature necessary for impregnation, which I think was 55°, and 
we have had queens fertilised with a temperature no higher, but then Mr. 
Woodbury, like ourselves, had only the two varieties, Ligurian and black 
bees. Now, the habits of the Syrian and other bees differ greatly from 
the first-named ones. Thus we have not one variety only to study, but at 
the present five or six, which mystifies us in our researches. In short, 
while I have had queens of the Italian and black breed fertilised at a 
temperature of 55°, I find that temperature to be the lowest at which a 
Syrian queen will look out, take a short flight, and then return ; and, 
although the drones begin to fly out at a temperature of 60°, it must be 
70° before they take a proper flight and remain out on wing for from 
twenty minutes to thirty-five minutes, as is the case with queens, so that 
after all it may be the temperature that controls fertilisation, and not 
that of the age of the drone. Nevertheless, it is an important question, and 
one that bee-keepers would do well to turn their attention to, as upon it 
depends having an improved and a superior race of bees ; and from 
what I have experienced the Cyprian and the Syrian races are the best to 
attain the point aimed at. Spiteful and vicious they are at times, but they 
have this quality, and, unlike the common blacks, they do not attack with¬ 
out provocation, while their crosses have proved superior to anything I 
have ever witnessed. Moreover, they are the most interesting bees to see 
at work. Long before another bee is to be seen in the morning the 
Syrians are at work, and the pellets of pollen are so large in proportion to 
their bodies, at once stamping them as assiduous workers and at all times 
attractive, and are capital foretellers of the weather.—A Lanarkshire 
Bee-keeper. 
%* All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor ” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. AVe 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
NAMING FRUITS.—In consequence of the absence of our fruit referee 
from London fruits cannot be named by him during the month of October. 
Black Grape (7. P.).—It is not easy to determine the name of a Grape 
from a few loose berries, but the foliage you have sent leads us to thnik 
your variety is Gros Guillaume. , 
Pears Cracking (Nemo ).—Your soil is evidently sandy and poor, ana 
the trees have not sufficient nourishment or moisture. Mulch them well 
with well-rotted stable manure in summer, and water them with sewage in 
the winter. 
Plants in Open Border ( Stonebridge ).—The H lenium and Centaurea 
are quite hardy, and the Gaillardias also usually succeed on light warm 
soils, but in damp or cold heavy soils they are sometimes lost in winter. 
They can be readily increased from seed sown in heat early in spring, or 
by cuttings inserted now. Strong plants can also be divided and placed in 
frames, as very little protection is needed to insure their safety. . 
Pears for West Aspect (A West Surrey Amateur ).—Your selection ot 
Pears—viz, Beurrd d’Amanlis, Mardchal de Cour, Marie Louise d'Uccle, JJu- 
rondeau, and Doyenne du Comice, is excellent, and all succeed admirably 
on the Quince stock. f 
Heating a Greenhouse ( S. A .).—In order to maintain a temperature or 
50° through the winter in the severest weather, you will need two rows oi 
4 inch pipes along one side and one end ; or it w r ould be better to have the 
pipes along two sides and one end, taking a single 4 inch pipe all around, 
excepting, of course, the doorway, where the pipe may be taken to tne 
boiler, being in fact the return pipe. This is much the best arrangement 
for a span-roofed house. One of the small boilers advertised in the Journal 
of Horticulture would answer, especially the one you name, which we have 
had opportunities of seeing at work. 
Insects on Cabbages ( Kilhogget ).—If your young plants are attacked 
with the Turnip beetle dust them when wet with dew with fine dry wood 
ashes ; if infested with aphides apply tobacco powdtr. The larger plants 
to which you refer may be drenched with perfectly clear lime water. 
Pears Cracking [h\ J .).—The cracking is due to a peculiarity of soil, 
climate, and variety. Pears are affected differently in different soils, and 
the only way to success is to note those that succeed and plant accordingly. 
We do not know a cure for cracking. 
Thinning the Spurs of Espalier Apple Trees (F. J.). —It may be done 
as advantageously now as at a later period ; indeed, the less the trees are 
pruned in the winter the better, but it would have been better had the spurs 
been thinned earlier, so as to have given those that remain the benefit or 
air and light. It is, however, better late than never, and we should do it at 
once, and if root-pruning is necessary, the trees growing too luxuriantly, 
we should attend to it not later than the early part of November. 
Morello Cherry Fruit not Stoning (Idem). —The fruit falls because it 
has not stoned, and is generally a consequence of a deficiency of calcareous 
matter in the soil. Apply a dressing of quicklime at the rate of a bushel 
per rod, and point it in as deeply as you can without interfering with the 
roots. A better plan would be to remove the surface soil down to the 
roots, clearing the soil from amongst the roots, lifting them if deep, and 
relaying or replacing the soil after a sixth of old mortar rubbish from an 
old building, broken fine, has been added, and all pieces of wood removed. 
Make the soil firm about the roots. This may he done as soon as the 
leaves give indications of falling. 
Dissolving Bones (H. H .).—The cement floor will answer for placing 
the bones upon, surrounded with a run of ashes from a burnt rubbish h e ‘j'P> 
following the instructions given to “ W. A.,”in the number for April lstof this 
year. We presume the cement floor has a smooth surface and is impervious 
to water. If a broken or very open surfaced floor it would not answer, and 
in that case a floor of well burned or hard bricks or tiles would be most 
suitable. 
Insect on Grapes (S. J.). — Your specimen received some damage in 
packing apparently. We take it to be the larva or caterpillar of a small 
moth (Carpocapsa nigricana); the object which you probably imagined to 
be the < gg is the pupa of a small parasitic fly, which has attacked these by 
depositing eggs on their bodies, and thus helped to reduce their numbers. 
When it is full grown this caterpillar quits its food and retires to some 
corner to spin its cocoon, the moth emerging about May. It is not, how¬ 
ever, one of those species placed on the list of Grape foes, as it generally 
occurs on the Plum or other stone fruit, but occasionally the Grape is found 
to be infested, though why, in such a plentiful Plum year, an instance 
should occur, is difficult of explanation. We are not aware that any pre¬ 
ventive measures are possible, beyond destroying the larvte and watching 
for and securing the moths as they emerge. 
Destructive Insects on Willow (T. L.). —The mischief complained of 
is seldom as serious as in the instance you mention, but the. insect sent 
generally occurs every season in Willow plantations of any size. It is a 
beetle named Chrysomela Populi, and beside the Willow, it infests also 
Poplars, Aspens, and kindred species, though it is not likely to hurt any 
species of a different tribe. There really seems to be no other way of deal¬ 
ing with it than capturing and killing all that can be caught, thus diminish¬ 
ing the next year’s brood. Expedients to drive them away from the trees or 
saplings have not proved successful, and in the larval stage they cannot 
very well be got at. It is a curious fact that the beetles had formerly a 
repute for curing toothache and other nerve pains. They do secrete a dark 
liquid, which possibly contains a bitter principle extracted by them from 
their food. 
Pithy Celery (Joseph Bainford ).—We think Celery is more liable to he 
pithy in some seasons than others, at least we have found the same variety 
crisp and sound one year and soft the next in the same kind of soil. Very 
rank manure is liable to cause pithiness, and much liquid manure. Our 
correspondent, “ A Kitclnn Gardener ” recently observed :—“ Our kitchen 
garden extends to five acres, and during the last dozen years we have tried 
the Celery crop in various parts of it. In the heaviest soil very large plants 
were produced, but three parts of them were not sound when fully grown. 
They appeared all right, but when the stems were pressed hard they gave 
way and proved pithy or vacant in the centre. Much Celery does this, and 
it is most objectionable. Such produce may do for seasoning in the kitchen, 
but it will never do for introducing with cheese or anything in this way, 
and those who have grown pithy Celery ought to change their practice at 
once. We had to do so from the heavy ground, and we found it succeed 
