420 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDEHER. 
[November 4, 1886. 
reason— i.e., that the consumer would object to any such 
change, because the price of the commodity would be raised 
in proportion. 
To enable English producers to compete fairly with the 
foreigner rates of carriage must be very materially reduced, 
and greater facilities offered for the transit of perishable 
goods at lower rates without any increased risk. Farmers, 
market gardeners, bee keepers, every branch of our agricul¬ 
tural population is affected and intensely interested in any 
change that may be effected either by a voluntary effort on 
the part of the companies or by compulsion. A united 
attempt must be made, and soon, to accomplish this most 
necessary object, and to relieve the agricultural industries of 
this country from the great cost of transit with which they 
are at present so heavily handicapped. If the companies are 
unwilling to meet the emergency it will be matter for con¬ 
sideration whether the Government should not buy out the 
companies, and by getting the lines in their own power work 
them with a view to the benefit of the country in general. 
It may seem somewhat of a digression to have thus 
discussed so great a question, but the importance of the 
subject is so evident and so necessarily prominent at the 
present time that it may be useful, while endeavouring to 
show where the secret of failure and success lies, to point out 
how it is that our colonial cousins can so easily compete with 
us in an enterprise which we ought without difficulty to 
retain almost exclusively in our own hands.— Felix. 
HOME MARKETS FOR OUR HONEY. 
A PEW facts may be useful to dispose of Mr. Geo. Walker’s statement 8 
on page 330. Tbe “ clique ” is represented, he says, by 400 shareholder 8 
who hold 6000 shares. Now there are somewhere over 10,000 member 8 
in the British Bee-keepers’ Association, and yet out of this vast number 
only a paltry 400 have had confidence enough in the undertaking to take 
shares, and of these gallant 400 who have entered the breach there are 
no doubt a very gco’.ly number of “leading lights” and influential 
members of the British Bee-keepers’ Association; so that, after all, the 
clique is a clique, and a very small clique too. 
In the BritishBee Journal of 15th March, 1885, I find the following :— 
“ The expenses, though managed with strict economy, must be propor¬ 
tionately larger with a small capital than with a large one, and as a result 
a Emaller price will have to be paid for honey to ensure even a small 
profit.” 
Again, in the issue of the same paper for 5th May, 1885, a report 
is given of the first meeting of the British Honey Company. The Chair¬ 
man, among other things not of present importance, said : “ The directors 
are pleased to note that the shares are taken up by persons of all classes 
—from the capitalist who looks to the money profit of his investment 
down to the humble cottager.” Also, “ The directors have determined 
that in purchasing honey a preference shall be given to honey offered by 
shareholders, provided that in price and quality tbe terms of purchase are 
equally favourable.” Again : “ With regard to the lowering of the price 
of honey the directors did not expect to lower it beyond a point at which 
it would be remunerative to the producer.” 
Do capitalists, “ who look to the money profits,” generally invest in 
an undertaking which is only, some people would have us believe, a 
benevolent scheme for benefiting the producer, and not with a view to 
good profit ? Is any sane bona fide bee-keeper likely to support a scheme, 
or do otherwise than strongly oppose it, when he is told that owing to 
the capital of the undertaking being small the prices offered for honey 
must be lower than there is any need for them to be except for the pur¬ 
pose of giving a profit to the shareholder ? Does anyone imagine that by 
“ dangling ” the preference which was to be given to shareholders’ 
produce, together with the inducement offered to invest by telling those 
who had not hitherto done so that “ capitalists who look to money 
profits ” had taken shares, did not have the desired effect ? 
Again, the desired result has not been obtained, for Mr. Geo. Walker 
says that after purchasing £1000 worth of honey the purchasing powers 
of the Company were unequal to any further purchase ; and Mr. John Peel 
says that, writing for a quotation, he never had a reply at all. 
It is only necessary to notice one more statement. It is this : “ What 
we have done is to increase to a very great extent the demand for British 
honey, and if this goes on increasing it will lead to two results—first, t > 
make the sale of honey very much easier to the producer . . . and 
second, to increase the sale of honey.” 
It hardly needs a honey company to increase the sale of honey if 
such an increase is to be at the expense of a reduced price. Most indi¬ 
viduals could do the same, and no doubt the sale at such low prices will 
be rapid if the producer is weak enough to play into the hands of his 
enemies ; but how making the sale easier is to increase the value of 
honey in view of the powers to purchase foreign honey taken by the 
company it seems hard to say, since upon the least strengthening of prices 
recourse may be had to foreign supplies, and if the supply is unequal to 
the demand such recourse will be had, otherwise why were the “ powers ” 
taken at all ? Therefore, reducing the price of honey now to increase its 
value say five years hence is but a small consolation in the face of these 
“ powers,” which will keep the English producers bound helplessly down 
to reduced prices if they do not use their common sense and act indepen¬ 
dently of any such scheme. 
The thanks of all bee-keepers are surely due to Mr. Geo. Walker for 
losing “ professional time ” and spending “ some pounds in railway 
fares.” Possibly some other bee-keepers have done the same.— Felix. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Thomas S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham.— List of Specialties’ 
1886 ( illustrated ), and Catalogue of Boses. 
R. H. Vertegans, Chad Valley Nurseries, Birmingham.— Catalogue and 
Circulars of Specialities. 
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. We 
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. 
Address (B. C .).—The address you require is Messrs. Letts, Son & Co., 
Printers, New Cross, London, S.E. 
Botanical Names (J. T. AT.).—Expressed phonetically the pronunciation 
would be—I-re-d&y-se-e, with the accent on the third syllable. 
Chrysanthemum Bloom (F . C. B.).—The bloom of Maiden’s Blush is 
very good, and with the accompanying foliage indicates that the plant is 
admirably grown. We shall be glad to see a copy of what you propose. 
Chrysanthemums not Opening (J. G.). —The specimens received were 
very healthy. The precise cause of the refusal of several blooms of the 
Queen family to develope their central florets is not ascertained; in the 
example before us the peduncle of the bloom is somewhat weak, and the 
flow of sap on that account must be to some extent arrested. The b’oom 
of Soeur Malanie is of good average quality. We have seen several larger 
and thousands smaller. 
The Eucharis Mite {Inquirer).—' This pest is certainly not “ indigenous 
to North-East Lancashire,” but is prevalent in many parts of the country. 
It is very destructive and difficult to eradicate without injuring the plants. 
The method that has been described in the Journal was founded on practice, 
and plants that were once in a miserable plight are now healthy ; but all 
persons do not succeed alike in the application of a remedy, not taking equal 
care in the preparation of what may be suggested, and of the plants. We 
cannot tell what particular insects your plants may be attacked with from 
your vague description of them. 
Lapagerias {G. JET. B.). —Spring i“, as a rule, the best time for repotting 
these plants. They grow admirably in firm fibrous peat, such as is used for 
Azaleas, adding a liberal quantity of broken charcoal, oyster shells, and sand. 
Some persons add a third part of loam if it ia light, firm, and full of fibre. 
A rather firm, yet “ springy ” mass, is wbat these plants delight in, very 
liberal drainage being provided so that water can be given copiously with¬ 
out rendering the compost sour. We have Been them luxuriate in two 
parts peat and one part loam, and grow equally well in peat alone, so much 
depending on judicious applications of water and general management. 
Mushroom Bed Unproductive {J. W. H.).— Manure from stables in 
which the horses have many Carrots and much medicine is not favour¬ 
able to the production of Mushrooms; still, if the spiwn is running in 
your bed you may possibly have a light c op. In such a case we should not 
expect Mushrooms until about eight weeks after spawning, and then not 
many, nor large. You state the quantity of old potting soil you used with 
the manure, but not the quantity of the latter, so your information is no 
guide to us in forming an opinion as to the composition of the bed. If it is 
moist, that is sufficient, and it can be kept so by using damp covering 
material for preventing the escape of moisture from the bed. If you act on 
the instructions given in “ Mushrooms for the Mi lion,” you will have 
abundant crops, but not, of course, with unsuitabl .• materials. 
Dressing Ground for Roses (Experimentalist). —The application of 
artificial manure now would be of service, especially if mixed with fresh 
soil and well incorporated with the bed. A much better plan, however, 
would be to trench the ground as deeply as the good soil allows, loosening 
that beneath or at the bottom of the trenches, which will admit of the freer 
passage of the water through the soil, and the air so essential to rendering 
the constituents of the soil available as food for plants. Some solid manure, 
as stable or farmyard, would be most desirable mixed with the soil in 
