886 
[ 1892. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Weather. 
We have had only two nights during May up to the 13th free 
from frost. As much as 7° was twice registered, doing additional 
damage to the already scanty crop of Gooseberries. There has 
been as much as 45° difference between the day and night 
temperatures. The Sycamores, so promising a few weeks ago, 
have shed their flowers, and that will entail a loss to the bees, 
which owners will have to make up by feeding, or else fail to 
secure any surplus honey. But we are now getting the much-needed 
rain, and by “June all may bo in a merry tune.” 
Raising Queens. 
The season for actual practical work is now here, and as 
successful bee-keeping depends greatly upon having a supply of 
queens to hand for three months the bee-keeper should turn his 
attention to securing this desideratum. How to form nuclei and 
dispose of them has been fully explained lately, so the attention of 
readers is turned to the other system of having virgin queens at 
all times during summer, as mentioned, but not fully explained, 
previously. It consists in starting with a queenless or swarmed 
stock, excising all queen cells about the ninth day of their existence, 
and placing them under tumblers or small bellglasses over queen- 
excluder zinc, when the bees immediately ascend, nurse, and attend 
to them. They will not swarm unless one cell or more has been 
overlooked, but in that case they will swarm—at least, they do so 
often when queens are caged over a stock having a queen. It is 
not desirable to keep these queens too long ; it is therefore desir¬ 
able that they should be taken away at fortnightly intervals, and 
at that time give several fresh combs containing eggs and brood, 
exchanging the same number containing unhatched brood from the 
one to the other. But if these be removed when a week old the 
results will be better, and they will be still further improved if 
two or more are kept for queen rearing in this fashion throughout 
the season. 
It is perhaps unnecessary to go into details of how to utilise 
these young queens, there being so many modiflcations and plans ; 
moreover, the subject has been well explained in this Journal for 
years back. Many have been racking their brains to find how best 
to mark the age of queens upon their wings up till four years old, 
although success in bee-keeping depends entirely upon having 
queens no older than one year. In managing hives with two queens 
better results will be secured if both are young, as old queens 
are liable to die or cease laying at the very time the hive ought to 
be at its best. 
Carniolans and Punics. 
The former have been so long favourites with me that it is 
with some degree of regret that I witness the latter surpassing 
them, but the results that will prove the superiority of either will 
not be known till the end of the season. 
I am watching the movements of the Punics with interest, and 
I noticed them attacking the queen wasps in a manner I have 
never observed other varieties do—by darting at them and fighting 
with them in the air. I also observed that when working upon 
the catkins of the Willows they attacked the capsules containing 
the pollen with their mandibles and could at times get a supply 
when other varieties failed. Their crosses are the mildest tempered 
of any other crossed bees I have had experience of ; but although 
the crossed ones are a little ahead of the pure ones, I attribute 
this more to the youthfulness of their queens than to the cross, as the 
pure bees work vigorously and tell sooner than others of a change 
in the weather. 
Honey Prospects. 
Owing to the great paucity of blossom of all kinds through frost 
the Clover will be the first and only honey-yielding flower till the 
Heather blooms. Where that has not been burned the prospects 
are good. The dry sunny weather we have had lately has started 
it, and already it has broken well. Wet weather prevents it 
growing and destroys it when in bloom. This is in answer to a 
Kirkcudbright bee-keeper, who had read the opposite in a 
contemporary. 
Supers or Sections. 
These fitted with foundation last year, and which the bees did 
not work, will be more readily taken to if exposed to the fire, warm 
sunshine, or softened with warm water, just before giving them to 
the bees. 
If a swarm issues from a hive not intended to swarm, place 
the swarm in the old stock’s place, transfer the supers from it to 
the swarm, and if desirable a part of the combs, and re-queen with 
young queens as soon as possible.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
•,^*A11 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 
onavoidably. We request that no one will write privately 
to any of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to 
unjustifiable trouble and expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questiors 
relating to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should 
never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended 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- 
Books on Orchids and landscape Gardening: {Yorli). — 
Williams’s” Orchid Grower’s Manual,”published by Messrs. B. S. Williams 
and Son, Upper Holloway, London, N. ; and Watson’s “ Orchids: 
Their Culture and Management,” published by Mr. L. Upcott Gill, 
170, Strand, London, will probably meet your requirements as regards 
Orchids. We do not know a better work on the formal architectural 
style of landscape gardening than “Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of Architec¬ 
ture,” of which you may be able to get a copy from Mr Wesley, 
bookseller, Essex Street, Strand, London, W.C. There is no recent work. 
Alkali Works and Vegetation (W. H.). — The gases emitted 
from alkali works are highly destructive to vegetation, and some 
districts where they abound have a dismal appearance in consequence. 
Perhaps it might be well to inform the proprietors that they will be 
held responsible for any damage that may be done by sulphurous 
emanations. 
Invisible Netting {TorTi). —Tou have been told there is some 
extremely fine black netting to be had suitable for putting over carpet 
beds to keep the birds off, and have been given to understand the 
netting is so fine as to be practically invisible to the eye. You ask if 
we can tell you where such is to be obtained. We cannot, but as you 
are such a good amateur horticulturist we give this little advertisement 
in case any of our readers may be able to answer it. 
Express Grape Growing (James Watso7i). —You ask if having 
Black Hamburgh Grapes ripe in ninety days after starting the Vines is 
good work. It is quick work—quicker, indeed, than we should like to 
force Vines, though perhaps those in question were only intended to 
bear one crop, in pots ; and possibly also the berries, though black, 
were not quite ripe. We have heard of express Cucumber growing, a.nd 
we shall now, perhaps, hear what other gardeners have done in growing 
Grapes on the express system. 
riue Dust (J. B. JD.'). —If you desire to obtain the exact con¬ 
stituents of the dust you must send a sample to a professional analyst. 
If you do this we shall be surprised if it is found to possess any great 
fertilising value ; it may, however, have a little, though we suspect its 
good effect on heavy land is chiefly mechanical. By all means use it 
where you find it beneficial, and you might also try it experimentally 
with a few plants in pots. You will find a few trials as useful as a 
chemical analysis, and far more economical, though we have not the 
least desire to dissuade you from the latter course. 
Peaches Palling Prematurely (H. J7.').—The fruits you have 
sent appear to be infested with a fungus. You say they have been 
gathered from a tree that has been planted two years : but as you 
observe “ you have found them go at this stage in the same way for 
several years,” we conclude that other trees are affected. We should 
have been glad if you had described the condition of the trees and 
border, also given a brief note on your management. They shall be 
carefully examined, but they arrived too late for this to be done before 
we go to press this week. In the meantime burn all the fruits that 
fall, and avoid a close damp atmosphere in the house. 
Ermine IMCoth Caterpillars—Paris Green (North Londo7i ).— 
Those are what you send, and the same post brought us the following from 
Mr. J. Hiam :—“Last summer we were told in the “ Daily News ” that 
the Apple trees in and around London were stripped of their foliage and 
fruit by the ermine moth caterpillars, and a friend told me in London a 
short time since that these pests were literally in heaps, climbing on one 
