500 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 30, 189?. 
are hatched several go off with the swarm until one only remains) 
They are excited through the queen’s excitement, and leave the 
hive. Stranger bees joining the swarm cause queen encasement 
with a like result. The want of honey is another direct cause 
of the bees leaving their hives to the disappointment and dismay 
of the bee-keeper. Timely and liberal feeding prevents their 
leaving, and the bee-keeper when engaged with several swarms at 
about the same time will do well to guard the entrance of the 
swarms with excluder zinc until he has an opportunity of examining 
the hives and liberate the encased queens, selecting the one to be 
queen regnant and destroying the others ; the excluder zinc should 
be removed on the first opportunity, as it hinders the bees greatly. 
Feeding. 
It is well known that I do not approve of feeding when it can 
be avoided, but on the other hand I know how beneficial it is to 
bees and bee-masters when honey in the fields or stores is 
scarce. Stimulative feeding at any time is a waste of bee energy. 
Bad for bees as the present season has been, I have several stocks 
that have never been fed, and they are as good as those that were ; 
nay, they are the best workers at present. The best one is a first 
Syrian cross, the only one making an attempt to work in supers, 
but the weather prevents any advance. What say ye, Mr. 
Hallamshire, to that ? 
PUNICS. 
These were the first to swarm, but only five minutes before a 
Oarniolan. I am perfectly satisfied that these Carniolans are pure and 
of a superior strain to Mr. W. H. Ley’s. In fact from what I have 
seen and read about the different varieties of bees I believe there 
are few pure strains imported into this or any other country. 
Certainly these extra yellow Italian bees are not pure Italian Alp 
ones, nor are the striped Carniolans a pure race. The Punics 
appear to be pure, and if we had only a week or two of settled 
warm weather we would be able to have their honey gathering 
qualities well tested. On the 24th a pure Punic carried honey for 
several hours when all others were comparatively idle, but whether 
it was from flowers or from other hives I cannot say. 
Hiving. 
Some time since I described my swarm catcher and hiving 
apparatus, which I have used in my apiary so long. Several bee¬ 
keepers visited me on the 21st, and I may mention that more bees 
were lost on that day from storm and cold than on any other day 
or perhaps week of the whole year ; yet on the following day 
several swarms came off. I had one of these swarms secured in 
their presence, and for a short time rested it near the hive it was 
to occupy, then slipped it on the top of the hive inside the super 
protector, when in less time than I take to write this the bees were 
all in their permanent hive, a very superior and safer plan than the 
primitive one of shaking the bees in front cf the hive with either 
the loss of a day’s honey gathering or perhaps the loss of the 
swarm. My visitors were both surprised and satisfied. This 
hiving box is one of the most useful appliances in the apiary.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keerer. 
Several Eggs in One Cell. 
I THANK “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” for his reply to my 
note. Doubtless he is right in assuming that a scarcity of bees is 
the cause of the queen laying several eggs in one cell, as I find 
with the brood increasing the work in the hive is going on in a 
more ord^^rly manner. As he wishes to know the histo'ry of the 
queen I must give him the history of the stock of bees in question, 
so far as I know it. In August last year I found the bees clinging 
to the side of a slump of a tree in a wood. Two or three days 
before that they had been burned out of another old tree stump 
close by, which was their home, and part of them destroyed by 
some marauders who were after their honey. These, 1 suppose 
had taken flight, and settled where I found them. I put them into 
a straw skep, took them home, and transferred them to a bar-frame 
hive. A little later I put the bees from two other hives (which 
were given me by a neighbour for taking the honev from them for 
him, and who would otherwise have killed them, as he still adheres 
to the old but cruel practice of destroying the bees when he takes 
the honey himself) with them. I first took their queens away 
before joining them to mine. I need hardly say I fed them 
through the autumn and again in the spring, as they had nothing 
to begin with but the foundations to work on. On May 1st a 
small swarm issued from them, which I returned to the hive, 
intending to take the queen away, but missed seeing her as they 
went in, so I must leave it for your correspondent to decide. I am 
obliged to him for calling attention to my defects, and shall be 
glad if he will put me right at any future time. If he will look 
at my note again he will see I stated eggs in cells, and cells in bars, 
which I thought was right. It may be a clumsy description ; 
perhaps bars need not have been mentioned.—R. M. 
»^«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 
unavoidably. 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 questions 
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- 
Vlnes and Peaches (C*. A. and G. G.'). —Your letters arrived 
one post too late for being satisfactorily answered this week. 
Aspect for Span-roof Houses (Y. K. A.).—With the houses 
pointing east and west the summer crops, such as Grapes and Tomatoes, 
are almost invariably better on the south than the north side. 
For low-growing plants in winter we have not observed the same 
difference. We piefer close to open staging generally, but with provision 
for the heat to pass between the stage and the sides of the house. 
Sheets of galvanised corrugated iron covered with crushed shells or fine 
shingle make good stages. 
TTitrate of Soda ( J". S.'). —This varies in fineness—in the size of the 
crystals. It is open to adulteration with common salt, and the crystals 
of both are similar. If you have a guarantee of 90 per cent, purity from 
a reliable firm or dealer the sample is far from being bad, and a dressing 
of such quality would act wdth effect on crops. We do not undertake to 
analyse samples. Nitrate of soda cannot be kept too dry, as, like salt, 
it attracts moisture. Try the effect of both samples on grass or weeds. 
One sample is much coarser and the other finer than the kind we use. 
IVIag-g-ots in Onions (^G. S.'). —The maggots have been caused by 
a small fly, though you failed to observe the attacks. There is no remedy 
when the plants are in the condition of those you send, though the 
dressing may perhaps save some others. Perfectly clean plants if 
transplanted on another piece of land would probably escape injury. 
We have seen excellent beds by transplanting thinnings from a 
neighbour’s garden. Such varieties as the Queen sown now might pro¬ 
duce useful small bulbs. Sow Tripoli Onions towards the end of July. 
These are seldom seriously injured by maggots. You should have 
adopted preventive and repressive measures sooner, though wdren the 
attacks are persistent it is sometimes most difficult to save the crop. 
The Common IVIoss Hose f BerJis Inquirer'). —The true old Moss 
Eose we can obtain from at least fifty nurseries, and as for obvious 
reasons we cannot publish such a long list of addresses, while to select 
one out of the number would be invidious, we are compelled to leave 
the matter of procuring plants to your own discretion. Plenty of Moss 
Eoses will be seen at shows, and nurseries anj open to inspection by 
visitors. The Moss Eoses sold in such quantities in London are grown 
in the rich deep highly manured soil of market gardens, and charming 
blooms or half opened buds are produced. Plants not long established 
in, it may be, much less favourable soil, are, to cite your description, 
“poor things” in comparison. Moss Eoses are raised freely by layers 
of healthy shoots of the current season’s growth, slightly notched, and 
pegged firmly into the soil in late summer or early autumn. We have 
also raised many plants by slips or cuttings with a heel, inserted in 
sandy soil, surfaced with sand, and kept close for a time, moist, and 
shaded to keep the leaves frei-h in August or September. The cuttings 
were of healthy wood, shortened to 5 or 6 inches in length ; the leaves, 
but not the buds, cut off except two or three at the top, which rested 
on the sand when the cuttings were inserted firmly in position. You 
may or may not have procured the genuine Moss Eose, we cannot say 
without seeing it, but we know that soil and management exert a great 
influence on the growth and flowers. 
