Jane 18, 1391. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
499 
more seed in boxes of fine light soil, and prick out the plants when 
large enough, or else open fresh drills on a border, and after a gentle 
watering has been given sow the seed and cover with fine sifted soil. 
Myosotises may yet be obtained in a similar manner in time to make 
a fairly good display, and the present time is also favourable for sowing 
Sweet Williams. Double German Wallflowers and Brompton Stocks 
do not transplant well, and the seeds should either be sown at once, 
either where the plants are to flower, or else in boxes, and the seedlings 
be early dibbled out in their flowering quarters. Now is a good time to sow 
Aquilegias, the plants obtained flowering where they are raised by next 
June, or the seed may be sown in boxes and the seedlings dibbled out 
where they are to flower. Iceland Poppies, again, ought to find a place 
in every garden ; plants obtained by sowing seed now wintering in the 
open and fiowering grandly early next summer. They do not transplant 
particularly well, and the surest way of obtaining a stock of plants, 
especially in slug-infested gardens, is to raise the plants in small pots 
and plant out direct into the borders or beds prepared for them. 
Three distinct colours csn be obtained, and a very little seed should 
be sown in each pot. Keep them in a cool place, shade from bright 
sunshine, and water very gently till the seedlings are up. Pansies may 
be readily raised on open borders, the plants obtained by sowing seed 
now fiowering grandly next spring. Dianthuses may be similarly raised 
and wintered in the open. If seed of Hollyhock is sown, either thinly 
in boxes or in the open borders, a capital lot of plants ought to be 
available for potting and keeping through the winter under glass. The 
herbaceous Campanulas may also be sown now, and the Antirrhinums 
raised during the summer will usually winter in the open, flowering 
strongly in the following summer. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Kalosanthes .—Plants that are growing on for flowering next year 
should be thoroughly hardened and stood outside. By this treatment 
they do not grow so tall and their growths become thoroughly ripened, 
which insures free flowering. Any plants that have missed flowering 
may have the tops of the shoots removed and four or five inserted in 
each 5-inch pot. These root freely in any structure that is kept close 
and warm. After they are rooted fully expose them to sun and air. 
Those plants that have no flowering shoots may be cut closely back and 
allowed to start into growth again. If an increase of stock is needed 
portions of the stem after the top has been removed may be rooted. 
These will produce four or five shoots each, but will need growing for 
a full season before they are sufficiently developed for flowering. 
Amaryllises .—These certainly succeed best in a pit or small house 
that can be entirely devoted to them during the season of growth, but 
where a few only are grown they will succeed in a light position in 
a vinery, and after growth in the greenhouse expose them to the sun. 
A good season of growth and thorough ripening is the secret of success. 
Plants that are crowded with roots in small pots should have liquid 
manure freely in a weak state every time they need water. 
Begonias .—Begonias of various kinds may still be increased. The 
cuttings root so freely that at this season of the year they should be 
inserted singly in small pots, so that they can be growm on afterwards 
without being checked. Place those for autumn and winter flowering 
into their largest pots, and stand them in cold frames. Keep them close 
until they are rooting freely, and shade from bright sunshine. Autumn 
and winter flowering varieties are invaluable, and too many cannot well 
be grown for cutting purposes. 
Cyclamen .—Place the earliest of these into 5-inch pots, and stand 
them rather close to the glass, where abundance of light can be 
admitted with a free circulation of air. Keep the soil moist about their 
roots, and syringe freely twice daily. Repot all that need it, and care 
is needed that they do not become checked while in a small state, or 
they often fail afterwards. Where houses can be devoted to these plants 
grow them in cold frames from the present time, but where they have 
been kept in heat gradually harden them before removal. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Weather. 
It still continues dry, and unless rain comes soon a dearth of water 
is certain; already there is a scarcity for animals and domestic 
purposes, and crops of every kind are making but little progress. 
The day temperature for two days has now risen from 33° in 
morning to 75°, but on both mornings—viz., 11th and 12th—it was 
5° lower upon the grass, and was white with hoar frost. The 
first week in June was the most destructive to bee life I ever 
experienced. Many hives that were good, comparatively speaking, 
are now useless, and the strongest suffered ; but with the change of 
wind, the first apparently permanent for nearly sixteen weeks, 
they are again improving, and those that have not succumbed will 
be in good trim by the time flowers are ready for them. 
Queens and Hives. 
As anticipated many queens are deposed, but in most cases 
young ones were well forward, and with warm weather very little 
decay will result, as there are plenty of drones. 
Unfed hivei and those with young queens have, as usual, stood 
the test best, are the most forward, and will undoubtedly give 
most profit with the least trouble. I have commenced queen 
rearing, and shall divide and form nuclei on or about the tenth 
day after, and either nurse them or transfer them into hives having; 
queens failing in fertility. 
Hints for Beginners—Decaying Hives. 
Twenty years ago there was not such a thing known as hives 
made from white pine, one of the worst damp-resisting woods 
we have ; it warps, shrinks, and expands with every change of 
the weather. The only recommendation it has is cheapnessr. 
Before the advent of “modern bee-keeping” hives were made 
from the best yellow pine, and red where possible. These were 
more expensive, but far more durable, and the great cry raised by 
certain dealers against high priced hives was simply a trade 
advertisement, and a delusion. 
I have just examined some five-year-old hives that had evidently 
drawn damp that were made from white pine, and they are quite 
rotten ; the frames went to pieces when the hand was laid upon 
them, while hives made from red and yellow pine upwards of thirty 
years ago were quite fresh. Not speaking of the advantages that 
hives made of the latter wood posssess, in point of economy they 
are the cheapest in the end, and at no great length of time either. 
The beginner should therefore have the wood for hives sslected, 
discarding all that of young growth, and blue or sap wood. Before' 
I used the ventilating floors I had only yellow pine in connection- 
with the inside of hives, but after I did not object to red pine.. 
But let me here warn those unacquainted with the nomenclature 
of the timber trade to avoid that known as red deal. It is of 
young growth, and warps readily. I naed not here repeat the form 
of hive best suited for bee-keeping further than that the Lanark¬ 
shire storifying hive as used by me for upwards of forty years, 
with but slight alterations, is the hive most suitable for profitable 
bee-keeping, and is every day becoming more popular both in 
Britain and the Continents of Europe and America. After the- 
hive select the bees, and be sure the colony is provided with a 
young queen of the current year. If this has been secured early 
in June, and the hive nursed forward, it will be in capital order 
for the Heather. 
Young bee keepers are sometimes misled when they are toM 
queens lay 3000 eggs daily ; trusting to that and taking a com¬ 
mercial view of the case, they calculate that in three weeks there 
will be nearly 100,000 workers in the hive. Having six or seveni 
pounds of bees to begin with, with a young fertile queen in the 
height of the season, it is quite possible that number may be 
reached. But the hive must be larger than that known as the 
standard. 
Bees begin breeding a little after the shortest day, and if the 
weather become warmer as the days lengthen. In most cases all 
hives would be ready to swarm end of March, but the reverse is the 
case; and although bees breed in calm weather at almost a zero- 
temperature, they discontinue it at a temperature of 25° to 30°,. 
with the piercing winds of March, April, and May. In short, bees 
breed and expand or contract their brood nest according to the- 
temperature and the season of the year. 
A newly fertilised queen is most prolific shortly after the- 
occurrence and during heat and the incoming of honey, but before 
she lays 3000 eggs daily she must have in attendance at least 30,000 
or 40,000 bees. After a queen has laid that number, be she young 
or old. Nature demands a rest, and the bees prepare for swarming.. 
Feeding. 
For some weeks past I have been feeding those that were 
lightest in the autumn, and have not given them more than 
