October 8, 1893, ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
321 
good 6bry loam, one-seventh of sand, and the same amount of manure. 
Careful watering is necessary, for if kept too wet the foliage is certain 
to spot. Later plants should be treated the same as regards air and 
water. Young plants that are established in 3-inch pots may have the 
points of any weak shoots removed ; pinching will induce them to start 
strongly again into growth, provided they are kept cool. Cuttings that 
are still in outside borders should be lifted and potted without delay. 
All that are rooted should be placed into 3-inch pots, and stood on 
shelves in a cool house. Heat ruins these plants by causing them to 
grow weakly. 
Heliotropes. —If the plants are placed in a light, airy structure, 
where the night temperature can be gradually increased to 55° in a 
month’s time, the plants will commence growth, and flower profusely 
for a very long time. A little artificial manure applied to the surface 
will prove beneficial. 
Bouvardlas. —These plants must not be starved. Any that have 
been planted outside and are only needed for providing flowers may be 
lifted with good balls and put in a warm frame or low house. Those 
grown in pots will be showing flower, and if stood in a house where 
gentle warmth can be given in the course of a few weeks they will soon 
yield useful flowers for cutting. If placed on ashes the plants invariably 
root through, and this proves a great assistance to them. Soot water, or 
artificial manure that acts quickly, proves invaluable to these plants. 
Justlcla flavlcoma. —The growth of these plants is earlier than 
usual, and already the flower truss in many cases is just visible. A 
temperature of 50° will suit them, plenty of air being admitted during fine 
warm days. Soot water and artificial manure may be given. The 
plants if raised from cuttings should be clean, but if scale exists upon 
them it ought to be eradicated. 
Fuchsias. —Plants that have flowered and have thoroughly ripened 
wood may be stood outside for a time. Younger plants that have not 
the wood well ripened may be stored for a time in frames. Do not 
hurry them to rest by keeping them unduly dry. Young plants that 
are just rooted may be placed into 3-inch pots and arranged on a shelf, 
where they can be kept growing during the winter. 
Bulbs. —Various kinds of bulbs should be potted according to the 
demand until the end of this month. When placed in ashes they should 
be marked, and the date of potting placed on the label. This saves 
trouble and disturbing the plants before they are ready for removal. 
Place all the later potted ones where they can be covered with litter if 
not ready for removal before we experience severe weather. 
Freeslas. —All the earliest of these should be growing in frames, 
where they can remain for some weeks longer. If the frames are needed 
place the plants on shelves where they can enjoy full sunshine and 
plenty of air. Freesias are frequently spoiled by a too close confined 
atmosphere. Later plants must not be allowed to become drawn. 
if 
9 ^ 
m 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
Practical Hints for Beginners, 
(Continued from ]}age 299.) 
With the exception of depositing the eggs in the cells, which 
is done solely by the queen, one in each cell, and at the rate of 
from one to four thousand or more daily, all the other economy of 
the hive is performed by the workers gathering pollen and honey 
from the flowers and other sources. 
They secrete wax in the form of irregular roundish white 
scales, which when ready for use project from the segments of 
their stomachs in pairs. This they utilize for building and sealing 
their honeycombs, and with a mixture of it and pollen and 
propolis, they cement crevices of the hive, and seal their brood 
cells. While they perform this work with ardent care and zeal 
for the future generations of bees, their work in the field is 
perhaps of greater importance. Entering blooms for honey and 
pollen ostensibly for their own use, they fertilize and cross flowers, 
perpetuating them with greater vigour and beauty. Probably 
some buds would never expand did the bees not remove the 
superabundant propolis from them ; everywhere and in everything 
the bee is engaged. 
The drones are the male bees, which are sometimes too 
numerous in hives ; advice to their restriction will be given further 
on. They are of no use in the hive, unless it be in the case of 
swarmed hives, where there are a paucity of workers to keep up a 
proper degree of temperature for the successful hatching of the 
young bees. In the season of mating they fly out during the 
warmest part of the day, from one till three being the busiest 
time. They remain out from fifteen to thirty minutes, fljing long 
distances in hopes of meeting and mating with a queen. During 
the present summer, while I held a queen, a drone, probably 
attracted by her odour, flew right into my hanl. The speed drones 
fly at probably exceeds greatly that of the worker, which has never 
been properly estimated. While standing in an open truck this 
year, the engine going upwards of fifty miles an hour, the bees 
flew from front to rear, evidently with the greatest ease. 
Fertile workers are so called because externally they cannot be 
distinguished from a worker bee, but in the proper sense are 
imperfected queens. They cannot mate, and were until recently 
considered utterly worthless, producing, like unfertilised queens, 
drones only ; but these are as perfect as are the drones of fertilised 
queens. So far back as 1862 the late Mr. T. W. Woodbury proved 
this by one of them mating with an Italian queen, and I have had 
experience of many cases since. Their existence seems to be a 
wise provision in nature, the drones produced from them serving 
queens at times when no other drones exist. I am not certain, but 
it appears to me that a queen may be the mother of drones, to be 
fertilised by one of them, and then be the parent of strong 
colonies. Several cases in my experience point to that being the 
case; but why workers rear many of these sumptuously in queen 
cells is a mystery to me. I have never been led into the erroneous 
opinion, as have been many others, that they were eggs moved by 
the bees which do not carry eggs from cell to cell. The 
hermaphrodite is part bee and part drone. The beginner studying 
these brief but necessary hints will have less difficulty in under¬ 
standing the proper condition of his hives than if he had allowed 
ignorance to hold its sway. 
Beginning Bee-keeping. 
There is perhaps no better period to begin than at the present 
time of the year, because by proper management and paying 
attention to advice given in these pages, most of the after success 
depends. Beginners should select a good site and locality to keep 
bees. Size of hives is of great importance. Those of less 
dimensions than 3500 cubic inches are too small. One prominent 
bee-keeper told me recently, “ I have kept to the three divisions 
since you at first advised me, when I abandoned the ‘ Standard ’ 
hive, and I have always had more honey, and better of quality.” 
“R. A. C., Kent," writes that his Lanarkshire hives have given 
him in every case 20 lbs. more honey, and I could quote scores of 
similar cases. 
Youthful queens are what beginners ought to tolerate only, 
unless where there may be a valuable imported or pure bred one 
kept for the sole purpose of breeding from. The best time to do 
this is from the end of May till the end of July, and there is no 
better way, failing a swarmed stock, than to deprive a strong one 
of its queen. In ten or twelve days queens are hatched, and then 
it may be formed into nuclei ; twelve from a strong stock may 
thus be formed. The frames with bees having a queen cell to each 
lot may be put into roughly made light boxes of a suitable size to 
hold from three to four or more frames. What is not occupied 
with combs should have frames filled with foundation. A light 
cover screwed on the top completes the arrangement, when they 
may be set on their site in the apiary, or isolated five to seven miles 
from other bees for select fertilisation. Put a piece of waterproof 
over them, and await development.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
correspondence should be directed either to “ The 
Editor ” or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to 
Dr. Hogg or members of the stafE 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. 
Exhibiting- Tomatoes (A. CreeTi ).—In the absence of any special 
intimation in the schedule that Tomatoes may be included in a class for 
fruit, a collection containing them would be open to disqualification. 
Like Cucumbers and Vegetable Marrows, Tomatoes are exhibited in 
vegetable, and not in fruit classes. 
Blinds In Fruit Room (JF. J ).—The blinds suspended along the 
front of the shelves for excluding light from the fruit would not 
exclude air to the prejudice of Apples and Pears in a reasonably venti¬ 
lated room, but it might be necessary to block up the window during 
severe frost if such occur in your locality. 
