844 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 12, 189 
additional breeding space equal to receiving 5000 eggs daily ; but 
this will also have its limit. A lengthened period of honey 
gathering as occurs on the moors may upset all calculations. Super 
room will not tend to prevent swarming ; it must be breeding 
room, while after queen cells with eggs or larvae are being raised, 
nothing short of winter will prevent it. Bees always prepare for 
swarming eight to ten days beforehand. Destroying queen cells 
will not prevent it, especially during a honey flow, for immediately 
after their destruction the bees will raise others, even although 
a youthful and fertile or unfertilised one be safely introduced, 
which fully exposes the fallacy of “ direct introduction of 
queens.” 
As a rule, the mother queen leaves with the first swarm, but 
there are many exceptions. If the prime swarm leaves before the 
tenth day after the commencement of the first queen cell, then 
the old queen is sure to be with the swarm. If delayed longer 
the old queen may be destroyed, and one or several young ones 
may accompany the swarm. In such cases the whole of the 
swarm, after being hived, may abscond. Whenever the bees are 
secured a piece of queen-excluder zinc should cover the entrance, 
which will, in some cases, prevent the loss of the bees and after 
swarming. The surest of all methods is to destroy all surplus 
queens and queen cells eight days after the issue of the first 
swarm, and at the same time remove or transfer to another hive 
all unsealed brood. I had several cases this year at the moors, 
where swarming was repeated five times in all its phases, and yet 
the old queen remained regnant during three of the times, which 
in all occupied seven weeks. In some instances the old fertile 
queen remained in the hive, and left with the third and fourth 
swarm respectively. In others, the young queens being fertilised 
at an early date, when there was, comparatively speaking, little 
breeding space, they soon filled it, and the raising of queens 
followed, then swarming. The most tantalising of all phases of 
swarming is when queens are preserved for weeks long after the 
expected time of the deposition of surplus queens. This year I 
experienced, in several cases, queens piping from three to six 
weeks after they had commenced to pipe. These are, no doubt, 
exceptional instances, but they occur oftener than most bee-keepers 
suspect. 
Introducing alien queens sometimes bothers the beginner. To 
accomplish this safely the hive must be deprived of its queen 
regnant, making sure there is no other perfect or imperfect ones, 
known by the bees raising queen cells. After there are no unsealed 
brood the queen cells ought to be destroyed, leaving the bees with¬ 
out a chance of rearing one perfect or otherwise, when they will 
make a commotion towards evening. This is a sure indication that 
they are queenless and will accept a queen. Introduce her by 
caging first in a safety cage, which consists of two apartments, one 
for the queen and the other for the bees, separated from each other 
by a piece of wire cloth or perforated zinc, and covered with glass 
sliding in grooves. When the bees are willing to accept the alien 
queen they cluster loosely against and under her, and she will be 
active or adhering firmly to the zinc anxious to join the bees. 
The little slide in the end of the cage may then be drawn up and the 
work is done. If, on the other hand, the bees show a great desire to 
get to the queen they are not in a pacified state to receive her. A 
little experience soon teaches the beginner when to admit the 
union, fc’o long as the bees show white necks they are too frenzied, 
and would in all probability kill the queen. 
As a substitute for the safety cage, remove the lid, admit the 
bees to the crown of the hive, place the cage upon its edge, and 
cover with a beU-glass. Watch their proceedings, and when favour¬ 
able remove the glass, lifting the wire cloth a little so that the bees 
can get at the candy. They will eat it and join peaceably with her, 
when in a day or so the encumbrances may be removed and the 
covering of the hive adjusted. 
Hiving is sometimes as provoking to the beginner as it is 
interesting, as the bees when leaving the hive are not known by 
the bee-keeper where they will settle. I will in another chapter 
give some particulars forming the guidance of beginners.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
(To be continued.) 
GARDENEES’ CHARITABLE AND PROVIDENT 
INSTITUTIONS. 
The Gardeners’ Kotal Benevolent Institution. — Secretary, 
Mr. G, J. Ingram, 60, Parliament Street, London, W.C. 
United Horticultural Benefit and Provident Society.— 
Secretary, Mr. \V. Collins, 9, Martindale Road, Balham, London, S.W. 
n Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. — Secretary, Mr. A. F Barron, 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens, Chiswick, London, W. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
H. Cannell & Sons, Swanley, Kent.— Carnations, Picotees, PinJiS, 
and New Chrysanthemums. 
P. J. Loozmanse & Sons, Ondenbosch, Holland .—Ornamental and 
Forest Trees, ^-c. 
M. Vigneron, A. Olivet, Orleans.— Roses. 
W, Wells, The Earlswood Nurseries.— Clirysanthe^mms. 
•^•All correspondence should be directed either to “ The 
Editor” or to “The Publisher.” Letters addressed to 
Dr. Hogg or members of the stafiE 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. 
Poetry (^Planta ').— We do not know the book from which the 
laboured verse is taken, and if we did should decline giving it an 
advertisement in the form you appear to desire. Why did you not send 
your name and address? We do not desire any more anonymous 
inquiries of this nature. 
Beet Seed (6^. Craig ').—The wholesale price of this, like other 
seeds, is governed by the supply, and it is not unlikely that the prices 
for many kinds will rule higher than usual this season. We cannot give 
the “average” prices of any kind of seeds. The information can only 
be had by consulting wholesale price lists over as many years as you 
wish the “ average ” to be based—three, five, ten, or twenty as may be 
thought desirable for your object. 
Pansy Celtic Gem {Alex. Lister ).—The yellow self Fancy Pansy 
bloom sent is of large size, rich gold colour, with an immense bronzy 
maroon blotch in the three lower petals, which are much rayed in the 
margin. It is a grand decorative variety, and if the blotch had been 
cleaner cut on the margin and the lower petal a little wider it would 
have been a very fine exhibition flower. We find that with the cooler 
autumnal weather some very fine Pansy blooms are now to be seen, 
and many such come under our notice. The fiower in question of Celtic 
Gem is 3 inches in diameter. 
Crlnum capense (.7. G .).—Presumably you did not see our reply 
in the issue for July 20tb, page 66. The plant should have completed 
its growth now, and be fully exposed to every ray of sunshine possible, 
and have abundance of air. The supply of water should be gradually 
diminished until the plant can be kept dry, but not sufficiently dry to 
cause the thick fleshy roots to perish. By this treatment the plant will 
not be quite deciduous, but when grown in a warm position outside the 
whole of the foliage is invariably destroyed by frost. The Japanese 
Honeysuckle to which you refer ic perfectly hardy, and may be planted 
in a sheltered place outside, where we have no doubt it will do better 
than in your conservatory. We have known this plant fail under glass 
by being kept more or less constantly growing. A season [of rest is 
important to secure good growth and perfect health. 
Original Testimonials (X. Y. Z .).—We conceive that while an 
employer receiving “ generally addressed ” testimonials would not be 
liable for their accidental loss or destruction (seeing that the holder 
should carefully guard his interest in them by sending copies), that 
employer cannot retain possession of originals after notice to return 
them to the owner. The entrusting of their carriage to the care of the 
post office is no evidence that the owner intended to part with them. 
So long as the original testimonials are in transmission within the un¬ 
broken envelope, the envelope and its contents belong to the addressee. 
After reading the testimonials he has a qualified right of possession as 
against everybody but the owner, to whom he must yield them on 
demand. The position is more clearly seen by supposing that the 
testimonials have been stolen from their rightful owner and sent to the 
addressee by an impostor. The mere fact of the impostor sending them 
through the post cannot confer an absolute right of possession to them 
on the addressee. He is then in the position of a holder of stolen or lost 
property, who has a mere qualified right of possession to the property, 
and which yields to the absolute right of the owner when he appears. 
The sender of original testimonials, by transmitting them through the 
post, no more parts with his ownership than by losing them, though he 
takes the risk of their becoming irrevocably lost or destroyed upon 
himself. 
