331 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 11, 1893. 
intervals, or more than two or at the most three weeks between the 
sowings of Lettuce, or there will be a gap in the supply ; transplanting 
also being resorted to now as little as possible. With Peas again it is 
not advisable to wait long for rainfall before making successional 
Bowings—a good rule being to sow more seed when that last put in has 
germinated. If the ground is dry, hard, and lumpy give it a good 
watering at night, and it will then break to pieces easily the next 
morning. Should the soil be fine but the drills dry when opened give 
these a watering prior to sowing the seed, and cover in with the dry 
soil. This will be found a much better plan than watering after the 
seed is sown and the ground levelled. Planting in dry soil is also 
a mistake, the better plan being to well moisten both the ground and 
the plants to be moved a few hours prior to cropping it. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
From some places we hear reports of full supers, and as many 
as two taken from one hive of Punics. With us the bees had not 
the means of gathering more than what will tide them over till the 
Clover season. As I hinted last week unless full breeding space is 
afforded the seeming abundant early yield of honey will tend to 
loss rather than profit. 
In no case have our bees been supplied with artificial aid since 
January, and that was very limited, yet all are in a very forward 
condition and may swarm at any time now. Up till the last week 
of April the nights were often frosty, and where supers were put 
on they cooled the hives, and breeding was somewhat retarded. 
The supers are not first class, and the honey would have been 
better stored in the body of the hives which ought to be larger 
than the majority of bee-keepers use. A large hive is not so 
inimical to the prosperity of the bees as supers, unless they be 
small, at this season of the year. 
Although everything is promising at present, and the bees are 
in readiness, we do not know what is in store for us ; we may 
have a continuation of fine weather or the reverse. My plans are, 
if goes well, to let my hives increase a fifth, and to raise nuclei in 
excess the number of stocks to be kept. With the early season it 
is probable, should fine weather continue, that they will make an 
attempt to increase 250 per cent., but this will be checked by one 
or more of the modes of restriction previously mentioned. On no 
account should the destruction of surplus queen cells be neglected, 
nor longer than the eighth day after the first swarm issues. There 
are exceptions to that rule. Frequently the prime swarm issues 
with a young queen, the old one may accompany her or be left in 
the hive for future disposal by the bees. It is, therefore, advisable 
to examine the stock hive immediately after the issue of the swarm, 
to ascertain the advanced state of the queen cells. It is an easy 
task to destroy cells, but a difficult one to depose all the queens 
that may be free in hives of that nature. Amongst the many 
methods for swarming there are none so simple and so easily 
performed as the one just described. 
Joining Swarms. 
There are various ways of disposing of bees to prevent an 
increase and to keep the stocks strong, such as joining two or 
more swarms, and adding the combs of one hive to another. One 
plan I was successful with in years gone past was to hive the 
swarm, set it close by the side of the stock hive, or in front of 
it, and sometimes upon the top of it, as circumstances demanded, 
until it was settled and working. As soon after that as possible 
I transferred some of the combs, with a portion of bees, from 
the stock hive to the swarm, as well as the supers. Sometimes 
I put the swarm uppermost, and at others beneath the stock ; 
when uppermost 1 turned the stock’s entrance either to the back or 
the side. In my Lanarkshire extension hive for two queens the 
entrance was mostly at the side, with the perforated zinc divider 
between the two, but for obvious reasons this was only put in 
several days before uniting, the close-fitting divider being employed 
at first. With storifying hives, with a swarm above or below, the 
zinc divider took the place of the floor two days previous to 
uniting, when the old queen was deposed and the young one fertile. 
This plan put an end to swarming. All the working bees con¬ 
tinued to gather honey with greater vigour, as all swarms do, than 
the unswarmed old stock, while the nucleus left insured the 
prosperity of the hive for another year. My hives with these 
arrangements were shown at the Caledonian Society 1875 and the 
three following years. In the “ Farmer ” and other papers in 1878 
the late Mr. Wm. Raitt styled it the “ wonderful hive.” I mention 
this fact because at the present time so much is said about so-called 
“new” systems which are really old.—A Lanarkshire Bee- 
KEERER. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
John Laing & Sons, Forest Hill, S.E.— Fancy-leaved Caladmmg. 
H. B. May, Dyson’s Lane Nursery, Upper Edmonton.— Ferns, Store 
and Greenhouse Plants. 
Merryweather & Sons, Limited, Greenwich.— Fumjps and- Water 
Supply Apparatus, Hoses, ^'c. 
J. 'Veitch & Sons, Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea.— Plants and 
Novelties for 1893. 
•^•All 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. 
Violas (TF. P.). —It is doubtful if an “ exact ” distinction between 
Violas as commonly grown and Pansies can be given in a few words, 
as Pansies are Violas, but all Violas are not Pansies. If any expert 
can draw a well defined line between them we will readily publish his 
achievement. 
Violas (^John Forbes'). —The box of blooms only arriving as we are 
preparing for press, it ean only be said that the fiowers, in great variety, 
are remarkably good considering the unusual term of bright dry 
weather to which the plants have been subjected. You evidently possess 
a very fine collection. 
Carpet Bed Seslgrns (J. M. Stone). —Mr. A. Graham, Garden Super¬ 
intendent Hampton Court Palace, Kingston-on-Thames, published a small 
manual a few years ago containing a variety of good designs for plant¬ 
ing carpet beds. You might write and ask him if it is still in print. 
We do not know of any other. 
Alpine Honeysuckle (^Querist). —There are several so-called 
“ alpine ” Honeysuckles, but one of the most distinct and pleasing is 
Lonicera pyrenaica, forming dense dwarf twiggy bushes 6 to 18 inches 
high, the flowers being borne in elusters, ivory or creamy white in 
colour. It requires rich loamy soil in well-drained but moist narrow 
fissures of rockwork, with an open exposure. 
Grapes Rusted (J Subscriber).—The leaf “ infestation ”_is simply 
an exudation of sap in the form of globules which have dried. The 
leaves are rusted. The condition of both leaf and fruit suggest that the 
temperatures and ventilation have not been properly regulated. There 
has been a mistake somewhere, but it is impossible to describe it with 
exactitude in the absence of particulars of your routine. 
Early Peas (fl". TFiff).—The pods of Suttons’Ringleader, gathered 
on May 6th. are good and well filled, and we are not surprised to learn 
they are three weeks earlier than last year. It is impossible to insert 
letters written on both sides of the paper when they arrive as we are 
making up our pages for press. Matter for publication should be 
written on one side of the paper only—always, and by everybody. 
Eradlcatlner “ Butch Elder ” from a Elly of the Valley Bed 
(Querist). —The only effectual method is to take up the Lily of the Valley 
in the autumnas soon as the leaves have died down,and thoroughly remove 
every partiele of the creeping roots, and then replant, taking care not 
to introduce any part of the weed with the Lily of the Valley roots. 
The weed may be considerably weakened by cutting the crowns off as 
fast as they appear. 
Preservlngr Prult and Vegetables—hXarket Prices (St. Julien). 
—Certainly the writer to whom you rJer had in view establishments 
of considerable size, in which fruit and vegetables are grown and 
prepared for commercial purposes, and you did not intimate that your 
establishment was a small one. It is questionable if what yon have in 
view could be likely to be profitable on a small scale. We will make 
further inquiry into the matter. You are in error in your assumption 
that our market returns are “not revised for months.” They are 
revised every week in the market, and are founded on actual average 
returns. The example you quote does not in the least represent average 
sales, but the returns of expert growers. These no more indicate the 
average than the prize animals at a Smithfield Show represent the flocks 
and herds (including the starvelings) in our pastures. To regard the 
list to which you allude as anything near the average would be utterly 
fallacious and misleading. It seems to us that you require something 
different from real average prices, but have not explained what it is, 
and perhaps it would not be easily explainable. If your returns are so 
much higher than those published all the better for you, and the more 
* creditable to your skill as a cultivator. 
