426 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 25, 1893. 
shelf close to the glass. Plants that it is necessary to retain for stock 
may, when the cuttings have been removed, be cut close back and 
allowed to start from the base. 
Dracaenas. —Young plants should be repotted as they need more 
root room. Those plants that it is necessary to grow into a larger size, 
and which are now in 5 and 6-inch pots, should be placed into larger as 
soon as they are ready. These plants should be shaded for a few hours 
during the brightest and hottest part of the day, or else their foliage will 
colour too highly._ 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Apiary. 
The weather is now showery and unsettled. Swarming is 
general, and as there is never honey during rainy weather both 
swarms and stocks will require attention in feeding. Stores of 
honey in stock hives will not prevent brood drawing at this season. 
The coming six weeks is the honey season from the Clover, and to 
make the most of it the bee-keeper must be careful to preserve 
the brood of the hive that will produce the honey-gathering bees 
during that eventful time. 
Sealed Quilts. 
These are becoming fashionable and giving fanciers something 
to write about. These quilts are an American idea or rather 
bungle. A lady beginning bee-keeping last autumn had the 
top of a purchased hive sent to her covered with enamelled cloth. 
Although an entire novice in bee-keeping, and had not then seen 
the Journal of Horticulture, she saw the mistake, and writes to me, 
“ I pricked holes in it with a pin.” She did well, but would have 
done better had she removed it altogether and put in its place some 
porous non-conducting material and over that several inches dried 
grass. 
Drone Breeders. 
There is scarcely a bee-keeper of my acquaintance who has not 
had a drone-breeding queen. Embrace the first opportunity now 
to raise nuclei for next year’s work. We do not know what the 
weather may be further on, and “ prepare early ” should be the 
bee-keeper’s watchword. 
Enlarging Hives. 
In all cases where the hives arc not of a size sufficient for the 
laying powers of the queen steps should be taken to enlarge 
those too small, as previously advised. Another thing of im¬ 
portance wherever supers are used is that these should be made 
from the whitest of wood ; bees have an inclination to make 
their combs of a similar colour to its surroundings. Some bee¬ 
keepers use the same supers for years, and as the bees soon darken 
the cleanest super, that with the accumulation of colour from 
years’ use renders the honeycomb the reverse of appetising. 
Where the honey is used by the bee-keeper, if he is satisfied 
with used cases or supers nobody has a right to interfere, but in 
all cases where it has to go into the hands of strangers the clean 
super is the one that gives the most satisfaction and highest 
price. Cleanness and quality are the two cardinal points in bee¬ 
keeping, both as regards honey and wax. 
After these comes quantity, if of the first standard, which is 
obtained in the highest degree without the extractor, honey ripener, 
spreading brood, reversible frames, excluder zinc, and as many more 
minor manipulations. During the past fifty years, and I believe 
for long before, with the exception of what comb foundation has 
done for us in assisting the bees greatly, there has been neither any 
improvement in the quality of the honey nor in its quantity from 
single hives. Doubtless bee literature has spread knowledge, 
but has not improved the quality nor the yield. Our large straw 
hives and Stewarton were then as they are yet, the foremost in 
the field. We have heard of great harvests being taken through 
the use of the extractor, but when the evidence came from a trust¬ 
worthy source the yield did not exceed that of other well-managed 
hives in similar situations ; but, as I have often said, that contests 
or competitions with bees and hives are futile unless the competi¬ 
tion is conducted precisely under the same circumstances as to 
time and place.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
T. S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham.— and 
-ucgonias. 
Kelway feSons, Langporfc, Somerset.— Trees, Seeds, cfc. 
W. Clil^aa & Son, Oldfield Nurseries, Altrincham, Manchester.— 
o^ove and Greenhouse Plants, Florists' Flowers, 
•^•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. 
vine Iieaves Scorched (P. J.'). —The Vine leaf is very badly 
scorched. It arises from inattention to early ventilation, the sun being 
allowed to heat the tissue whilst covered or gorged with moisture. This 
is prevented by admitting air as soon as the sun acts on the house, the 
ventilation inducing steady evaporation, and the leaves then become 
warmed proportionately with the surrounding air. 
Thinning- Potato Gro-wths (P. F. D .').—We have no doubt at 
all that two or three strong stems from a set give a better yield than 
would thrice that number of weak growths. The latter produce a 
greater number of tubers, but small in comparison with the others. 
When clusters of small stems have pushed from a set we have often 
thinned them with advantage to the crop, leaving only two or three of 
the stronger, drawing out the weaker when an inch or two above ground, 
or when hoeing between the rows the first time as soon as the plants 
were fairly visible. If you have doubts as to the usefulness of thinning, 
they will perhaps be dispelled by a well-conducted experiment. What 
we consider superfluous growths are as easily drawn out as if they were 
weeds ; indeed, we consider them as such, as they deprive the soil of 
fertility without giving an adequate return. When thinning of the 
growths is resorted to it cannot be done too soon, late action not being 
nearly so effectual, and it may be of little or no service. The fault then 
rests with the individual, though it may not perhaps be easy to convince 
him of the fact. 
licadlng Shoots of Vines (A Learner'). —These being intended to 
form rods should be trained not less than 2 feet spart for the small 
growers such as Frontignans; 2 feet 6 inches for moderate, such as Black 
Hamburghs ; and 3 feet for strong growers like Gros Colman, on the exten¬ 
sion system, but on the rod system they must be the usual distance 
asunder—1 foot more than just named. They may be trained their full 
length, the laterals pinched at every joint, and at the winter pruning the 
canes should be shortened according to their vigour, the weak the most, 
and the strong the least. By full length is meant the amount of space 
at command, the leader not being stopped until it has reached the 
limit. Some persons, however, stop the canes at about 9 feet of growth, 
pinch the laterals at the first leaf, and the sub-laterals to one leaf as 
produced, shortening weak canes to 3 feet, moderately strong to 4^ feet, 
and strong to 6 feet. Last year’s canes should have the side shoots left 
15 to 18 inches apart on opposite sides of the rods, alternately, stopping 
them at one or two joints beyond the show of fruit on the sixth to 
eighth good leaf and the laterals pinehed to one leaf. A leader should 
be continued from the extremities of the rod, and be treated as before 
advised. The shoots from the spur will require disbudding, leaving 
one to each spur, stopping that retained a few joints beyond the fruit, 
and keeping the laterals stopped according to the space, not allowing- 
them to become crowded. Every leaf should have full exposure to light, 
and air, 
Trapa blcornls (T. IF. E., Leeds). —The above is the name of the- 
plant to which your sketch refers. We cannot do better than repeat 
what we said about this plant last year. Trapa bicornis is a Chinese 
water plant, introduced into this country in 1790. The name Trapa 
is an abridgment of calcitrapa, the Latin name of a dangerous- 
instrument called caltrops, furnished with four spines, which was 
formerly used in war to impede the progress of cavalry. T. natans is- 
a curious aquatic with long brown and green roots and floating leaves, 
with petioles inflated into a tumour, as in the marine Algm. The seed is- 
larger than the kernel of the Filbert, with two cotyledons, one large and 
the other very small, and not increasing in size during the germinatioit. 
Hence Gsertner considers this plant like the Nelumbium, as in a sort of 
middle state between the Monocotyledons and Dicotyledonse. The- 
nuts are farinaceous, and are esteemed as nourishing and pectoral. The 
skin with the spines being removed, there is a white sweet kernel within, 
somewhat like a Chestnut. They are sold in the market at Venice under 
the name of Jesuit’s Nuts. They are also much eaten in Switzerland and 
the south of France. Some of the canals at Versailles are covered with 
the plant; and Niell informs us (Hort. Tour.) that the nuts are some¬ 
times served up like Chestnuts. Pliny says that the Thracians made 
them into bread ; and Thunberg states that the seeds of Trapa 
bicornis are commonly put into broth in Japan, In this country the 
