512 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 22, 1895. 
ii 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
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APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Weather and Bees. 
Till the beginning of the second week of June the drought 
was doing no injury, but a dry north-east wind since has caused 
many plants to suffer, preventing the secretion of honey to the 
extent bee-keepers desire. Nevertheless we cannot complain. 
Although not yet at the usual supering time by several weeks many 
are not only on, but are near completion. For the purpose of 
making clear the working of my hives I have classed them into 
three sections. The first were early swarmers, which I made no 
attempt to control. The second, a little later, I allowed to swarm 
once, preventing after swarms by excising all queen cells on or 
about the eighth day subsequent to the first swarm, stocks and 
swarms all working in their supers. The others are what I wish to 
be non-swarmers. These are very strong, and have one tier of 
supers well forward. Singular to say, the last-named, with one 
exception, a crossed Syrian, the best hive in my apiary, which has 
never been fed since the bees were put into the hive years ago, 
are Punics, proving that they enter supers freely and do not swarm 
readily while they have plenty of room. 
Punics and Weight of Hives. 
A pure Punic has bred to a great extent for the three seasons 
I have had her, and is still alive, although it was supposed she 
was a year or more old when I obtained her. The bees swarmed 
on June 13th, and are working and carrying in honey to a con¬ 
siderable extent, disproving the statement “ they gathered no 
honey,” They have not robbed others this season, such as Italians 
are doing, while they are not so bad-tempered as some other 
varieties. 
The honey gathered this season does not lose in weight as it 
did last year. With a copious rain, and ten days’ mild weather any 
time during the next month the yield of honey will be great. I 
have weighed one medium swarm, and its gross weight is 76 lbs., 
and the nett contents of the hive 35 lbs. About half a mile 
distant from me, at Sydes Cottage, a few minutes’ walk from 
High Blantyre station, is a swarm of crossed Punics, swarmed 
and hived on June 1st, which on the evening of the 15th, when 
weighed, turned the scale at 94 lbs., the nett contents of the hive 
being 74 lbs. Any person is welcome to visit the place and see 
for themselves the accuracy of the statement. 
Inducing Bees into Supers. 
Last week I made allusion to the old method, which I have 
often referred to, of giving bees supers under the brood nest at 
first to prevent swarming, and by utilising the combs as supers 
thus hurrying on that work. Dr. C. C. Miller in “Gleanings” says, 
“ Simmins has made a decided improvement in the non-swarming 
plan. Formerly the system was to have the bees always building 
comb between the brood nest and the entrance ; as fast as the bees 
built the comb, cutting it out and fitting it into sections. Now he 
puts sections under instead of brood combs, then raises the sections 
when well started.” 
Supers following the first ones will be put uppermost, unless 
where they are small in four or two sections. In these cases 
half of the partly full supers will be lifted and put on the other 
half, empty ones taking the place of those that are moved. 
•^•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. 
Disfigured Feacli Xieaves (TF, M .').—The box containing the 
leaves came to hand too late for a thorough examination this week. 
The matter shall be fully dealt with in our next issue. 
Scabbed Potatoes (^Constant Reader ').—A reply to your query was 
given on page 449 of the Journal of Horticulture for June 1st, No 
flower came to hand with the Potato, otherwise it would have been 
named. 
Preventing Earwigs Eating Apricots (^Ajiricof ).—The earwigs 
are best trapped before the fruit commences to ripen. Beanstalks or 
hollow stems of any kind of plant, if cut into lengths of from 6 to 
9 inches, and placed in the branches of the tree, will catch a large 
number. Small flower pots, partly filled with dry moss, and either 
inverted or laid on their sides in the forks of the tree, may also be used 
effectively. In either case the traps must be frequently examined, and 
the earwigs shaken out into a vessel containing boiling water. By 
commencing early, and attending well to the traps, the earwigs may be 
captured, and the crop of fruit saved. 
Thames of Insects (J. D. Ruffreyn ').—Other food being inacces¬ 
sible, the larva enclosed in your box assailed its companions, and 
devoured the greater part of the beetle’s body, also some portions of the 
moth. Owing to this the beetle cannot be identified. It would seem to 
be a species of weevil, and was doubtless engaged in sucking the juices 
of the Grapes, The moth is the species called the small elephant 
(Choerocampe porcellus), because the head of the caterpillar has been 
thought to resemble the elephant’s trunk, or, according to other 
observers, the snout of a pig. It is rather a sluggish but pretty insect, 
and not very common. Your larva is the grub of the cockchafer beetle 
(Uelolontha vulgaris), which has been noticed in several places this 
season, as doing much injury to the roots of various plants. It feeds 
slowly, pursuing its destructive work for some years. 
Todea superba (J. M .').—It should be grown in a pot well 
drained, using a compost of three parts fibrous peat, one part yellow 
loam, and a half part each of sandstone or crocks broken rather small, 
and silver sand. The peat and sand ought to be torn up moderately 
small, and the whole must be well mixed; pot moderately firm. 
Keep the soil constantly moist, and place the plants in a cool shady 
part of the greenhouse. If the house be small the plants will do without 
a glass, but if not sufficiently close and moist it should be covered with 
a glass just resting within the rim of the pot, and if it has no hole 
in the top it should be taken off and wiped dry once daily. The plants 
should be gently sprinkled with water once a day in bright weather 
through a very fine-rosed can. The plants having the requisite moisture, 
the fronds will be covered with minute dewdrop-like spots of water in 
the morning if the glass is tilted a little on one side at night. 
The Heather. 
With so much heat and sunshine, and little rain, the Heather 
has made long growths, is early, and very promising. The pre¬ 
parations for taking the bees to it will be earlier than is usually 
the case. Take every precaution to prevent smothering, ventilat¬ 
ing floors, with an upward current for the escape of the heated 
air, shallow combs, gentle handling, and with flexible springs on 
the vehicle the hives in most cases will travel long distances 
with perfect safety. When a hive shows signs of distress from 
over-heating sprinkling a little cold water upon it will have a 
good effect. 
I never send bees to the moors with partly filled supers. Do 
not let bees crowd. If at anytime the bees incline to “ lie out ” 
give extra space at once. Feeding with advanced hives is a thing 
of the past; sfill, if there are any late swarms, and the weather 
unfavourable, feed a little. Sometimes this applies to hives deprived 
of their honey.— A. Lanarkshire Bee-keefer. 
Scutellaria macrantba (^Amateur ').—This is a native of Eastern 
Asia, and appears to be widely spread, extending, according to Sir 
William Hooker, to the great wall of China, where it was detected by 
Sir George Staunton. It is perfectly hardy and of easy cultivation and 
increase. It is an herbaceous perennial, scarcely exceeding 1 foot in 
height, with angular, branching stems, and opposite, entire, lance¬ 
shaped leaves, and forming when sufficiently strong a spreading bushy 
tuft. The very handsome purple flowers are produced in long terminal 
spikes. The plant seeds freely, and may be readily increased by these 
means as well as by division of the roots or by cuttings under a glass, 
either in the border or frame. Seedlings usually flower the first season 
if sown early, and should be transplanted from the seed pan while 
young, as they will suffer less from removal than at a more advanced 
state of their growth, when their tap-like root is more developed. 
Culture of Pancratium fragrans (N. R .').—This beautiful plant 
requires a rather high temperature and a moist shady position ; a stove 
heat of 70° in summer and 60° in winter should be the minimum. Your 
plants should be shifted as soon as they fill their pots with roots. ' When 
the specimens are as large as required they must only be potted every 
