486 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 30,1895. 
(a strong stock), and they are now all dead, while not a single 
Carniolan is aifected. If an inflow of honey or feeding would 
have stayed the scourge then these bees would have been cured, 
because they had both. 
My opinion of the origin of the disease is, eithey the ova 
becomes affected or the queen contracts some disease in her 
sperm sac, because drones do not die of the disease, which both 
may be brought on by some peculiar feeding which affects the ova 
or eggs. Certainly it is not, as some say, infectious, or the 
Carniolans would have succumbed as well as the Punics. My 
opinion is further supported by the fact that the disease is virulent 
only amongst bees laid between certain dates, those laid before 
and after having an entire immunity from it. 
The Apiarv. 
For two weeks from the 1st of May the weather has been 
droughty, frosty at night, and lately cold, the night temperature 
being repeatedly at freezing, and the day temperature on the 17th 
was 45°. The fruit trees, so beautiful in their mantles of white 
and pink blossoms, in one night were browned, so piercing were the 
north-west winds. 
Honey gathering has been very limited since May came in. I 
•hall, to keep up breeding and prevent backgoing, feed a little 
daily till the weather is favourable for honey gathering. A few 
pence spent on each hive from now till honey flows will turn the 
scale in favour of the bee-keeper to pounds instead of a loss. 
Many young bees are hatching daily, which consume much honey. 
When no honey is to be had the young bees are often expelled the 
hive.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
A RETROSPECT. 
bees will again make headway. Stocks on the whole are much 
later than usual, and there will be very few May swarms to 
chronicle.— An English Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 
Acme Chemical Co., Bolton, Lancashire .—Weed Killer: 
•-J® All correspondence should be directed either to “ Thb 
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, ae 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. 
Bee-keepers, like other people, must have their growl, and 
during the past few months they have had more cause than usual 
to complain. First it was the mild weather experienced until the 
new year. Stocks were strong in bees which consumed more than 
their usual supply of stores, which I find always happens more 
during a mild autumn than when there is an extra spell of cold 
weather. Then of a sudden extreme cold sets in with the ther¬ 
mometer down to zero, or within a few degrees of it, for several 
nights in succession. Low temperatures prevailed for the first two 
months of the year ; many stocks in the hands of negligent bee¬ 
keepers, who through various causes had omitted to supply their 
bees with sufficient stores in the autumn, succumbed. 
A few days ago I visited an apiary where last year there were 
several good stocks of bees in well-made frame hives, from which 
very little surplus store were taken. These were left to take their 
chance, and the result is that only one stock is now alive, a practical 
proof, if such is needed, that all stocks should be thoroughly 
examined in the autumn, and those that are short of stores should 
have their requirements attended to. Another bee-keeper who had 
upwards of forty stocks, chiefly in straw skeps, and whose bees had 
the swarming mania during the few really fine days last summer 
when honey was coming in freely. On being appealed to not to 
neglect them, as many were very weak and could not possibly live 
through the winter without some assistance, he rejoined, They must 
take their chance, as owing to several bad seasons in succession it 
would not pay to feed them. 
This, I need hardly say, is a great mistake, as it is a long lane 
that has no turning, and good honey seasons will come in the future as 
they have done in the past. It is much better to keep a few stocks 
and attend to them well than attempt to keep a greater number 
and neglect them. After the long winter the usual changeable 
weather set in till the early days of May, when summer appeared to 
come all at once. Day after day the sun shone from an almost 
cloudless sky. Bee-keepers began to predict a record year. In 
the apiary stocks that had wintered well were making great head¬ 
way, and as honey and pollen were coming in somewhat freely from 
the many spring flowers and fruit trees. 
In the hives breeding was going on apace, some of the most 
forward colonies being nearly ready for swarming, and preparations 
were made for supering, when the wind suddenly veered round to 
the north-east, and for ten days the minimum reading of the 
thermometer placed 4 feet from the ground registered only a few 
degrees from freezing, the maximum reading of the same varying 
50° to 55°. In several places snow fell; fortunately it did not 
actually freeze, but the high winds played sad havoc with the 
blossom, and much damage has been done to the fruit trees, the 
fruit crops in some exposed positions I fear being nearly ruined. 
During the past twenty-four hours (May 25th) heavy showers 
have fallen, and the weather being much warmer there is now a 
better prospect. The cold caused a temporary check to breeding ; 
a great number of drones in the grub state were cast out of the 
hives, but no workers were disposed of, and with the return of 
warmer weather, of which there is every appearance at , present, 
Cucumbers G, R .').—The plant reached us too late for an 
examination to be made for this issue, but it shall have early attention. 
iLspbalt for Paths Without Bolllngr the Tar (6*. C'.).—We 
have no recollection of the recipe you mention, and fail to find it in our 
files. Can any correspondent oblige with particulars of making asphalt 
without boiling the tar by using quicklime in place of boiling the tar ? 
Itaising' Begonias (^Rouble ").—We are not able to state the parti¬ 
cular varieties which the most successful raisers have found by expe¬ 
rience to be best adapted for intercrossing for the object in view, and if 
we asked them they would have a way of their own in replying—very 
pleasant and courteous if not exactly what you would wish. Possibly 
they are a generation or two ahead of you in the way of parentage we 
mean Begonia parentage of' course, and what appears difficult to you 
seems easy enough to them. 
Mulching Boses (^Ferndale). —If the soil is of a light nature and 
liable to “ dry out ” in the summer, we should not fork in the long litter 
as it would make the ground still lighter, and the surface covering would 
be of service in preventing evaporation ; but if the ground is very heavy 
it would be improved by the manure being pointed in, provided the roots 
of the plants are not disturbed, and even then a covering of short manure 
spread on the soil on the approach of hot weather would do good ; short 
manure would be better,than long also for mulching light soil. 
Steam Pan for Bolling Prult (J. .B.).—The idea of filling the 
steam cavity with water is certainly novel and also dangerous. Even if 
you had an escape pipe there, would be danger, but with the thing closed 
an explosion must take place. Besides, how is the fruit to boil in the 
pan if the water in the ^team cavity is not made much higher in 
temperature than boiling water ? This means steam, not vvater. There 
is no need for a steam-japketed pan if you intend to put it on the fire, 
but an ordinary copper or enamelled iron pan would serve your purpose. 
Such are used in large establishments and answer well, but, of course, 
steam is better for general sale requirements. 
Shading Tomato Bouses (A. F .').—Tomato plants do not do 
well in shade, it not being possible to afford them too much light or 
air under favouring external conditions. As the plants, however, do 
not grow freely a slight shade as that of whitewash (^whiting^ mixed 
with skim milk) brushed lightly on the glass outside would modify the 
sun’s rays. It would be better to supply stimulating food at the roots, 
such as top-dressings of the advertised fertilisers, or bone superphosphate 
three parts, kainit two parts, and nitrate of soda one part, mixed after 
crushing fine, and using 2 to 4 ozs. per square yard at about three weeks 
interval. The shading, if any, must only be temporary. 
Files from Apple Trees (7?. ff/.).—The somewhat large black 
flies belong to the order Diptera, tribe Empidae, and are known as 
Empis tesselata. Your specimens consist of both males and females, and 
bad visited the Apple, trees in quest of prey, which consists of insects 
of various kinds, especially the small leaf-roller moths, in capturing of 
which the perfect insects display wonderful assiduity and skill, their 
long legs embracing the victim, closing tightly around the body^ 
binding together legs and wings, so as to prevent all strug^ing, and the 
sharp beak with which the mouth is provided is thrust deep into the 
body. Little is known of the larval condition of the Empis, but so far 
as we have observed the grubs do not feed on living ■^getation, yet we 
have had them emerge from pupa contained in vegetable matter under- 
, gone decay. 
