302 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 4,1895. 
season, and quite eclipse them in showery weather. What they ought 
to have are sunny open beds or banks, poor soil, and ample room. The 
surest way to have them regular and even is to raise the plants singly 
in small pots, late in April or early in May being soon enough to sow 
the seeds, and then, if eventually planted out a foot apart each way 
in separate colours, there will be no undue crowding, and a continuous 
display of flowers be obtained. The seeds may also be sown now, or a 
little later, where the plants are to flower, allowing for failures, and 
thinning out where the seedlings come up too thickly. 
Salplglossis. —This class of annual is somewhat neglected. The 
large flowering type dotted thinly among a carpet of Mignonette would 
look well, and be a novel and cheap bed. Both should be sown now 
thinly and broadcast, covering the seeds with flne soil, or the Migno¬ 
nette may be sown now, and the Salpiglossis be raised under glass and 
planted out of small pots. The dwarf Salpiglossis deserve a bed by 
themselves, and should be sown at once where they are to flower, raising 
a few in pots or boxes in readiness for any blanks that may occur. 
East Iiotblan and other Stocks. —Ten-week Stocks are very 
handsome while they last, but are soon over. Not so the East Lothian, 
Earliest Flowering Autumn, and other intermediate types. If these 
latter are sown now in gentle heat, and the seedlings duly pricked out in 
temporary beds or in boxes, they will be ready for the beds late in May 
or early in June, and given good soil and ample room they will 
commence flowering early in August. 
Bedding Violas. —If these were rooted thickly in frames or 
hand-lights last autumn they ought to be at once temporarily bedded 
out in good soil, not coddling them in any way. Strong stocky plants 
ought to be planted in rich soil not later than the middle of May, and if 
still earlier so much the better. 
HE bee-keeper] 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
Fqture Preparations. 
We have not as yet passed through the most rigorous and 
varied winter ever experienced. The days are still raw and cold, 
without sunshine, and snow falls and lies deep a few miles distant 
from us. Flowers come slowly, and bees cannot venture to work 
on those in bloom. 
The present is a critical time for bees and bee-keepers. The 
season is late ; hives are of all grades, some well stocked with bees 
and well provisioned, others with ample bees and little food. How 
to bring these hives to a profitable state should be the aim of every 
bee-keeper. There is something wrong if any hive is not in a normal 
state of breeding at this date. When all are healthy and in a 
proper state it is surprising how little difference there is at the 
commencement of the honey flow between weak and strong hives. 
Weak hives and those lacking food may be incited to breed by 
being properly covered, judiciously fed, and supplied with pea- 
meal mixed with honey placed in a scoop on the floor of the hive 
under the combs. These tend to keep the bees more at home, 
when otherwise many would be lost through flying in chilly 
weather. Well provisioned, strong stocks are always worse for 
artificial aid. 
When there are one or more weaklings which lack vigour, and 
do not come up to a paying strength at the proper time, we take 
the first opportunity of joining the bees and brood to a stock which 
swarmed after all queen cells have been destroyed, thereby insuring 
in eight or ten days a strong stock, which may be supered, or if 
preferred allowed to swarm. 
So far as profit and profitable hives are concerned, it will be 
understood the management must be with full sized hives. One 
of tie most important factors for bee-keepers to know at a glance, 
when the bees are working, the strength of the hive, whether full 
or otherwise, and so long as bee-keepers remain ignorant of these 
things they cannot reap the full benefit from their bees. Make it 
an axiom in the apiary that queens deposit 4000 eggs daily, con¬ 
sequently hives ought to be large enough to contain these and the 
winged bees.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
STRAW SKEPS versus FRAME HIVES. 
The past winter has given bee-keepers a good opportunity of 
proving which are the best hives for wintering purposes. Those 
who keep bees in straw skeps alongside of the more modern move- 
able frame hives can now compare notes, and prove without a doubt 
whether any improvement has really been made from a wintering 
point of view. 
When compared with the old-fashioned straw skep, which so 
many cottagers still cling to, a practical test of this sort is worth a 
great amount of theory. When one hears of an apiary in which 
50 per cent, of the bees are dead, presumably in wooden hives, 
the cause of which is supposed to be owing to the use of solid floor 
boards, one is forced to the conclusion that the cause must be 
looked for from some other source. 
Another bee-keeper writes regretting the loss of nine stocks, 
eight of these being destroyed by mice. This is very annoying 
to an enthusiast who must necessarily reside in the town, and 
whose apiary is in an outlying country district some distance from 
any dwelling. Had the precaution of reducing the entrance to all 
the hives by the aid of a piece of zinc, only allowing space for the 
bees to pass, and if the floor-boards were loose and not ventilated, 
by slightly plugging up the hive ample ventilation would have been 
provided, and the stock would in all probability have wintered 
without any mishap. It is from such failures as these that one 
may often learn a useful lesson, and guard against similar mishaps 
in the future. 
During the past winter I have experimented with some bees in 
straw skeps that were not fed last autumn. No. 1 was a first 
swarm, which collected ample stores, and is still a good weight and 
very strong in bees. No. 2 was a cast which did not fill the hive 
more than three parts full of comb, and was short of stores in the 
autumn. No. 3 was a late cast, and owing to the wet weather, 
although they were put into a small straw skep, did not half fill it 
with comb, there being but very little honey. The bees, comh, 
and honey would not weigh more than 4 lbs., but by judicious 
feeding these stocks are all alive and doing well, with the prospect 
of each throwing off a swarm in time to obtain full benefit from 
the White Clover should the weather be favourable. 
Although my stocks in frame hives have without exception 
wintered well, I am convinced there is no hive equal to the 
straw skep for wintering weak stocks of bees, but I do not recom¬ 
mend them for any other purpose, as so much larger yields of 
honey can be obtained by using frame hives.— An English Bee¬ 
keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIYED. 
W. Clibran & Son, Oldfield Nurseries, Altrincham.— General Plant 
L ist. 
E. H. Krelage & Son, Haarlem, Holland .—Spring Catalogue. 
Charles Turner, Eoyal Nurseries, Slough .—Spring Catalogue. 
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. 
Diseased Tomatoes {^Challenger ').—If you send a dying plant as 
soon after you read these lines as possible it shall be carefully examined. 
A mixture comprising equal parts of peat loam and leaf soil with a 
little sand will be suitable for the young Ferns. In the absence of peat 
use more leaf mould. 
White Flowers {Kittle) —A reply to your letter was published 
on page 263, March 21st. The letter arrived one post too late for being 
answered sooner, but we suspect you will have to purchase some 
flowers for attaining the particular object you have in view in the 
most satisfactory manner. 
Bunches of Grapes Defective (A. B.). — There is nothing 
parasitic on the bunches, nor have they been eaten by anything. They 
are what is termed “ deaf,” which is due to imperfect development, and 
usually accompanies unripe wood, yet imperfect bud formation also 
occurs on Vines with hard and brown wood. From your description 
we should attribute the defective bunches to immature wood, and, 
of course, the only remedy is to take care to ripen it in the current 
year, so as to have a different result another season. This may be done 
by keeping the growths rather thin, allowing the principal foliage plenty 
of space, nothing interfering with the free access of light and air, and 
keeping the laterals somewhat closely pinched (but not so as to start the 
basal or pruning buds), which will concentrate the elaborated matter on 
the buds, and with these well plumped and the wood thoroughly ripened 
good results would follow. 
