May 16,1895. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
439 
remains of the blossom, tend to prevent incursions of red spider, and 
keep down other pests. The houses, however, must not be kept very 
moist, and the foliage should always be dry before night, as the weather 
is not yet to be depended on, and a sudden severe frost occurring whilst 
the house is moist is much more likely to prove disastrous to the crop 
than when the atmosphere is dry. Ventilate at 50'^, not allowing an 
advance to 65° without full ventilation, and close at 50°, or before if 
there is a prospect of frost at night. If water is necessary, apply it 
suflSciently early in the day to allow of the surface becoming fairly dry 
bQfore night. 
Pines, —With the weather changeable and the fruits of early started 
plants in an advanced stage special attention is necessary, a moderately 
moist atmosphere and high temperature being essential to their well¬ 
being, which condition renders them susceptible of injury from the 
effects of bright sun, sudden outbursts telling disastrously on the crown, 
which is not infrequently scorched if the ventilation is not carefully 
attended to. Watering will require attending to once a week, but avoid 
indiscriminate periodical drenchings. Plants that have heat at the roots 
by means of hot-water pipes need more than those having the heat 
furnished by fermenting materials. In either case water should be 
given as often as required, on every occasion supplying some stimulant, 
such as guano, 1 lb. to 20 gallons of water. Admit air at the top of 
the house by or soon after the sun acts powerfully thereon, maintaining 
the temperature during the day at 80° to 90°, closing at 85° ; but unless 
it be desirable to enlarge the crowns, do not quite close the house. 
Fire heat must be employed to prevent the temperature falling below 
70° at night, and raise it to 75° in the day, the bottom heat being kept 
at 80° to 90°. Syringe the house and plants two or three times a week, 
according to the weather, and maintain the atmosphere in such con¬ 
dition as to secure the perfect development of the fruit. 
Cherry House. —Cherries ripening rapidly must be kept dry, but 
the borders and paths should be sprinkled as required to maintain a 
genial atmosphere for the benefit of the foliage, air being admitted 
constantly, or condensation will seriously affect the fruit, causing it to 
crack. Examine the border, and if necessary afford a thorough supply 
of water. Tie-in the shoots as they advance, and stop those not 
required at about the fifth leaf. Ventilate freely on all favourable 
occasions, and when the external conditions are unfavourable recourse 
must be had to the heating apparatus to insure a circulation of warm, 
dry air. Black aphides must be kept in check by fumigation or vapour¬ 
isation, or by dipping the shoots or leaves in tobacco water. Netting 
will be necessary over the ventilators, with sufficiently small mesh to 
exclude birds. 
Cucumbers. —Plants in bearing all the winter will now be showing 
signs of exhaustion, and had better be removed and young plants placed 
in without delay. All the old soil must be taken out and the house 
thoroughly cleansed, using entirely fresh sweet material for the young 
plants. If there is any suspicion of eelworm, syringe the house in every 
part with a mixture of petroleum and water, a wineglassful to 
3 gallons of water, keeping mixed by alternate squirts from the syringe 
into the vessel and over the woodwork. For the walls and soil parts 
use that amount of phenyle or creolin instead of the petroleum, and if 
need be disinfect the soil, using the phenyle at the rate of a wineglass¬ 
ful to 3 gallons of water, moistening the soil evenly through. Assist 
young plants showing signs of weakness by removing the staminate 
flowets and the first fruits, stopping at every third or fourth joint, 
removing all weakly and superfluous growths. Shading will be neces¬ 
sary for an hour or two in the middle of the day when the sun is hot, 
especially houses facing south, but let it be done before the plants flag, 
as afterwards it will only prevent further mischief, flagging being in¬ 
variably injurious. 
Houses with roofs facing east and west will not require shading. 
Little or no fire heat will be required by day, shutting off the valves at 
about 8 A.M , and opening them again at about 5 p.m. Syringe the 
plants moderately between 3 and I p.m., or earlier, keeping a good 
moisture all day by damping the floors. Aphides must be kept under by 
fumigation, filling the house with smoke in the evening and repeating 
it early in the morning, or it may be practised on two or three con¬ 
secutive evenings. It is essential to have the foliage dry, but the floor 
well damped. Eed spider may be kept under by removing the worst 
leaves and syringing somewhat forcibly, but not so as to damage the 
foliage. Ammonia in any form is disliked by these insects, hence guano 
or soot water at the roots benefits alike the plants. A little sulphur 
brushed on the hot-water pipes with a little milk to make it adhere is 
good against red spider, white fly, and mildew. 
Pits and Frames .—Sow seeds for raising plants to occupy pits and 
frames after being cleared of bedding plants, or early Potatoes. 
Cucumbers do excellently in such structures, a fair bottom being 
secured by using the least decomposed material from Seakale, 
Rhubarb, or exhausted hotbeds, which, with about a fourth of 
fresh material, will afford all the heat required. Close the pits 
and frames as early in the afternoon as is safe, not allowing the tem¬ 
perature to exceed 90° to 95°, and employ good night coverings. 
Maintain a bottom heat of 80° to 90° by duly renewing the linings. 
Prepare for planting out ridge Cucumbers under hand-lights, the plants 
being hardened previously. 
Strawberries In Pots, —There must not be any lack of moisture 
at the roots of Strawberries, as when the sun is powerful the fruits are 
apt to have the skin dried, and they do not swell properly afterwards. 
After the fruits commence swelling a brisk moist heat is essential, 
supplying liquid manure liberally until the fruit change colour, when 
it must be discontinued, giving less water at the roots. Admit air 
freely whenever the weather is favourable, avoiding drying currents. 
Thin the fruits well on late plants, especially the late varieties. Water 
the plants twice a day, and in bright weather three times, at least 
examine the plants for that purpose and supply it if required. Liquid 
manure may be given at the afternoon watering. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
Bright sunshine, easterly winds, and frosty nights have con¬ 
tinued for about two weeks. Bees do not work as eagerly as some 
people think they ought, the reason being honey is scarce, owing 
to the drought. 
Everywhere the bright weather is stimulating the bees to breed, 
and many hives are now well forward, but are on the verge of 
starvation, which liberal feeding will keep right, and if favourable 
weather comes during the next two months end in profit. 
There are exceptionally sheltered places near woods where honey 
trees and flowers abound, hives in some cases being too heavy. 
Frame hives are easily remedied by removing sealed combs, sub¬ 
stituting full sheeted frames. Hives having fixed combs and over¬ 
charged with honey should have supers added. When the bees 
have these well combed, invert the hive, and with a spatula or other 
instrument break the seals of some of the overloaded combs. This 
has been done under my instructions in several cases, and is giving 
every satisfaction. 
Although I advise supering in such cases, I by no means 
recommend it generally until the hives are crowded with bees 
and the honey flow at hand, unless with hives specially wanted 
to swarm from which supering is withheld, and in some cases the 
hives are undersized. 
The difference between bees in a hive containing 2000 cubic 
inches and one nearly as large again, all things being right, favours 
the bee-keeper from 50 to 100 per cent, more honey where the 
latter is used. The former may at times fill a super earlier, but 
it afterwards falls greatly behind. 
Nuclei may now be formed as soon as the first swarm has issued. 
About eight days after the issue of the first swarm divide the brood 
combs into nuclei boxes holding from three to four frames, making 
sure each nucleus has a queen cell. Reject all attenuated or smooth 
walled cells. It is not a bad plan, if there are hives not forward 
enough for profit, to divide their bees and combs amongst the 
nuclei, reserving the queen, joining her to a newly swarmed hive, 
making sure all queen cells are destroyed before doing so.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
SEASONABLE NOTES. 
As there is now a decided change in the weather for the better, 
the sun shining daily from an almost cloudless sky, the barometer 
being high and a corresponding rise in temperature, trees and 
plants bursting into bloom in all directions, will enable the bees 
to supply the wants of the daily increasing population of their 
hives. 
Notes should be made of the many varieties of flowers now in 
bloom that are most frequented by the bees. In the majority of 
agricultural districts these will be very plentiful. Apples trees are 
a mass of bloom, and there is a great promise of a heavy crop 
of fruit if not injured by the late frosts. As vegetation generally 
is later than usual the bloom will probably escape, as it is quite 
unusual to have so severe a frost so late in tha season as was 
experienced on the 21st of May last. Plums, Pears, and Cherries 
are now in full bloom, which, thanks to the bees, will be fertilised, 
and the trees probably in due course be heavily laden with fruit. 
From the flowers of these trees a great amount of honey and 
pollen is obtained, notably in the South and West of England, 
where many acres of fruit trees are grown. In my own district 
only sufficient honey is obtained for supplying the present wants of 
the bees, as fruit trees are not grown in sufficient numbers, and as 
a rule stocks are not forward enough for supering so early in the 
year. 
The wild Cherry has been a perfect sheet of blossom, and has 
been of great assistance to the bees. The Sycamore tree, so 
common in our woodlands, is now in full bloom and produces a 
great amount of honey and pollen, and is most serviceable to the 
busy workers in building up strong colonies, for the honey flow 
which we obtain from the field Beans and White Clover. The 
former promised well in the autumn, but the majority of crops that 
I am acquainted with have succumbed to the severe winter, and 
