250 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 29, 1894. 
fork, not injnring the roots, adding fresh Inmpy compost previously 
warmed. Thin out the exhausted growths, and encourage fresh bearing 
shoots. Expel worms with lime or soot water, a peck to 30 gallons of 
water, stirred well, letting it stand forty-eight hours, then watering with 
the clear liquid. Subdue canker at the collar and in the old growths by 
rubbing quicklime into the affected parts. Damp the floor in the 
morning between seven and eight o’clock, and again in the afternoon 
about three o’clock, syringing the foliage gently on warm afternoons, 
and keep liquid manure in the evaporation troughs. Attend to stopping, 
thinning, and training at least once a week. Maintain a night tempera¬ 
ture of 70° to 75°, by day 80° to 85° with sun, and close sufficiently 
early to rise to 90°, or even 100°, with an abundance of atmospheric 
moisture. Ventilate moderately and early, avoiding sudden changes of 
temperature, also currents of cold air, which cripple the foliage and 
cause the young fruit to become deformed, and to swell irregularly. 
Where straight fruit is required glasses should be employed. 
Pitt and Frames. — The requisite heat should be maintained by 
renewing the linings. Train the growths rather thinly, pegging them 
down as required, and stop one joint beyond the show for fruit, or the 
leading growths about 1 foot from the sides of the frame. Add fresh 
warmed soil to the ridges or hillocks as the roots extend. Be moderate in 
the application of water as the nights are as yet cold, and employ thick 
night coverings. Admit a little air early, so as to have the foliage dry 
before the sun acts powerfully upon it. The heat through the day may 
range from 80° to 90° with sun. Close early in the afternoon, no harm 
accruing if the temperature rise to 90°, or even 100° provided there is no 
rank steam. If there is danger from it admit a little air constantly, a 
small opening being sufficient to allow it to escape, as it is very light. 
accrue from restricting bees to the extent it must do. The plan 
is to have two hives, a weak one and a strong one, side by side. 
A long box is placed close to the front of the two hives ; it has a 
free doorway to each hive, and a hole above corresponding with 
one in each hive, upon which a cone escape or bee trap is fixed. 
When the strongest of the two hives is preparing to swarm its 
entrance is closed against all incoming bees, the outgoing ones 
getting exit through the cone escape. The incoming bees, finding 
the entrance of their hive closed, pass along the tunnel, or are 
supposed to do, where, according to the advocates of the plan, the 
bees will join the other colony peaceably, although under other 
circumstances precautions would have to be taken for their own 
and queen’s safety. Supers are placed upon it which the stranger 
and recently admitted bees are expected to take possession of and 
fill. For many reasons, however, I consider the system objec¬ 
tionable. 
The following plan, if bees from different colonies could be 
depended upon to fraternise with each other when shut out of 
their hive, might be more successful ;—Two colonies standing near 
each other, occupying hives with moveable sides, might have a 
third empty hive of a similar construction placed closed and 
between the other two. A trap that would allow a dozen or more 
bees to escape at a time would be much better than a cone when 
the bees were shut out of their hive. They would enter readily 
the mid-chamber, which is separated from the mother hive by 
perforated zinc, through which the bees attending the brood might 
be fed, while supers would be filled overhead by the bees in the 
mid-chamber.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
bee-kbeper. 
I ■ ■ I ■ I ■ I ■ I -, ■ I ■ , -, ■ I - , ■ I ■ r-1 - i - T ■] -1 -1.1-I -1 - i -r- 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Weather and the Apiary. 
We are at the time of writing having fine weather—calm, with 
slight frosts at night and brilliant sunshine through the day. Bees 
have been busy, and judging from the numerous young bees and 
chance drones upon the wing they are evidently well advanced, so 
with a continuation of fine weather early swarms and surplus fruit 
tree honey may be expected. It is quite astonishing to see from 
the colour of the pollen the many different sources from which it 
is gathered in so short a time after prolonged stormy weather. 
Diseased Bees. 
Several weeks since I mentioned a case of one of my hives 
being affected with chloric dropsical fever, and promised to let 
your readers know the result. Nearly all the bees bred in 1893 are 
dead, or fast dying. On looking over my register I find the 
mother of these bees was superseded by an introduced queen in 
the autumn—the reason it survives with a fair number of youthful 
bees bred since December. This verifies my opinion that the 
disease is hereditary, and probably incurable. 
Preventing Loss of Swarms. 
Devices for preventing the loss of swarms are numerous, and 
some of them very old. In my early days I remember some of tbe 
different devices of placing empty hives above, below, in front, or 
at the side, the latter having communication either by a tunnel or 
being placed close to a side entrance. Whether any of these plans 
were successful or not I cannot say, but know it was admitted on 
all sides that combed hives were an attraction for decoying swarms, 
but that plan was considered illegal. I therefore never practised 
it beyond the experimental stage, proving the plan fairly 
reliable ; hence the reason I advocated in these columns several 
years since, the plan of a cork or bark covered box or barrel, 
having a hive of combs at the top, protected from the rain by a 
proper roof. The bees were able to get access to the hive through 
chinks in the bark and barrel. I justified the action of bee-keepers 
to this course as being part of their own apiary, and that the plan 
was open for any person to adopt, trusting a feeling of honour and 
honesty would prevail amongst those who employed the decoy. 
Instead of a hive containing combs a few pieces of combs attached 
to the side of barrel inside would be a legitimate method, and to 
make the plan more effectual all the dead queens should be laid 
inside the decoy. These attract great numbers of bees during the 
swarming season. 
One of the latest devices for preventing the loss of swarms is 
the Langden. Some bee-keepers consider this a success ; but so 
far as I can judge of it, whatever it may be in America where 
hives are generally small, I do not see any advantage that can 
GARDENERS’ CHARITABLE AND PROVIDENT 
INSTITUTIONS. 
The Gardeners’ Koyal Benevolent Institution. — Secretary, 
Mr. G. J. Ingram, 50, Parliament Street, London, W.C. 
United Horticultural Benefit and Provident Society.— 
Secretary, Mr. W. Colling, 9, Martindale Road, Balham, London, S.W. 
Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. — Secretary, Mr. A. F. Barron, 
Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens, Chiswick, London, W. 
*.5*A11 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. 
Pranlng Filberts (^H. T. N.).—Concise instructions on pruning 
Filberts as practised in Kent in the spring were published in our first 
issue of the present month, page 172. If after reading those instructions 
you desire further information, please specify on what points, and your 
letter shall have attention. 
Disease on Souvenir de la Malmalson Carnations {Tylte'). 
—The leaves are badly attacked by the lust fungus (Uromyces caryo- 
phillinus), and it does not spare the young cuttings any more than the 
older plants. Probably the best treatment would be to destroy all 
affected plants, and disinfect the house with carbolic acid diluted with 
twenty times its bulk of water, applying with a fine-rose syringe, wetting 
every part of the house—walls, floors, and soil. You may also try 
syringing the plants with sulphide of potassium, half an ounce to a 
gallon of water, thoroughly wetting them on both sides of the foliage, 
but keep it from the roots as much as possible. The potassium sulphide 
will discolour paint, and the smell is not pleasant; but the plants can 
be removed from the house for treatment, returning them after it has 
been disinfected. 
Winter Splnacb Failing (i. i).).—The decaying and decayed 
parts of the stems are infested with eel worm (Tylenchusobtusus), which 
is shorter than T. devastatrix. There is nothing akin to Gordius 
