484 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 14, 1894, 
their supers. As many as 16 to 20 inches of space were given, 
although the entrance to the hive proper had only from 3 to 
4 inches. Now ifc is entirely opposite. Free passage to the supers 
is restricted by perforated zinc, which has openings so contracted 
that bees have a great difficulty to pass through. Yet after all, 
in many instances eggs and dead drones are found in the supers, 
which puzzles amateurs and professionals alike. Although this is 
a repetition of what I wrote years ago, I know there are many 
persons who have not read it, who are at the present desirous of 
knowledge. 
The Restkicted System, 
In the first place, before a queen will deposit an egg in a cell it 
must be specially prepared for its reception or be in progress. Queens 
will neither deposit eggs in super comb, nor outside the brood nest 
if the latter is large enough, nor in the former if the bees have 
prepared the cells for the reception of honey ; nor will they pre¬ 
pare cells in supers for brood if the brood nest is sufficiently large. 
It is abnormal altogether for bees to carry on the internal economy 
of the hive satisfactorily under the modern double restricted 
system. If queen excluders were made of some friable material 
the bees would soon make short work of it and remove it. The 
restricted system and the partial dividing of a hive favours swarm¬ 
ing and raising of queens and fertile workers. So although a 
laying queen may be excluded, fertile workers deposit eggs in the 
supers bee-keepers have so carefully guarded with excluder zinc, 
and further restricted the yield of honey with separators. 
The Stewarton Supers. 
At all our honey shows, where there were competition with 
honey in combs from the two systems, I never saw comb raised under 
our system beaten, and I am in possession of voluminous corre¬ 
spondence from numerous bee-keepers throughout Britain testify¬ 
ing to the above. When I began bee-keeping in earnest I aimed 
at the perfection of the Stewarton supers, with their squarely 
built and prettily finished uncut edges, which I frequently saw in 
shop windows, but never met the original owners of these. I saw 
plainly from them, that with the darkened and cut edges of our 
super combs, our management was at fault, and experienced that 
combs of supers taken from the tops of hives with little passage 
way were not fastened to the tops of the hives. I therefore 
constructed the crowns of my hives with adapting boards, tunneled 
from the centre to near the outside, where the bees entered the 
supers, excluding the colouring vitiated air and queen at the same 
time, as well as preserving the heat of the brood nest in the large 
hives I then used. My successful ideas, which I so early put in 
practice, were practically those of the Stewarton system, as yet 
unsurpassed. 
Two Queens in One Hive. 
It was in 1862 that I first made myself acquainted with many 
of the Stewarton bee-keepers, and in 1893 I saw a super of 80 lbs, 
raised upon two stocks of bees in Stewarton hives. They were 
placed side by side, a thin adapting board was put over them, 
and a huge octagon super placed on it, the outside slides drawn, 
and the bees from both hives wrought in the one super. 
I am still feeding my bees, and advise all who wish to keep their 
stocks in good condition to catch the honey flow if it does come, to 
do the same.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
*0*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. 
Soil Enrichment for Tomatoes (^Amateur ').—You have scarcely 
made the circumstances clear to us, and have also so deferred your 
application as to leave us the least amount of time and space for 
answering your letter this week. It is very easy and too common to 
make the soil too rich for Tomatoes and induce long-jointed succulent 
growth. If you have reason to fear the border is not rich enough, 
2 ozs. of the dissolved guano to the square yard will be enough to apply 
at the present time. 
il.bnormal Toxglove (^E. F, M. S .').—We have had dozens of 
similar flowers sent to us from time to time. They are produced at 
the extremity of the stem, the normal flowers having expanded and 
divided into segments. An illustration of flower was given in the 
Journal of Horticulture last year, July 13th, 1893. 
Grafting Orange Trees—Dimensions of Tennis Court 
(A. —If you have a heated structure or a warm propagating case 
in which to put the Orange plant, you could graft it as shown in the 
illustration (fig. 79). This interesting 
work is done by the aid of a bottle. 
Instead of cutting a branch to be attached 
only 5 or 6 inches long, let it be a foot 
or more in length, in fact just as long 
as needed. Place the lower end in a 
bottle of water, about 3 inches from the 
top, take a slice off the bark 2 inches 
long, and put into the firm wood. An 
exactly similar slice, and exactly oppo¬ 
site, being taken from the stock, the two 
can be joined and secured, as shown in 
the sketch. The water will support the 
graft until the union takes place, and 
this is quicker and more certain if the 
grafted part is shaded from the sun 
and sprinkled every day. When the 
graft commences growing, gradually cut 
away the head of the seedling tree, 
removing a little at a time, until only 
the graft remains. The part inserted 
in the bottle may then be cut off close 
to the stem. If the portion attached 
is taken from a fruitful tree, fruit will 
be produced years before it could be 
borne by a seedling tree. The dimen¬ 
sions of a tennis court are ;—Extreme 
length, 78 feet; width, 36 feet; inner 
court, 42 feet long, 27 feet wide, divided 
lengthways by a white line, crossways 
by the net. pia. 79. 
■Worms in Dawns (C. Booni). — A GRAFTED ORANGE TREE, 
There are two methods which have proved 
satisfactory. We should try the second 
one first. 1, Half an ounce of corrosive sublimate (bichloride of 
mercury) dissolved in 15 gallons of water will cause worms to come 
to the surface ; but care must be taken that fowls do not eat them, 
otherwise they will be poisoned. 2, Place a peck of quicklime in 
30 gallons of water, stir well, and allow it to stand for a few days 
until it is quite clear, then water the lawn thoroughly. The worms 
will come to the surface, when they may be swept up and cleared 
away. This is an old and useful mode of eradication. 
Chrysanthemum Plants Showing Buds (A. M.). —The plants 
now showing buds at the base of the leaves should be cut back to 
where there are no flower buds; or if a terminal bud remove it, and 
this will give strong side or other growths, which will furnish buds in 
due course. Nitrate of soda should be used sparingly for Chrysan¬ 
themums, and to follow you may employ clear soot water, 1 quart 
to 10 gallons of water, the soot being placed in a bag, stirring it 
every day for about a week, when use the clear water or liquid. 
Guano, 1 oz. to a gallon of water, may also be given; but do not feed 
so much before as after the buds are tak^n, yet the plants must be 
made vigorous. 
Insect Devouring Perns (Ji C, C.'). —The “beast” is the black 
Vine weevil (Oiiorhynchus sulcatus) and a remarkably fine specimen. 
Kill all you can, now is the time to save broods from coming for another 
year. You have hit on the right plan, forty in a night being excellent 
work, as they have a habit of dropping from the food plants and 
feigning death on the ground, though not for long. Pursue the 
treatment with the beetles, also with the Eoses, for you have the 
worst fungoid pest to deal with that attacks the “queen of flowers,” 
and it happily is not of frequent occurrence. Be sure also to give 
abundance of air, and do not use more moisture than is absolutely 
necessary. 
Bllgbt on Plane Trees (J2. <?.).—The “blight” on Plane trees 
is unusually prevalent this season, and there is a great store of “ honey- 
dew ” in consequence, of which the bees avail themselves. Insects are 
the cause of the “ blight,” which is generally followed by a fungus 
finding nourishment in the secretion of the flies, but it does no harm to 
the foliage other than closing the pores, causing the leaves to fall pre¬ 
maturely. The cause of the unusual prevalence of the insects may have 
been the favourable nature of last season for insect life, which would 
result in a much larger deposition of eggs, and consequently greater 
preponderance of the insects this season. Beeches are, as you say, freer 
