230 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 6,1888. 
that immediately. That the bees have improved their time and 
bettered their condition since they were set down there is no doubt, 
but much still requires to be obtained before the bee-keeper will 
be remunerated for outlay this year. Bad as this is, it is worse 
for the fruit and farm dependants, whose crops are in many in¬ 
stances either totally destroyed or much spoiled, and in others 
for the want of sunshine now will also be of little value to the 
•country. It has been a year without a summer. 
Queen-rearing has been almost a total failure this year. June- 
bred queens are still unfertilised, and later bred ones appear to 
share the same fate. The absence of fine days has prevented the 
queens flying, and very few drones remain alive. Even queen¬ 
rearing hives and those queenless or having unfertilised queens 
have killed them even when well fed. Never have we witnessed 
such an abnormal state of matters. It is now five months since I 
sowed Sweet Peas, and three blooms have only as yet appeared. A 
spike of Wallflower having about twenty-four blooms took three 
months to expand twenty florets. 
Matters are gloomy in the extreme for both agriculturists and 
bee-keepers for another year—soured and weedy ground for the one, 
"while the other has either to purchase young queens or to keep old 
ones, which do not give satisfaction. To manage the latter 
properly for another year is in the first place to prepare for winter 
as early as possible without encouraging breeding in any way and 
fo have as many bees as possible. In the second place the bees 
must be kept steadily breeding, no falling back when once begun ; 
and when full of bees swarm artificially if they do not incline to 
•do so naturally. Wherever an aged queen is about to be super 
■seded by a young one, if she does not leave the hive voluntarily or 
with a swarm she will be killed. Thus the hive, with all its 
population, may be entirely lost to the bee-keeper through an 
accident to the young queen ; whereas with a swarm off it is 
always valuable (if the weather is fine), then a second swarm and 
the old stock there are two chances of both doing well, and if 
fiertilised in due course will in six weeks be as strong as any hive 
need be. If a nucleus be formed and the queen mate it may take 
the place of the old queen of the prime swarm. Thus three good 
lives will he had, where otherwise there might have been none, 
;and for those who have an extended season the system is the best 
to pursue. 
My strongest hives at the Heather are early swarmed old stocks, 
•or those I joined young fertilised imported Carniolian queens to. 
I may here state that these imported queens display great mildness 
of temper, being their usual habit, very unlike those I had from an 
English dealer, who supplied me with queens as Benton’s, but who 
never had queens from him. The bees of this race are vicious, and 
the drones are in some instances yellow, proving that they are 
crosses (probably with Syrians), then bred back to a colour 
-approaching the true type of Carniolians. 
THE BEST HIVE IN CREATION. 
Although the above name appears ostentatious, I fail to see it is 
so, because it embodies within itself every good feature a hive can 
possess. It is a thoroughly protected hive, and can either be moved 
about as it is, or in a few minutes converted into a hive occupying 
the least possible space superficially with the greatest amount for 
breeding and storing purposes, upon the most approved principle, 
while for queen-rearing and manipulative purposes it is excellent 
and unsurpassed. 
Each division can be drawn out, examined, and returned without 
killing a single bee, and all this, too, when one or more tier of 
supers are on. In another article I will give details, so that any 
amateur with but few tools will be able to make, and as useful as 
if made by the best tradesman. 
PAINT. 
I have about half a dozen queries regarding painting hives and 
the colour. As the weather has been unfavourable for that work, 
a dry spell coming should be taken advantage of. I will therefore 
answer these in a general, and not a special manner. As to the 
colour, this depends altogether upon the taste of the individuals 
interested. Light colours throw off the heat of the sun, while 
•dark colours absorb it and shrink the wood more. Mediums are 
often in this, as in other things, best. For hives a light fawn is a 
pleasing colour, but as bees recognise colour readily, a device of 
different colour is advisable to be painted on each hive where the 
wood is exposed ; where it is not, a different coloured cloth is advis¬ 
able. No matter what colour the outside woodwork is to be 
finished, the priming or first coats should be of genuine red or 
whitelead ground with raw oil. No boiled nor any dryer whatever 
should be used, and proprietors should not trust tradesmen to do 
as they wish, but see that all outside work be painted as I have 
stated. Genuine red lead is the best for resisting oxydisation on 
either wood or metal, and it and raw oil sink into the wood, tending 
to its preservation, which boiled oil does not. For stone, raw oil of 
itself is a good preservative. 
TARRED HIVES. 
I am also asked if tar is injurious to bees. The idea that tar or 
tarred receptacles are injurious to bees is simply erroneous. There 
is nothing bees are fonder of sipping water from than tar barrels. 
I have the inside of my double-cased hives well tarred, and the 
bees do well in them, while it prevents dampness inside, and the 
ventilating floor carries it away. In close, well-made, double-cised 
hives, when not painted or tarred inside, the moisture passes from 
the inner to the outer case, and paint does not adhere well, and rot 
is inevitable. Double-cased hives are ill adapted for bee-keeping, 
both as regards clumsiness, and are unhealthy for the bees. 
COMBINATION HIVE. 
I have a letter taking me to task for recommending the tiering 
hive, advocating the “ Abbott Combination Hive.’’ The paper to 
which I am directed I do not read, nor do I agree with my anonymous 
correspondent in all he says. One thing, I do, however—viz., that 
the old, and ought to be obsolete, “ Combination Hive,” is the best 
non-swarming hive extant, because of no less than twenty I have 
seen this year the bees had all died in them. His other remarks I 
cannot comment on, as like all anonymous letters it was burned. I 
am prepared to discuss any question whatever on bees submitted in 
an honest and straightforward manner, and such only will meet the 
attention and approbation of—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
I have letters containing numerous queries to which I have been 
unable to reply to, but will do so as early as possible. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Messrs. John Laing & Son, Forest Hill, London, S.E.— Catalogue of 
Bulbous Boots, Fruit Trees, ftc., 1S88. 
Wm. Thomson & Sons, Tweed Vineyard, Clovenfords.— Vine, riant, 
and Vegetable Manure ; List of Testimonials. 
Barr & Son, 12 and 13, King- Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C.— 
Catalogue of Bulbs and Baffodils for 1888. 
Societe Anonyme L’Horticulture Internationale, Brussels, Belgium.— 
Catalogue of Orchids and New Plants, 1888-1889. 
Thomas Davis & Co., Wavertree, Liverpool.— Catalogue of Bulbs 
and Flower Roots. 
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 un¬ 
avoidably. 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 communica¬ 
tions. 
Exhibition Roses ( Curious ).—Your explanation is conclusive, but,, 
as you intimate, the facts of the case could scarcely have been antici¬ 
pated. If you are not able to consult the volume for the last half of 
1887 we will send you the number in question if it is still in stock and 
you will send us your full postal address. 
Wintering- Amaryllises, Begonias and Gloxinias ( Ardwyn ). 
—Seedling Amaryllises are usually wintered in the pots, boxes, or beds 
in which they are raised, gradually reducing the water supply at this 
season, and when the leaves die giving little or no water in the winter, 
though the soil is scarcely kept as dry as dust. They are safe in a tem¬ 
perature of 45° to 50°. Many large growers of Begonias and Gloxinias 
store the tubers in large pots or boxes of pine sawdust, this keeping them 
sound, and is said to render them comparatively safe from mice. They 
are also kept in nearly dry cocoa-nut fibre refuse, in about the tempera¬ 
ture above named for Gloxinias, but it may be lower for Begonias. 
Bevelling Ground for Cricket (F. L. D .~).—To level a piece of 
land 40 yards by 40 yards with a fall of 2 feet from one end, the “ width 
being about level,” about 500 cubic yards of soil will be required ; but 
why not make the ground level itself, and so save the cost of carting, 
&c. ? It would be more economical, and the work well executed a much 
