June 14, 1888. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
499 
stood at that until Saturday at 3 p.m., when it sank to 38'', remain- 
there till next day, when it reached 55°, then gradually sank till it 
reached 32°, varying between that and 50° up to the 6th inst. The 
thermometer is in rather a sheltered position, 5 feet from the 
ground, and the cold has been more intense on the surface, as many 
things are frosted, particular!}' Potatoes. 
Bees have suffered greatly, the surface of the ground, both near 
and far off the hives, are thickly strewn with dead bees, and brood 
drawing has commenced at many hives to a greater extent than I 
ever experienced, and not for want either. Bee-keepers are at their 
wit’s end what to do in the matter, as feeding only brings out the 
bees to perish in greater numbers. From some quarters the news 
comes of the bees succumbing altogether. Bee-keeping at the 
present time is not promising, but we hope for better days. Unto¬ 
ward as it is here, it has been worse further north. In some places 
there has been much frost, and I observe that in one case the 
thermometer was as low as 10°, so that everything not quite 
hardy has been frosted. One correspondent siys, “ Yesterday, the 
3rd, was one of the worst days that has been here for years ; 
blinding sleet and rain ; the hills were all white ; the snow was 
lying here for hours after it had settled.” It will be necessary to 
feed the bees. 
EMPTY COMBS. 
The proper utilisation of empty comb has long been practised 
in well regulated apiaries throughout Scotland, but the practice for 
some time with some bee-keepers has either been abused or not 
understood so as to have satisfactory results, and many of the 
lessons given on the subject have been the direct cause of failure 
and disappointment. In order to make clear the best way to utilise 
empty but white comb, we must take a lesson from Nature. We 
are often hearing of bees busy making combs when no honey is 
stored in them, and bee-keepers are assured that these combs are 
meant to be filled with the pure nectar when that happy time 
arrives. Some advise feeding with sugar to encourage empty comb¬ 
building, the advice being as ungenuine as the honey taken from 
them would be. 
As our bees do not work in that manner, nor on these lines, 
presumably other bees will act in the same manner and as economi¬ 
cally as our own do. It will therefore be well if bee-keepers 
dismiss from their minds the false impression that bee nature 
can be altered to suit the capriciousness of individuals. When 
bees are filling supers (it is the combs of these only I refer to) 
they do not work and make much empty comb in advance of the 
flow of honey, but only in a certain proportion to the income, and 
that proportion scarcely ever exceeds a fourth or a fifth, and very 
often much less. Whenever the flow of honey ceases comb-build¬ 
ing generally ceases after twenty-four hours, and continues only 
that time if much loose honey is in the body of the hive. 
Sometimes supers are all filled and well sealed at the close of the 
honey season, at others a proportion of the combs are empty. In 
the former case, although the supers are not removed immediately 
the honey stops, their purity will remain intact, but not so with 
empty or half-filled combs, because, as a rule, the moment the 
honey flow ceases the combs are gradually darkened by the bees. 
To make these combs available for another occasion they ought to 
be removed at once, hermetically sealed, and kept free from moths 
and dust. When such combs are to be used by the bees again they 
should only be given them as a second super, or only when honey 
is plentiful at the first, when they will be beautifully finished. The 
cause of the many disappointments to bee-keepers who get partially 
filled supers darkened is giving them to the bees at a time honey 
is not coming in. Supers wrought upon the Stewarton hive have 
their purity preserve:! by the bee-keeper regulating the slides ac¬ 
cording to the weather at the time the supers are on the hive, and 
the large brood nest with the slides closed over it prevents brood 
being deposited in the combs of the super. By the way, I may 
state before a queen will deposit eggs in a super, the bees must 
first have prepared the cells for their reception. I think the fore¬ 
going will make it sufficiently plain hnw to utilise pure comb and 
have its purity preserved. 
The purer the comb the more delicate the flavour of the honey, 
and honey extracted from combs that have been bred in is always 
more or less tainted. The closer covered we keep our supers, even 
in the hottest of weather, the purer they are. When ventilation is 
necessary do it from beneath ; never uncover supers. 
THE CALEDONIAN APIARIAN SOCIETY 
Will hold its fifteenth annual Exhibition in Glasgow, in con¬ 
junction with the Highland and Agricultural Society, on the 24th, 
25th, 2Gth, and 27th July. The prize schedule is very much as in 
former years, the largest prizes going to dealers, which, we believe, 
is contrary to the wishes of its patrons. We are of the opinion that 
while the money has been honestly distributed it has been imp.u- 
dently allocated. 
The list of patrons, office-bearers, and Committee appears to be 
in a great measure formal appcfintments, because in addition to 
the incapacity of some, others on the list have been dead for 
years, so that it will be a matter of impossibility to bring even the 
members of Committee together in this eventful year. The 
Society has been in a great measure a drag since its inception ; 
never having been carried out on Sottish lines and systems, its 
members never held well together. We learn a change is to be 
made, if not altogether broken up. Should the Highland and 
Agricultural Society take it entirely under their own charge we 
hope the prizes avill be directed towards those who at first were 
intended should reap the benefit.—A Lanakksiiike Bee-keeper. 
“THE BOOK OF BEE-KEEPING.”’* 
There is no greater proof of the wide and far reaching popularity 
of bee-keeping than the large amount of literature on the subject whioh. 
has been published during the past few years ; in fact, the author of 
the present work seems to think an apology necessary when sending out 
into the world an addition to the already numerous, and in some 
respects unsatisfactory, standard works, practical manuals, and hand¬ 
books treating of bee-keeping in its various aspects. The object of this 
last manual is to supply a want, real or imaginary, and to place in the 
hands of the bee-keeper a book which shall not only be free from 
technicalities, but shall treat upon apiculture in its most modern 
aspect, and be so low in price as to insure its sale among the poorer 
bee-keepers of this country. The original conception was goo 7, 
and if Mr. Webster had been content to work throughout on the 
simple lines he lays down on the first page of the work he would 
have achieved an even greater success; but on perusing the earlier 
pages we find paragraph after paragraph devoted not altogether 
to mere technicalities perhaps, but still to minute details and 
arguments, which, however interesting they may be in the abstract, 
are of very slight importance to one who simply desires to become a 
bee-master. Surely if a bee-keeper desires information as to the class 
of insects to which the bee belongs, and on other points of a somewhat, 
similar nature, he would be led to purchase or borrow a book in which 
space is properly devoted to such portions of the subject, and most bee¬ 
keepers cannot but regard information, which may be most entertaining: 
in itself, as out of place in a work written for the practical instruction 
of men who, above all other considerations, aim at making the greatest 
possible return on their outlay. 
Again on page 4, by a delicate manipulation of figures, and by an 
ingenious mingling of facts within the author’s own knowledge, the 
assertion that “ no description of stock-keeping is such a financial 
success as bee-keeping ” is bolstered up. Let us for a moment dissect t* e 
basis upon which Mr. Webster builds up this structure of “ financial! 
superiority of bees alxive other descriptions of stock kept by working¬ 
men.” He first gives a certain instance in which “ he saw a bee-keepen 
who in one season took 200 sections from one hive ; 135 of these he sold 
at Is. each, the remaining sixty-five (Heather) at Is. Gd. each.’ And then 
goes on to say that “Although this is an exceptional case in England,, 
scores and scores of modern bee-keepers take on an average GO lbs. from 
a colony. Even at Gd. per pound this w'ill show a fine profit on the 
outlay—30s. per annum is not to be despised.” Then follows a slight 
digression, but in the next paragraph a few quotations are given of 
amounts paid to individual keepers ranging from £G to £29 in one- 
season. Then comes the conclusion, “ We think that the foregoing is a 
positive proof as to the financial superiority of bees above other 
descriptions of stock kept by the working man.” To our mind the case 
is clearly “ not proven,” and there appears to be too much casuistry in 
the argument to recommend it to the common sense of the working 
man. To say that one man sells a certain quantity of honey at a high 
price, then to add that a man may expect an average yield of so much, 
• By W. B. V e'jster. I ondoa ; Ip ;ott GUI, 170, Strand. 
