Ju’y 30, 1831. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
99 
well as of queens, which is sure to take place when stranger bees 
enter the hive. While I was manipulating, destroying queen cells, 
and dividing swarmed hives, combs amongst those hives not filled 
with comb contained many queen cells built horizontally, and 
numerous sealed-out combs of honey in the under division. This 
arose through the great loss of bees during spring and up to 
June 8th. By that time their stores of honey became nearly 
exhausted. The bees confined their breeding to the upper storeys, 
so that when the honey came they were compelled to store it 
beneath—a sufficient explanation of the inverted state of matters. 
The crossed Punics had double the quantity of newly gathered 
honey of any other variety. With several swarms joining we had 
a number of queens killed, but with the exception of a swarm from 
a neighbouring apiary I managed to get the bees to return to their 
original site, and kept them there by supplying them with a frame 
of brood containing a ripe queen cell. The loss of an aged queen 
under these circumstances is rather a gain than otherwise. 
Experience. 
In case any of your readers may think I write theoretically and 
without practical knowledge, I may tell them that my experience 
covers fifty years. At that time I. was a mere lad, and kept a 
hive as other people did, and for ten years made little progress 
further than making wooden in lieu of straw hives. About that 
time I made my first frame hive, although I had neither heard of 
one, nor as yet had I read a work on bees, the first bee litera¬ 
ture being found in the Cottage Gardener. 
Supering. 
Keeping bees out of supers was never any trouble to us. 
Scotch bee-keepers know how to do that very well, but how to 
produce the spotless and rounded combs that did not run up the 
Stewarton bee-keepers was a puzzle and a study. My first 
attempt to effect this was by making horizontal passages in the 
crown of the hive, bringing the bees out from the regular openings 
to the outer edges where they entered the super. This con¬ 
trivance not only prevented the queen ascending, but the combs 
were built and rounded off without being attached to the hive. 
With the introduction of the frame and single bars to my hives 
I effected the same results as with the horizontal tunnels. 
Comb Foundation. 
In the autumn of 1862 I paid my first visit to Stewarton and 
all the leading bee-keepers of the district. There I introduced a 
piece of the first Scotch made foundation, and learned that the 
principle I had been working my hives on was similar to the 
Stewarton, and that I, like “ A .Renfrewshire Bee-keeper,” dis¬ 
covered they had the top bars of their hives wider than the bees 
naturally build their combs, and that we both were ahead of the 
Stewarton people in that respect. As comb foundation was of 
greater importance to me than anything I saw or learned at 
Stewarton, I confined myself to the various methods of fixing it 
to bars in hives and supers, interchanging ideas on the subject 
with the late Mr. Alfred Neighbour. Being a tradesman in the 
joinery, cabinet making, and smith business, I never considered I 
had invented anything very meritorious, but what I did came 
handy to me. Had I patented what is now patented by others, 
or advertised as being the “first to make foundation in Britain,” 
I think it would have had more effect than being “ the first to 
import a machine ” about fifteen years after they had been made 
and successfully used in this country. In 1874 or 1875 leading 
members of the B.B Iv.A. appealed to me for instructions how to 
make foundations. I gave the desired information, but when two 
of them visited me in 1875 they pronounced them a failure. At 
that time I had several hives standing upon two cross pieces of 
wood notched into each other, being part of a model engine and 
lift. Not long afterwards it was proclaimed as an idea of another, 
and the best stand in use. 
Excluder Zinc. 
This has been in use since about 1872 to my certain knowledge, 
but I cannot say who was the first to use it. Shortly after that 
date I had sent me from Mr. A. Neighbour a round-holed excluder. 
For several years I gave both the round and long-holed a fair trial. 
The bees with it did not enter the supers freely, and sometimes 
the honey flow was past before they did. The work of propolisiDg 
I considered was equal to the loss of from 10 to 15 lbs. of honey¬ 
comb, and the comb bereft of its purity ; besides by opening up 
the whole crown of the hive fewer bees went to work outside. 
These are some of my objections to excluder zinc. Heavily laden 
bees have a difficulty in getting through the narrow perforations, 
and if wide enough queens en'er also, and when drones are bred 
the supers become objectionible. The following is what Mr. 
Abbott wrote in 1875 :—“We do not advocate the use of narrow 
slits or perforations, because sometimes queens get through them 
into the supers and breed drones, which die and rot there.” Then 
speaking of whether the brood nest shall be filled with brood or 
honey and pollen, he said, “ If honey the queen’s power will be 
restrained ; if brood the perforations will be unnecessary.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
Judges at the Caledonian Apiarian Society’s Show, 1875.— 
My contention was, and is, that the statement of “ Lanarkshire Bee¬ 
keeper” on page 32, that I was one of the Judges at the above Show was 
incorrect, and the list of judges you gave from the schedule beEore you 
bears out my assertions. In the report of this Show, from which I cited 
on page 55, Mr. Abbott was given as the referee. If he acted as one 
of the Judges it would be in the honey classes, as he didin 1876.—- 
John M. Hooker. 
[We are glad that Mr. Hooker is satisfied with the schedule. His 
name is not mentioned in it, but Mr. Abbott’s is, as one of the Judges, 
and there is no allusion to a “referee.” We are bound to regard an 
official schedule as more authoritative than a newspaper report.] 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Vilmorin, Andrieux, et Cie., 4, Quai de la Megisserie, Paris.— Cata¬ 
logue of Plants and Strawberries. 
John Peed & Sons, Roupell Park Nurseries, Norwood Road, S.W., 
and Mitcham Road, Streatham .—Catalogue of Bulbs, 1S91. 
W. Cutbush & Sons, Highgate.— Catalogue of Bulbs for 1891. 
G. Bunyard & Co., Maidstone.— Catalogue of Roses, Strawberries, 
and Simmer Fruits. 
® 0 ° 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 
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. 
Treatment of Nepenthes (G. IF.).—The plants are probably 
becoming old and somewhat exhausted, and the best plan at the 
present time would be to remove the sour compost, supplying fresh, 
and give the plants stove treatment. Continue this during the winter, 
and in early spring cut the plants down, as the upper parts of the stems 
will root quickly in light compost of peat and sphagnum if shaded and 
syringed frequently. 
Eucharises Unhealthy (2?.).—The bulbs sent are undoubtedly 
infested with the Eucharis mite, and the only course is to remove all 
the plants that appear to be attacked and subject them to a thorough 
cleansing process. All the soil must be cleared aw r ay, the diseased portions- 
and loose pieces of skin cut off, and then wash the bulbs thoroughly 
in w r arm v T ater, softsoap, Fir tree oil, or petroleum. Clibran’s Eucharis- 
mite killer, advertised in this Journal, is also said to be useful for the 
same purpose. Be careful to remove all the old soil to a distance or 
burn it, and obtain fresh when the bulbs are repotted. 
Manure for Pea-sick Soil (N. Y.f —To your “black soil of a 
sandy and stony nature, with marl added in places, on gravel,” apply, 
in addition to the usual dressing of stable manure, say 20 tons per 
acre, superphosphate of lime 2 lbs., kainit 1 lb., mixed, per rod, at the 
time, or a little in advance of sowing the Peas. When fairly up dress 
