December 24, 1891, ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
549 
moved about. Few plants are more useful for furnishing purposes 
either in pots or for cutting. 
Nepenthes. —In the prospect of severe weather setting in these plants 
should be arranged at a safe distance from the glass. We have had 
them injured by being too close during very cold weather. In houses 
that are well glazed tue plants will be perfectly safe if the top leaves are 
about 18 inches below the glass. Keep these plants liberally watered 
and freely syringed. Thrips soon attack them in a dry atmosphere, and 
these pests are difficult to destroy because strong insecticides cannot be 
used without injury to the plant. The method we have found most effectual 
is to lift the plants down carefully and plunge the baskets in a tank of 
tepid water. If the leaves are sponged with water, and the plants 
thoroughly syringed, they may be cleaned by this simple method. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
Water Pools. 
While the temperature keeps low bees do not fly much during 
December, but as soon as the days begin to lengthen they com¬ 
mence breeding, are more active in the hive, and are thereby better 
able to resist the evils of low temperatures ; but are also more 
liable to fly abroad, which, if there is nothing to contend against, 
is much to their advantage. Water pools, resulting from melted 
snow or rain over a frozen surface, are much against bees, 
as many of them are drowned. These should be drained away 
wherever practicable, and where not should be so covered as to 
prevent any risk of bee loss. From now till May is past great care 
■should be exercised not to have bees destroyed needlessly, and the 
best means to ^accomplish this is to have them well supplied with 
the necessaries of life, and leave the rest to Nature. 
supers of purity should during the winter, if they are in possession 
of these faulty hives, put them right. Hives should never 
be wider than what the bees will during summer always crowd the 
outer sides of the combs, and the supers a little less in diameter, 
and to have them protected with wrappings in addition to the super 
protection, admitting the bees to the supers only from the outer 
spaces. If the frames are of the standard type close up all the 
centre openings with thin spale board, obviating the colouring of 
supers and the use of excluder zinc. 
Consumption op Stores. 
So far as the season has gone bee-keepers are puzzled as to 
whether the peculiarly wet and changeable weather has caused the 
bees to consume or economise their stores. Bee-keepers who had 
their stocks supplied in September with 20 lbs. and upwards of 
food need not be alarmed for the safety of the bees as yet. I will 
neither examine nor advise anyone to examine their stocks until 
they have had a thorough airing, which, as a rule, takes place 
during January. I have seldom known that month to pass 
without a good bee-airing day, and sometimes several. After, but 
not before, these airings is the proper time to make an examination ; 
but it is better, if there is any doubt, not to uncover the bees at all, 
but rather supply several pounds of syrup from below until the 
season is further advanced. Remember, that any top feeding with 
candy or syrup lowers the temperature of the hive greatly, and 
it should therefore be left undisturbed. 
Bees that have a scarcity of stores during winter are frequently 
upon the wing, when well supplied hives remain at rest within. 
Except for experimental purposes I will not uncover any of my 
hives until the time for supering.—A Lanarkshire Bee¬ 
keeper. 
A Departure. 
To those who have the good of the cottager at heart will, I 
-am sure, be pleased to learn there is now a movement amongst 
some bee-keepers to throw off from amongst them the conventional 
practices of modern times, and act in future more upon their own 
responsibility and common sense bee-keeping, and to constitute 
their societies on a basis that will benefit the members. Of course 
it is too early to say as yet the measures that will be adopted, 
but we can with some degree of confidence say that the system 
will be one dealing direct with manufacturers for appliances, and 
with the public direct with the produce of the bees. To secure 
this members will use every means to have all honey jarred with¬ 
out coming into contact in any way with the hands, and to be of 
good quality only. I have been already asked by several Scotch 
societies to give some advice in the matter and bee-keeping 
•generally, but have not yet consented. I have also proof that 
a feeling of a similar nature exists in some parts of England, and 
•have read that some Irish bee-keepers are strongly averse to what 
has been aptly termed autocratic bee societies. I have long 
pointed out the evils and irregularities that exist in our present- 
day guilds, but trust that bee-keepers will now join in the cry 
of self-reliance and self-help, and revolutionise the management 
of bees. 
Supering. 
For a long time many of our unfledged bee-keepers who knew 
but little of bees or bee-keeping advocated hives that gave much 
super space as a means of securing the greatest quantity of honey 
in the most desirable form in supers. This teaching, however, was 
erroneous and on a par with many more of such teachings, having 
the opposite effect. There are many hives with supers I see offered 
for sale having the fault of supers projecting from the line of the 
cluster of bees in the hive. Broad hives have this fault, because 
the bees are sometimes compelled to contract themselves much 
within the line of the outer edge of the supers, while narrow hives 
have their supers projecting the cluster. 
Bee-keepers who are desirous of having well-filled and finished 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
E. P. Dixon & Sons, Hull.— Catalogue of Garden Seeds. 
E. H. Krelage & Son, Haarlem, Holland.— Catalogue of Pceonies, 
H. & F. Sharpe, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.— List of Seed Potatoes. 
Dicksons, Chester.— Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, 1892. 
A. C. Russell, Tranchiennes, Ghent.— Catalogue of Chrysanthemums , 
1892. 
James Veitch & Sons, King’s Road, Chelsea.— Catalogue of Seeds, 
1892. 
► B. S. Williams & Son, Upper Holloway.- Catalogue of Flower 
and Vegetable Seeds. 
Robert Veitch & Son, New North Road, Exeter.— Catalogue of 
Alpine and Perennial Plants. 
Webb & Sons, Wordsley, Stourbridge. — Spring Catalogue, 1892 
(illustrated with colow ed plates'). 
® st <t 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 
nnavoidably. 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. 
Cypripedium (G. Clements ).—There was no flower enclosed iu 
your letter, nor have we received one in a parcel. 
Floral Committee (£. M .).—Write to Mr. A. F. Barron, R.H.S. 
Gardens, Chiswick, London, W., stating your desire, and he will give 
you all requisite instructions in the matter. 
