September 3, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
215 
These have to be wintered on shelves in forcing houses or stoves, and for 
this reason 5-inch pots are found the most convenient size for them. The 
pots should be well drained and filled with a light and rather sandy 
mixture. About six soft cuttings may be placed in each, and these will 
require to be placed in a warm frame or propagating pit to strike. All 
three kinds lift readily, but will not do well afterwards unless housed 
before they are injured either by much cold rain or early frosts. 
Succulents. —If the tops of Mesembryanthemum cordifolium varie- 
gatum are cut off, dibbled into well drained pans or pots of sandy soil, 
and placed under glass in the full sunshine, they will strike readily and 
afford a number of cuttings in the spring. Any other trailing or branch¬ 
ing succulents, including several Sempervivums, may also be similarly 
treated. The popular Kleinia repens is best struck at the present time. 
Give the preference to short, sturdy tops, and after they are trimmed allow 
the cuts to dry and partially heal before they are put in. They may be 
dibbled in thickly in well-drained pans or boxes filled with light sandy 
soil, and be struck in a sunny dry frame or pit. Succulents require but 
little water at any time, and especially when as cuttings or during the 
win ter. 
Tuberous-rooted Begonias. —A more moist season best suits this 
valuable class of summer-bedding plants, but with mulchings and occa¬ 
sional waterings they have done well in spite of the long drought. If it 
is thought desirable to increase the stock of any of the varieties it is best 
done by cuttings, much after the manner of staking Pelargoniums. They 
■will root more surely in the open ground than under glass, and a moist 
heat such as suits Verbenas would prove fatal to them. It is rather late 
to put in cuttings in the open ground, but they may be dibbled into pans, 
pots, or boxes of light sandy soil and placed in a cold frame to strike. 
Give sufficient water to prevent shrivelling, but avoid heavy saturations. 
Any flowering shoot may be made into a cutting, and this will not decay 
till a small bulb is formed at its base. These bulbs should be wintered 
in a frame or greenhouse, where they can be protected from frost and yet 
n it become very dry. 
Dwarf Lobelias .—Seedlings of these are now of good habit, and can 
be depended upon in most bedding arrangements, with the exception of 
carpeting designs. If the seed is sown on the surface of pans filled with 
light soil and faced over with sand, and stood in a cold frame, and kept 
shaded from bright sunshine, and uniformly moist, a great number of 
seedlings will be obtained, and which will usually prove superior to those 
raised in the spring. 
a 
IS 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
THE STEWARTON HIVE. 
The good accounts given of the Stewarton hive by those 
who, through a long course of years have given it a trial 
sufficient to test its full efficacy for gaining a large amount 
of super honey of good quality and readily saleable, have 
induced me to order from the Scotch carpenter of Stewarton 
hive renown specimens of this masterpiece of bee appliances. 
In doing so I am not in my own mind quite satisfied that the 
honey obtained from it will be better in quality or greater in 
quantity than the product of the hives I now have in 
use. There is also another and a weighty consideration, 
before producing honey in a super of the form generally in 
use on such hives as the Stewarton, which is the saleability 
of the super as a whole. Now, residing near Manchester, 
within an hour’s journey, a good market is at hand for bee 
produce, but my experience in selling is quite averse to the 
production of honey in the comb in any form other than the 
ordinary 1 lb. sections. Large supers of glass, of wood and 
glass, or of any other combination, are saleable only at a 
very low price, leaving only the alternative of selling at the 
reduction or draining out the honey and selling in the form 
of run honey in small bottles, which find a sale at prices 
very little, if any, inferior to honey in the comb of the 
purest quality and in the neatest sections. 
The question then resolves itself into this, Can I from a 
Stewarton take a quantity of honey sufficient to make up for 
the low price the supers sold as a whole produce when sec¬ 
tions only are acceptable ? or, if not, can I, taking into con¬ 
sideration the trouble, the expense of bottles and labels, get 
extracted honey sufficient to make up the difference, and, in 
addition, in extracting honey there is considerable waste, 
which would also have to be allowed for in making the cal¬ 
culation ? Can, then, this be done, and a margin left to 
make the increased expenditure on the hive a remunerative 
outlay? 
Time alone can prove, but it is a case in which the safest 
course to pursue is to introduce the hive but gradually, care¬ 
fully noting the result, and after a fair trial either discard 
it or use it more freely, as the result shows a profit or a loss 
by its use. For sections a ten-standard frame hive answers 
very well, and the cost is but 10s., and if made at home 7s. 
will cover the expenditure. 
These hives, albeit rather smaller than the new ones I pur¬ 
pose constructing, are now in use. Last year one only was in 
use, yielding me upwards of sixty 1 lb. sections ; this year, 
from the same stock, sixty-three 1 lb. sections [with almost 
the certainty, if fine weather continues, of getting forty-two 
more], all finely sealed and finished, have been taken. 
Can a Stewarton beat this record ? Next year it shall have 
a trial in my small apiary. A Stewarton and a bar hive of 
the make I now use shall be stocked with bees of weight pro¬ 
portioned to the relative sizes of the hives, and fed by syrup 
into good strong stocks early in September; this mode of 
trial being, to my mind, the easiest to put each hive on the 
same foundation and to found the basis of a good trial, the 
result of which will, if possible be given, so that a record may 
be formed of the achievements of a Stewarton and bar hive in 
friendly rivalry. If “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” finds any 
objectionable feature in this proposed trial, any proposition 
of his shall have "my most careful consideration, and, if 
possible, adoption. 
In conclusion, let me add that, as an admirer of Mr. Petti¬ 
grew, I do not venture to put into competition for super 
honey his large hives; but if weight of honey were the only 
consideration, one of his large skeps would be found well 
worthy of the place that has been assigned to them by clever 
managers. All my stocks but one are managed on the non¬ 
swarming system, and, as I hope to show when the time 
arrives, the system will compare favourably with the antago¬ 
nistic system, even after deducting from the profit a sum 
sufficient to buy bees to strengthen the stocks and to 
maintain them in a high state of efficiency.— Felix. 
UNITING SWARMS. 
I CAN get as many bees for the driving as I wish to have, as no one 
here preserves them when taking the honey. In order to try them I have 
made a hive 17 by 12 inches, with eleven bars, and as the largest hive I 
can get is 13 by 9] inches, I would require to put two or three swarms 
into my hive. How am I to proceed to get them to unite ? what breadth 
of foundation comb would be sufficient to give bees a start on the bars ? 
should wooden hives be painted inside ? and how should floor boards be 
ventilated ? I only commenced bee-keeping last June, hence my want of 
information. Since that time I have consulted several old volumes of 
your Journal which I had beside me. A calender by Mr. Pettigrew, 1884, 
gives a vast amount of information, but answers to the above questions 
would greatly oblige.— James Eduab. 
[Hives 13 by 9J inches are very small. It will take three or four 
swarms from such hives to make a good one and build out the combs 
satisfactorily. To unite these swarms, have a large hive or box, into 
which put the first swarm, and as the others are driven and full of honey 
invert the first hive and shake the others into it. When full of honey 
and put into confusion by the operation no fighting takes place. Wooden 
hives should not be painted inside. Ventilating floors.—Make an eke 
about 2 inches deep, but otherwise of the same dimensions as the hive, 
nail or tack the perforated zinc on one edge, and either have a sliding or 
hinged bottom on the other. The breadth of foundation to be used 
depends a great deal upon what sort of wax the foundation is made from 
If genuine home-produced wax is used fill the frame to within half an 
inch of the bottom rail, and nearly touching the ends. By doing this 
there is a chance of getting the frames filled and capable of being handled 
with safety.] 
A BEE ADVENTURE. 
Having at the commencement of the season a larger number of 
hives than I generally attempt, I had not time to attend to them as 
I intended. I wished to cut out queen cells and have super honey 
only, or, what was the same thing, sections in the rear of the bars. Two 
of my stocks were straw skeps. These, I thonght, would give me a 
couple of swarms each, and I might count on some young queens to 
take over the queendom at the fall. This was all very well in my 
head or on paper, but our little friends have a way of “ ganging their 
ain way.” I had no time to cut out queen cells, and so I put on 
supers, either sections or regular supers, and hoped. The skeps swarmed. 
These were hived, and the second swarms pepperminted aud mixed with 
