78 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 25, 1889. 
lived “ Honey -would have been a glut in the market, and unsale¬ 
able.” If this be really the case is it right to encourage bee¬ 
keeping ? and would it not be better to cry Halt ? 
We are of the opinion that bee-keeping as we advise will 
■continue, as it has formerly done, to be a profitable occupation, and 
that there will always be a demand for superior samples of honey 
and honeycomb. 
WINTER PREPARATIONS. 
Never winter bees with less food than will last the stock till 
May or June next, nor with other than a fertile queen of the 
current year. These two essentials, and having the hives wind and 
water tight, all management practically ceases from September till 
the following May. 
TWO SIZES OF HIVES. 
We have frequently advised the use of full-sized hives, but 
there are exceptions. All hives intended for supering or for 
extracting should for the stock hive be in no less than the three 
•divisions, containing the shallow frames, which are best for transit, 
extracting, and building up colonies for swarming purposes. One 
box less does not reduce the hive to a pigmy size, being only a 
third, which upon a full-sized hive is often at the end of the season 
full of honey, to be avoided in a hive for swarming. 
When storifying hives are managed as directed it is easy to keep 
them within proper limits, preventing increase. When a storified 
hive unexpectedly swarms contrary to your wishes, do not return 
it, but place in a hive fitted with foundation or combs, which in a 
well-regulated apiary are never absent ; transfer the supers from the 
parent to the swarm at once, and gradually, the combs containing 
brood and young bee3 adhering, unless nuclei be wanted. This does 
not put a stop to the filling of supers, but rather hastens them, as 
swarms always work with alacrity. 
The swarmers will arrive at swarming point from three to four 
weeks earlier than will those in full-sized hives. This is important, 
as it gives a supply of young queens early and at the proper time. 
Where there are a number of swarming hives kept it is advisable 
to unite two or more. The number kept should not be less than 
will give sufficient young queens for the present and next season. 
To prevent the increase of hives is the desire of many, and can 
be accomplished in various ways. The old-fashioned method was 
to allow a first and second swarm to issue, all to work separately 
throughout the summer ; the old stock and the first swarm were 
,aken in the autumn and the bees joined to the seeond swarm, after 
the old queen of the prime swarm was destroyed. This insured 
■extra strong hives for wintering and early swarms next spring, and I 
question if any other system has remunerated the bee-keeper better. 
A good plan in keeping bees is to have for every six or ten non- 
swarmers one swarmer. If increase of hives is desirable more of 
the latter should be kept. Ten days or so after the hive sends 
forth its swarm the stock hive ought to be divided into the proper 
number of nuclei, and placed in juxtaposition to the storified hives, 
so that bees may not be lost when uniting through changing the 
site. After the honey season is closed the storified hives may be 
examined, their queens removed, as well as the surplus filled and 
sealed combs, surplus drone combs, and some of the oldest combs, 
for it is a good point in bee management not to allow the combs to 
be old. Of course, these vacancies will be filled with the fresh 
combs formed by the nuclei. 
Allow a week to pass after the old queen has been deposed, then 
excise all royal cells. After another day is past the bees and queen 
ot the nucleus may be given to the old stock without further 
ceremony , but it is wise to cage the queen for a time if the bee¬ 
keeper lacks knowledge of the intentions of the bees by their 
behaviour. 
The foregoing is a reliable and good way of preventing the 
increase of bees, and having extra honey gathering hives next 
spring.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 
L. Spiith, Rixdorf, Berlin. —Bulbs. 
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. 
Souvenir de Malmalson Carnations (_A. B. C.'). — Your letter 
did not reach us in time to be satisfactorily answered this week. 
Celeriac Tailing- ( Somerset ).—We have not the slightest idea 
where you can procure plants of this vegetable. We do not know that 
they are grown for sale. 
Bury and West Suffolk Show ( Alfred Bishop). —Had the report 
arrived a day sooner it might possibly have been inserted, or some of it, 
for newspaper reports are rarely suitable for our columns. If we have 
not made a mistake in counting you won sixteen first prizes, three 
seconds, and two thirds—a very creditable performance. Your remark 
about the “duties of the horticultural Press ” is perhaps superfluous. 
Caterpillars on Pear (J. B. II.). — These are the larvae of a 
species of sandfly, Tenthredo Pyri; they are sometimes called slug- 
worm«, and are allied to a familiar species which infests the Plum and 
Cherry. As they undergo pupation in the earth, it is desirable to remove 
the surface soil around trees that have been attacked. They may be 
cleared off trees by a wash of tobacco water or lime water, to which 
some soap is added. 
Tomato Leaves Discoloured (Agnesta). —The leaves appear as 
if the plants had been kept too close and moist, and possibly air has not 
been admitted to the house sufficiently early in the morning. Dust the 
leaves with sulphur, do not wholly close the house at night, and com¬ 
mence opening the ventilators wider soon after the sun shines on the 
house. Do not overwater the plants. Had the flower sent been enclosed 
with the Tomato leaves it would have arrived fresh, but being sent in 
a separate sheet of dry paper it was withered. It is perhaps a double 
Clarkia. 
Zonal Pelargonium Freak ( Bridgwater ). —It is not uncommon 
for a truss of bloom to have other smaller trusses growing out of it, 
this being a curious freak not easily accounted for. We have noticed it 
most frequently ifl vigorous growing semi-double varieties, and at the 
present time could cut numerous large trusses with several small ones 
springing out of them somewhat after the fashion of the old hen and 
chicken Daisies. In all probability the plant that has produced the 
truss described by you is in robust health, and the root force finds ex¬ 
pression in the adventitious flowers. 
Striking Moss Bose Cuttings (J. II. M. II.). —Moss Roses are 
not so easily raised from cuttings as most varieties are, but there is no 
reason why you should not be successful in establishing some on their 
own roots. The best form of cuttings are the short half-ripened growths 
that have just flowered, these being taken off with a heel or small slice 
of old wood attached, shortened to about 4 inches in length, and the 
lower leaves and thorns removed. Failing cuttings with heels, cut up 
long firm growths into 4-inch lengths. Fill well-drained 5-inch pots 
with sandy loam and dibble in the cuttings firmly round the sides. 
Place the pots in a pit, frame, or under a handlight. Keep the cuttings 
moist, close, and shaded from bright sunshine till rooted, then gradually 
harden off. Pot singly, using sandy loam and small pots, and keep 
them in cold frames. In the spring the plants may be trusted out 
in the open ground. They are usually increased by layers. 
Xiayerlng Bapagerla alba (AP. PP.).—It is useless to attempt 
raising Lapagerias from cuttings, the only two sure methods of propa¬ 
gating them are by seed and layering. Seed should be sown very soon 
after it is taken from the pod, but the bulk of the plants distributed in 
this country are obtained by layering the long firm growths. Fill 
either a well drained box or pan with peaty soil, and on this coil one or 
more long well matured growths. Peg them down into the soil so as to 
just bury the stem, a peg to every joint, the leaves, however, being above 
ground, and if kept properly supplied with moisture—that is to say, 
kept uniformly moist but not saturated, roots, and eventually a young 
shoot, will be emitted at nearly every joint. When well rooted all may 
be separated, carefully lifted, and potted off singly. It is a slow process, 
but a sure one. We believe an expert propagator has rooted Lapageria 
cuttings as a feat of skill, but this method of increase cannot be use¬ 
fully practised by gardeners. 
