JOURNAL CN HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 21, 1889. 
361 
TLiNT HOUSES. 
Lilium Harrisi. —These are ready for removing from the plunging 
material in which they were placed when first potted. If left too long 
dhc material used for covering the surface will become full of roots and 
be difficult to remove without injury. If the soil has not been watered 
a good soaking may now be riven and the plants placed where a night 
temperature of 50° can be maintained. A light position is essential, 
admitting air daily when the weather is favourable. For the next few 
weeks the flower stems will grow rapidly and strongly if sufficient 
ventilation is provided to prevent their drawing up weakly. Lilium 
•camdidum removed from cold frames to the same temperature will 
quickly commence pushing up flower stems, but this Lilium must not 
be hurried in its early stages. 
Lily of the Valley. —After these are potted or placed in boxes 
^amongst leaf soil or cocoa-nut fibre refuse place them outside, where 
they can be kept moist. Expose the crowns, and after one good frost 
they may be introduced into the forcing house. After they have been 
frozen they advance rapidly and come into flower. Brisk heat is necessary 
for the early ones, and the crowns should be covered with a few inches 
•depth of the material in which they are plunged. 
The Forcing House. —Where quantities of forced flowers are required 
-set apart a house or pit for the purpose. Select one if practicable where 
a slight hotbed can be formed. Good leaves are now plentiful for this 
purpose, and if these are mixed in a dry state with a small quantity of 
litter from the stable it will retain gentle heat for a long time. Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, Ghent and Japanese Azaleas, Lilac3, Guelder Roses, Deutzias, 
and other similar plants are assisted wonderfully during the declining 
weeks of the year by the aid of gentle warmth at their roots. The 
genial moist heat that rises from fermenting material is much more 
suitable for exciting the plants than the dry heat derived from hot- 
water pipes. When hardy flowering shrubs have been plunged in a bed 
•of this description no better position can be found for Tulips, Hyacinths, 
and Narcissi than to stand them on the surface of the bed amongst the 
•other plants. 
Hardy Flowering Shrubs. — Lift these in quantity and pot them from 
time to time as Chrysanthemum and other pots become vacant. Leave 
them outside until a sharp frost has cleared deciduous kinds of their 
foliage. It is not necessary to house plants of this nature ; they are 
better outside until they are wanted. Plunge the pots to protect them 
from frost. Spiraea japonica should be lifted and potted; place them 
•outside for a time afterwards. 
Deutzia gracilis. —All the plants needed for forcing are established 
in pots, and will remain outside until the whole of their foliage has 
fallen. Our earliest plants are grown for a time inside, and therefore 
they are ready for introducing at once into the forcing house. Repot 
young plants that have been raised from cuttings and grown in outside 
borders. However strong and good they may be they are unsuitable for 
forcing. If forced before they are thoroughly established in their pots 
■growth will be puny next year. If placed in 6 or 7-inch pots according 
to the size of the plants, and plunged outside until severe frosts set in, 
then pruned and plunged in cold frames and allowed to start into 
growth in this position in spring, they will be useful by the following 
autumn, and in the best condition for forcing. To keep a stock of 
plants in the best of health and condition it is not only wise to pot a 
few youDg plants annually but to partially reduce the bulbs of a few 
that display signs of declining vigour. The latter in other respects 
should be treated the same as young stock. One season’s rest is ample 
do induce them to make strong clean growth from the base. 
Hybrid Perpetual Roses. —Where these are wanted for flowering in 
pots to precede those grown outside or for next year’s forcing, plants 
grown at home may be lifted at once. Place these in 7 or 8-inch pots 
•according to their size. Ordinary trade plants lifted at the end of the 
month may be placed in the former. Straggling roots may be shortened, 
and also long growths, leaving them about 2 feat long. The pots should 
he clean and well drained, and the plants potted in a compost of good 
ftbry loam, one-seventh of manure, one 6-inch potful of bone meal, and 
the same quantity of soot to each barrowfnl of loam. If the loam is 
heavy add sand, old mortar, charcoal, or anything similar that will keep 
ft open and porous. If light add clay that has been reduced to powder 
by drying. After they are potted plunge them outside, covering the 
surface of the soil with the plunging material. During bright or dry 
weather syringe daily to keep the foliage fresh to induce the formation 
of roots. 
NOTES ON BEES. 
MAKING COMPARISONS. 
In order to give bee-keepers every opportunity of getting their 
bee-keeping appliances in perfect order for next season I cannot do 
better than describe what I have witnessed in comb honey during 
the past week or two. It is well known that I advocate superior 
quality to that of quantity, but at the same time have shown that 
they need not be separate. The fine quality when hives are properly 
managed does not decrease the quantity, unless when full-sized 
sheets of foundation have not been used, which I also commend. 
When full these are used in supers it renders the honeycomb 
unpalatable and unfit for the table of delicacies, so do the previous 
year’s built combs. Notwithstanding all that has been written upon 
the production of comb honey, much of it reaches the market as a 
third class article. 
Owing to circumstances over which I bad no control my hives 
were fewer in number than previously, and even the third of that 
fewer number were all I had at the moors. Should health permit 
the same will not occur again. Owing to this many of my regular 
customers have been unserved. Their disappointment was great, 
but not more than my regret. Not only did I fail to supply the 
regular demand, but many new customers came ; the sole cause of 
this being people have learned that great care is taken that nothing 
comes into contact with our honey that the most fastidious would 
object to. A number of wealthy people have asked for honey 
from this year, and make no secret of the cause of their visit. The 
following is the expression of one lady:—“We like honey, and 
would use much of it when we have the assurance that it is cleanly 
handled. As to comb honey, we cannot think of using that openly 
exposed in shop windows.” Several years ago I drew the attention 
of your readers to the above objectionable practice. Honey exposed 
to the atmosphere is liable to become a source of danger to those 
who eat it, as it undoubtedly absorbs noxious gases and odours. 
Then as regards drained honey, there are very few who have the 
proper appliances for extracting thick honey, such as Heather 
honey is, and the process of extracting without them is too well 
known to encourage the desirable consumpt of honey. Reams 
of paper and tons of honeycomb have been blackened by the 
departure from common sense management to that of employing 
queen-excluders and honey boards as they are termed. 
Owing to my inability to supply all the demands from my own 
I made an effort to secure 20 lbs. of first-class honeycomb wanted 
for a special purpose. I overhauled some 600 lbs. in all of two 
apiaries, and failed to secure even 10 lbs. first class. The largest 
owner of about 500 lbs. has seen his error, and a reconstruction of 
his hives has already been made, so that neither queen-excluder 
zinc, open crowns, nor previously made comb will ever be employed 
by him again. 
THE STEWARTON HIVE. 
The Stewarton hive and its properties have so often been 
touched upon that I need not repeat them, but add that this year 
has especially suited them. They have yielded more honey, and, 
singular to say, are the only ones within my knowledge that have 
given fully completed supers of matchless purity. It has been often 
contended that sections cannot be wrought upon them. This is a 
fallacy. One of the simplest modes is to have the supers of the 
proper depth (not square ones) for sections, so that they clear the 
top of the hive a quarter of an inch, and of one width throughout, 
except the bottom rail, which should not be more than five-eighths 
of an inch broad. Fasten the sections to the top bar with fine wire 
nails half an inch long. The outer bevelled bar3 may be allowed 
to stand as they are, serving to supply customers able and willing 
to purchase more than a pound at a time. 
Strange to say that “ Scot ” has been working his sections in 
this manner unknown to me. After the full sections are removed 
a pair of cutting pincers or plyers applied to the projecting nail 
points removes them easily. At this time our strongest hives in our 
narrow square hives—and some of them are extra strong—have 
a cold feel at the corners, whereas in equally strong Stewartons 
there is no perceptible difference, and it is simply this equalisation 
of temperature that is so favourable for making the Stewarton hive 
the best honey producer. The heat on the crown of any of our 
hives is the index which tells us the condition of our hives and 
what to do at the proper time, and the hive that has not enough 
proper material to destroy this is improperly covered. 
