346 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 25, 1889. 
about the 1st of August, and lasts in some places till the middle of 
September. The average time of the height of the Heather season 
is about the 25th August; it will therefore be observed that from 
the 15th to the 25th of July is a good time to introduce a young 
queen. 
DEPOSITION OF THE OLD QUEEN. 
This may appear a formidable task to some novices, but there 
is more in the fear than in the performing. There are various 
modes of procedure. The following, however, may be taken as a 
simple, as it is an effective, method. All supers must have been 
removed and nuclei be in readiness. The first task is to secure the 
queen in a cage, then place the same on the top of its own hive> 
which must have stood, and still stand, at the side of the hive on 
which it is to be joined. Now transfer all the frames and bees 
of the old stock into a box sufficient in length and breadth to 
hold all the frames, and much deeper. This box serves admirably 
as a seat, with or without a back, and is a first-rate place for holding 
feeders and other odds and ends. It must be provided with a zinc 
cover to keep all dry. This is of course moveable, as are also the 
boards forming the seat. It has a bottom permanently nailed, and 
four-angled iron feet with a small doorway for the outlet of bees. 
To obviate the necessity of lifting everything singly light trays are 
used. Nail a fillet to support the frames somewhat from the top, 
so that if robbers are about a board or cloth can be instantly placed 
over the frames. The boards forming the seat may be used. After 
all the frames are lifted from the hive into this box syringe or 
spray both lots of bees with water sweetened with honey or sugar, 
the former if possible. A common garden syringe with its fine 
rose is what I have always used for that purpose. Now lift the 
frames from the nucleus into the emptied hive, and mix or place 
alternately frames of nucleus and old stock. By leaving the old 
stock in its place the bees that belonged to it enter it at once. 
They would not do this if another hive had been provided. 
Inspect every frame thoroughly for the queen, and if the day is 
fine it is advisable to shake or brush all the bees off. After part 
of the frames have been returned the queen may be searched for- 
Owing to so many of the bees vacating the combs, and returned to 
their original hive, the task will be much easier than searching 
frame after frame in their original but crowded hive. Queen cells 
too, may be present, and these ought to be pressed between the 
finger and thumb. After all the frames are returned, and an 
equal number of those filled are removed, restore the original 
appearance and notice the reception the queen is receiving from 
the cluster of bees in the safety cage. If all are still she may be 
released in an hour or two. If all these details are carried out 
there will be no danger of the queen being killed, as the peculiar 
manipulation appears to allay all hostilities on both sides. 
Although these details appear numerous and extended, the 
work can be done in less time than it can be described in writing. 
Any bee-keeper managing his bees as above directed will secure 
the largest harvest attainable in any year, and very often a good 
one in seasons in which ordinarily managed hives yield little or 
nothing. 
Never attempt to make bees work at comb-building for future 
use. Empty combs do not, as a rule, give satisfaction, while the 
energy of the bees is sometimes seriously reduced, as is also the 
quality of any comb after it is filled. Comb-building and comb¬ 
filling can be carried on simultaneously and profitably, and with 
far better and more satisfactory results than when artifice is resorted 
to.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
G-. Humphries, Kington Langley, Chippenham. — Catalogue of 
Dahlias and Bedding Plants. 
Wm. Clibran & Son, Altrincham.— General Catalogue of Plants. 
G. Bunyard & Co., The Old Nurseries, Maidstone.— Spring Catalogue 
of Hardy Bedding and Indoor Plants. 
Rawlings Bros., Romford, Essex.— Catalogue of Dahlias. 
M. Bruant, Horticulteur, Boulevard St. Cypri’en, Poitiers, France.— 
General Catalogue of Plants. 
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. 
Guano liquid Manure (C. 77.).—Half an ounce of guano to a 
gallon of water is quite enough for potted plants. One ounce to the 
same quantity of water may be employed to border plants. 
rigs not Swelling (A Subscriber'). —There is nothing in your 
letter to enable us to assign the reason for some of the fruit shrivelling 
on your tree. The cause can usually be traced to unripe wood, imperfect 
fertilisation, a deficiency of surface roots, or a lack of calcareous matter 
in the soil. 
Watering Trees (77. C. M .).—Your letter is scarcely in time to 
be answered this week. Usually the ground is moist enough for 
planting, water seldom being needed before the work is done at this 
season, and not always afterwards. It is a good plan to syringe the 
trees in dry weather. 
Moss on lawn (L. 77). — Have the lawn well raked with an iron 
rake, drawing it backwards and forwards, and this being done two or 
three times the lawn should be covered with rich compost or manure 
reduced to mould, and again well raked. The soil or manure may be 
put on to the depth of a quarter of an inch, then sow fine lawn seeds. 
Forcing Strawberries ( Oty ).—We do not know where you can 
find fuller and better details than have appeared in the Journal of 
Horticulture, and others will be sure to appear when the time comes 
for successful cultivators to communicate the results of their experi¬ 
ence, and this will be when the information can be turned to immediate 
account. 
Wire Wetting for Peas (Amo).—We have often seen wire netting 
used for Peas. Stakes 4 feet in height were driven into the ground at 
6 feet apart, and then the wire was fastened to each side. Very light 
wire hurdles have been used for the same purpose. We have several 
times used stout stakes or sticks from 4 to 6 feet apart, and then run 
strings on each side at a foot from each other. 
Tomatoes—Chrysanthemums—Roses ( F. S.). —If you equal 
your expectations in producing good crops of Tomatoes between June 
and October, then have a profitable supply of Chrysanthemums from 
October till February, followed by a good display of Roses between 
February and June, and all from a house heated with a flue to keep out 
frost, you may be well satisfied without endeavouring to grow Cucum¬ 
bers with the Tomatoes. You may try a plant or two of Cucumbers 
experimentally if you wish, but we do not advise more under the cir¬ 
cumstances. Unless you have very strong Tomato plants for planting 
early in May, flower trusses then showing, you will not be able to have 
a full crop of fruit ripe and gathered by the beginning of October. 
Slugs and Woodlice (Thomson). —Slugs are best caught by 
searching for them at night with a lantern. Woodlice are not easily 
caught. Their numbers may be considerably diminished by placing a 
boiled Potato in a little hay at the bottom of a flower pot, and laying 
the pot on its side near their haunts at night. In the morning shake 
the woodlice out of the hay into boiling water. A number of Potatoes 
may be cut through the middle, the inside scooped out a little, and the 
pieces placed at night, hollow side downwards, near the haunts of the 
woodlice. In the morning the insects will be found secreted under the 
Potatoes, and may easily be destroyed in boiling water. These traps 
will last a long time. For slugs fresh Cabbage leaves may be laid at 
night near the plants eaten, and early in the morning the slugs may be 
found secreted under them. The leaves should be replaced every night 
by fresh. 
Currant Bud Mite (J. C.). —There is little doubt that the bushes 
from which you send sprays are attacked with the very destructive 
insect Phytoptus Ribis. The Currant mite belongs to a rather extensive 
group of minute creatures, which are by some naturalists placed amongst 
Crustacea!, and by others classed with insects. Present opinion, how¬ 
ever, rather tends to put them, with sundry allies, in a group called 
Aptera, insects the wings of which have somehow disappeared, and legs 
and transformations are apt to vary considerably. Tho3e in the genus 
Phytoptus either make galls upon leaves or secrete themselves in the 
buds of plants, which then become “ puffy ” (fig. 55) or else contorted 
and shrivelled. A good deal of notice has been attracted recently to the 
