Jane 12. 1830. J 
JOURXAL OF HORTICULTURE AKD COTTAGE GARDEXER. 
495 
showing signs of being somewhat e.'chausted anti impoverished at the 
roots. Especially is the case with Rhododendrons planted on shallow 
hot soils and in small beds prepared specially for them. The rainfall 
during the past winter and spring was far below the average, and a fierce 
sunshine, accomnanied by parching easterly winds, has not improved 
matters. Any shrubberies ibat are not well established, or in a flourish¬ 
ing condition, ought to be mulched with short manure if it could be 
spared, or else old hotbed material, such as a mixture of leaves and stable 
manure. The least that can be done is to evenly spread all the gr.ass 
from the mowing machines over the surface of the beds, this, besides 
enclosing moisture somewhat, also in time becoming good food for the 
roots. The stronger growing herbaceous plants are great impoverishers 
of the ground, and are among the first to require moisture at the 
roots. 
Kewly ^foved Trees and Shrubs. —Medium-sized to large specimens 
now require to be watered, this being particularly necessary in the case 
of those transplanted in the spring. In many instances a good soaking 
might advantageously have been given a month ago, and it may be too 
late to save the life of those very dry at the roots. Signs of failure 
must not be waited for, as then it is usually too late. Well loosen the 
surface of the soil to a good distance from the stems, and in many cases 
it is further necessary to form a basin with the aid of this loose soil, or 
otherwise a thorough soaking, and which only is of any avail, cannot be 
given. No half measures or driblets will answer. Those at all top- 
heavy ought to be properly staked, or they will make little or no 
progress. 
BEE-KEEPING. 
As a hobby or as an industry bee-keeping is remunerative. 
Bees are useful and profitable in more ways than one, giving an 
abundance of honey. They roam at will far and near, return to 
their hive and to their owner’s premises, requiring neither caging 
nor fencing of any kind to prevent their straying. As decorators 
of our earth they are pre-eminent, by their aid flowers assume 
new forms and colours. The walls of a hive may be rude, but the 
waxen cells are beautiful, and a work of high art and precision. 
No external appearances or internal structure alters their plans 
beyond adapting themselves to circumstances. Idleness is unknown 
in the hive of the honey bee, the more work is performed the 
greater the rejoicing. Cleanliness goes with order, and prosperity 
follows them. The utmost order prevails, no special work has to 
be performed by any bee or class of bees, all are alike capable of 
performing the requirements of the hive, from secreting of the wax 
to closing the cell. Young bees for a few days after hatching may be 
an exception in some respects, but they commence when but a few 
hours old to nurse their younger sisters, and in a few days from 
their birth go abroad to collect for the common wealth of the hive 
and their owner. 
These traits and qualities of bees are in themselves sufficient to 
induce many to keep and study them, not entirely as an industry, 
but as an auxiliary to their daily vocation. When started as an 
industry monopoly springs up, a few only are benefited, and the 
many are deprived of the privilege they are entitled lo. I speak 
of the British Isles. There are places on the continent where honey 
can only be gathered by the bees of the extensive bee-keeper, and 
were it not for him the honey would be lost to the world. As it is, in 
this country many bee-keepers are so situated that the yield of 
honey would be nil if they did not move their bees about from one 
place to another as the flora of the districts appeared. Some are 
so favourably situated as to have fruit and Sycamore blossoms. 
Charlock, Clover, and Heather within easy flight of their apiary. 
Some have to remove them to the first and last named, while others 
have nothing but the first named to depend upon without moving 
their hives, while others, again, have nothing but the Clover to 
depend upon. 
The foregoing reveals the fact that while bees may prove very 
profitable to some they are much less so to others, the labour and 
expense alone of moving bees being greater to the latter than all 
the expenses of the former together. Happily, however, moving 
bees from one place to another, if done at the proper time stimu¬ 
lates the bees, and stronger hives with a much larger yield of 
honey is the result. 
The Time to Begin Bee-keeping. 
Perhaps the best and most interesting time to start this in¬ 
structive and profitable hobby is about now. Bees are busy 
carrying and storing honey and pollen. Young bees and drones are 
hatching and airing themselves, and the bee-keeper is filled with 
high hopes of a speedy return for money laid out in the shape of 
a large yield of honey, and all within a few weeks of his first 
possession—no weary waiting and disappointment, with care and 
trouble as if the bees were purchased in autumn. 
How Best to Initi.\te Novices. 
There are so many methods of keeping bees that it is not an 
easy matter to lay down a rule or rules applicable to all of them. 
It is not in teaching what to do that the difficulty lies, but not what 
to do. A few hints in connection with our own and neighbours’ 
apiaries may be seasonable and welcome. The first one is. 
important. 
DISC.A.RD Spring Feeding. 
We have hinted at that often, but this season, like 1889, has 
been destructive to bee life. Hives that have had no feeding have 
lost fewest bees, and, unlike stimulated hives, the queens are most 
vigorous and will last longest. Three weeks of wintry weather 
followed six of the finest days from 1st till 6th April, we ever ex¬ 
perienced at that season. During that cold period it was observed 
that stocks with large stores flew but little, while fed bees flew 
much, the loss of them being so great that what were strong stocks 
the first week in April have fewer bees now than they had then. 
Everywhere I go this is the case. The last day of April and the 
three first of May were lovely days, but since then we have liad 
uncongenial and stormy weather, culminating on Tuesday evening, 
the 3rd June, in one of the severest storms ever experienced in 
that month, doing much damage to garden crops, fruit trees, and 
bushes. The result of such weather is, as I suspected, no Cherries, 
and Plums in some places are a failure. On Friday, Saturday, ar/d 
Sunday, 30th and 31st May, and Ist June, the mean temperature 
was only 40° ; the thermometer, however, never sank below 30°, 
and no damage by frost has been recorded, although ice was formed 
upon sheets of water a mile distant moorward. During the whole 
of that time, and up to the present, many bees are being lost, and 
swarms are much depopulated. Yirgin swarms on this account will 
in all probability be numerous this year, not because of prosperity, 
but of the laying powers of the queens being impaired. The secret 
of preserving the bees is to have 
Profitable Hives. 
Disbelieve most that is said about pollen-clogged hives in the 
autumn ; never take advice to remove it from the hive, nor of 
crowding bees in winter, nor spreading brood and feeding in spring. 
If these hints be unheeded the bee-keeper will find his hives 
almost crowding out long before the time a hive could be opened 
up and operated upon with safety, and without a single drop of 
.syrup having been given, or the more questionable practice of 
breaking the seals of honey. If bee-keeping is to become prac¬ 
ticable, profitable, and simple the plans I am teaching and have 
practised should be studied. Foul brood, that dreaded scourge to 
bees and obstruction to profitable bee-keeping, is propagated and 
perpetuated by these plans I condemn. An article could be written 
upon it that would surprise the advocates of the system, but like 
other ideas I have given in these pages might be appropriated, so 
will for obvious reasons, as “A Hallamshire Bee-keeper” did, “give 
them a chance of finding ” out before divulging my knowledge. 
While this backward weather continues attend to feeding all stocks- 
likely to kill drones or draw brood, but better do so before it 
begins, and remember that bees kept upon ten standard frames are 
less profitable than when kept in a hive nearly double the size.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
