202 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 10,1887. 
drone brood, which may be destroyed. The swarm to be hived sepa¬ 
rately, of coitrse, and placed in any convenient situation. 2, To place 
beneath the stock another hive—about the end of April if the stock is 
then crowded with bees—containing frames filled or started with 
foundation, closing the entrance of the top hive and compelling the 
bees to go in and out at the bottom hive. In a month or rather more 
the brood nest will be in the bottom hive, and the old hive will contain 
honey only and may then be removed. 
The stock may be supered in the usual manner, but we have a sus¬ 
picion that the brood frames were glutted with honey last year. A 
stock with a really strong population will always work in supers when 
properly managed. If you have reason to believe that there is a surfeit 
of honey in the hive the second will be your best plan. If you do not 
think that this is the case the first plan will be the most advantageous. 
You can form an idea of the weight of honey contained in the hive by 
weighing it, or even by lifting it if you have experience enough, pro¬ 
vided that you have an approximate idea of the weight of the hive. We 
shall be glad to give you any further advice if there are any circum¬ 
stances which you have omitted to mention in your letter, and which 
you now think material.— Felix.] 
FOREIGN RACES OF BEES. 
I thank “ L. B. K.” for his answer to my appeal for honey facts, 
and, again, for his further explanations. He doubts my bees being 
black. They are not black, but I daresay they are as black as any bees 
to be found in this country, except imported ones. I have never seen a 
“ healthy ” black bee ; all that I have seen have been brown more than 
black, and I can look back for nearly thirty years and remember the 
brown masses I was set to watch when they settled on a Currant bush. 
Mine are descended from a queen bred in 1875. At that time there was 
only one stock of Ligurians within miles. It is of course possible that a 
drone from that hive mated with the mother of my queen, but I do not 
think it did so, for her progeny were no different in appearance from my 
others. Why I bred from her instead of any other was because she 
swarmed a week earlier than any other, and I utilised several young 
queens she left behind, and placed them at the head of other hives. To 
keep them as distinct as possible I have since reared queens sometimes 
in spring, getting two stocks specially forward for the purpose, some¬ 
times leaving it until autumn. Last year I did the latter, and got only 
two queens fertilised out of seven. From ten stocks last season I took 
about 1000 lbs. of honey, the most from one being 120 tbs. Eight of these 
stocks were descendants of the queen above mentioned. The other two 
were stocks driven from cottagers’ skeps the autumn previous, one of 
which shows a distinct Ligurian cross. These two stocks gave me about 
90 lbs. each. In 1885 I had 700 lbs. from five stocks, all of the same 
strain. Since 1879 I have had an average of 70 odd lbs. from them. 
“ L. B. K.’s ” best results appear to have been from Ligurians and 
their crosses, but through being subject to a certain disease he has dis¬ 
carded them in favour of Cyprians and Syrians, which do not appear to 
produce as much honey, but many more bees. I am writing in the 
interests of novices, those who reading of the wonderful yield of honey 
from a few hives of bees set it down as all profit, and at once buy tees 
and think their fortune is in a fan - way for being made, and who being 
further misled by the reputed better qualities of foreign bees spend more 
money on them, only to find that they have more than plenty of bees but 
no honey. I personally know several such. Maybe it is our bad man¬ 
agement, or perhaps we have been unlucky enough to get bad strains. 
One acquaintance of mine, who is expert to a county association, 
“ italianised ” his whole apiary in 1885, had no honey in 1886, and has 
“ anglicised ” for 1887. Mr. Simmins, who is one of our largest im¬ 
porters of foreign bees, mentions a stock at the head of which was a 
black queen, yielding last season above 200 lbs. of honey, and he begins 
to wonder if we have not been breeding from our wrong queens. If I 
had sent mine to the Heather I have no doubt some of them would have 
reached that total. Perhaps I will give them and some Ligurians a fly 
at it in the coming season. —Notts Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Waite, Nash & Co., 79, Southwark Street, London .—Wholesale Catalogue 
of Agricultural Seeds. 
Hogg & Wood, Coldstream, N.B .—Price List of Agricultural Seeds. 
tl 0 '" All correspondence should be directed either to “ The 
Editor” or to “ Tiie 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. 
TO CONTRIBUTORS.—Our friends who favour with communications 
on controversial subjects will oblige by sending their articles as 
soon after they receive the Journal as possible. Our space is prac¬ 
tically filled on Monday, and only articles that are “ expected,” and 
which arrive on Tuesday, can, as a rule, be inserted in the current 
issue. 
Orchids (B.).—Please carry out your proposal and send specimens. 
From your description of them one at least appears a departure from the 
type. 
Cinerarias (T. S.). —The flowers are of good size with broad florets, rich 
in colour, but somewhat loose and not symmetrically arranged. Whether 
this is the result of partial shrivelling or crushing in the box we are unable 
to determine. The variety appears to be worthy of preservation, though 
we suspect it possesses little commercial value. 
Planting Box Edging (Hendon). —Edgings of Box may be formed any 
time during the present month when the weather is favourable for the work. 
We shall publish a practical article on the subject in time to be of service 
to intending planters. 
Ventilating Vineries (A Youngster). —As you get older you will perceive 
more clearly than you appear to do now, that the air of a vinery can be 
changed without opening the front ventilators; and we consider that to 
throw them open when cold dry March winds are blowing is injurious 
rather than beneficial to Vines starting into growth. Cold air being heavier 
than warm enters freely enough through the top ventilators of houses, dis¬ 
placing the warmer and lighter in every part of the structure. 
Ficus Sycomorus—Bread Fruit ( York). —Both Ficus Sycomorus and 
Ficus Carica are found wild and cultivated in the regions you name. The 
Sycomore Fig is a strong growing tree, sometimes exc eding 30 feet in 
height, with stems 5 to 7 feet in diameter, with large branches proportions e 
to the size of the stem, and starting from that a short distance above the 
ground. The “ Sycamine ” has be a n thought to be Morus nigra. The 
Indian Bread Fruit is generally termed the Jack Fruit, Artocarpus integri- 
folia, and is found in the Indian Archipelago. The Bread Fruit of the South 
Sea Islands is Artocarpus incisa. 
Dividing Pyiethrums (S. S.). —The genial state of the weather at the 
time of dividing and planting is a chief factor in success. If the weather were 
mild now and our Pyrethrums had grown about 2 inches, as some of them 
have,we should not hesitate to divide and replant, but as it is co’d with a 
dry easterly wind we shall let them alone. We divided a number during 
the first week of April last year, and did not lose one, but the weather was 
moi-t and mild, and the planting quickly done—that is to say, we did not 
dig up the plants and let them wait out of the ground till a plot was pre¬ 
pared for their reception, but all was in readiness before removal, and the 
planting was done without any drying of the roots. If you take advantage 
of m>ld weather you may safely divide your plants at any time when they 
have made about 2 or 3 inches of growth, securing a good number of roots 
with the divisions or offsets. Plant a little deeper than the growths are 
before removal, and inverted flower pots may be placed over them if a 
sudden change of weather should render a little protection from bright 
suu desirable in the daytime, or sharp frost at night. 
Constructing Tomato House (An Old Subscriber). —The cheapest and 
best form of house is a span of about 10 feet width with a bed on each side 
of the pathway up the centre, which may be 3 feet wide. The sides can be 
of wood or brickwork about 4 feet 6 inches high, head room being secured 
by sinking the pathway. No side lights are necessary, but side ventilation 
is desirabie, and which may be secured by wood ventilators in the wall 
immediately below the wallplate ; or in the case of wood sides a board 
9 inches wide fixed by hinges to the wallplate and opening outwards will 
answer. Ventilation should be provided at the apex or ridge. An opening 
about 9 inches wide will answer. It may be of wood, and raised or lowered 
by a simple movement in use in such structures. The bars may be about 
3 inches by 1^ inch fixed about 15 inches apart; 21-ounce glass is mostsuit- 
able. The Tomatoes will require a bed about 18 inches deep, six inches of 
which should be drainage and a foot depth of soil, its surface about 1 foot 
from the trellis, which should be 6 to 9 inches from the glass. Such houses, 
can be purchased at a cheap rate, being much used by the trade. For a 
house of the width named two rows of 4-inch pipes would be required on 
each side to grow Tomatoes in winter or to have them eaily and late. The 
assessment is based upon the annual value or rental. 
Top-dressing Auriculas (A. E., Surrey). —The practice of removing an 
inch or more of the surface soil in early spring and adding fresh, and 
generaly richer compost, is not so generally adopted now as it was some 
years ago. It has, no doubt, been beneficial to many plants in inciting 
fresh root action, but in the case of others it has been of no service whatever. 
We have more than once top-dressed a few plants of a given variety, but not 
all, and failed to see any improvement of those “ assistedand we have 
seen top-dreBsing applied which no roots entered, and in that case the fresh 
compost did no good. Given healthy plants with active roots, we find that 
with careful watering and an occasional sprinkling of fine bonemeal they 
grow and flower quite as well without the orthodox top dressing as with it; 
but if the soil were exhausted or stagnant, the exchange of some of it for 
better would be advantageous to the plants. Generally speaking we shall 
not err in stating that if a person cannot grow Auriculas well witt out top- 
