■Jane 83, 1837, ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
517 
required to allow for casualties in stoning. Mulch both the inside and 
outside borders with short manure, and give water abundantly. Shoots 
uot required for next year's crop and those not wanted for furnishing 
the trees should be removed, keeping any laterals upon strong shoots 
closely pinched. Young trees should be properly disbudded ; and the 
shoots for next year bearing, if they are disposed to elongate beyond 
18 inches, may be pinched at 12 to 15 inches, stopping the laterals at the 
first leaf, but extensions or main shoots should be allowed to grow their 
full length provided they are evenly balanced and there is space. 
Gathering the Fruit. —Great care is necessary in removing the fruit 
of Peaches, as the least pressure makes a mark and spoils its anpearance. 
A piece of wadding should be held in the hand and the fruit removed 
by gentle pressure, then laid gently in a padded shallow basket. The 
fruit ought not to remain on the trees until it is dead ripe, and allowing 
it to remain until it falls is a bad practice. Where that course is 
allowed the fruit should be caught in the fall by some netting fixed a 
short distance from the trees, and looped to form pockets and so prevent 
the fruit damaging each other by contact. Morning is the best time for 
gathering the fruit, and it should be placed in a cool room to mature 
before being sent to table. 
Figs. — Second Crop. —The first crop being gathered, generous treat¬ 
ment will be required to swell the second, s> ringing twice a day to keep 
.ml spider in check, and affording liquid manure whenever water is re¬ 
quired, trees in pots requiring it daily, and those in borders once or 
twice a week, according to the vigour of the trees and the extent of the 
rooting area, those with the border of limited extent requiring it more 
frequently than those with the roots less restricted. The second crop 
should be thinned where thickly set before the Figs are the size of 
Wain tits ; and in thinning reserve the largest fruits at the base of the 
shoots. All the trees should be mulched over the roots with short 
manure, especially those in pots with richer material and oftener re¬ 
newed. Keep the growths thin, and with their point well up to the 
light. 
Fruit Ripening .—A free circulation of air is imperative, and it should 
be warm ; therefore gentle fire heat may be necessary in dull weather. 
It is also important that the fruit be kept dry, but a moderate degree of 
air moisture is necessary for the benefit of the foliage. Those conditions 
are essential to high quality: not less so is tying-in and regulating 
the growths by thinning and stopping. 
Young Tree* in Pots for Early Forcing .—Those coming on for that 
purpose must not on any account be neglected, or they will disappoint 
the grower. They must have all the light, possible, and not be at a 
greater distance from the glass than is necessaiw for their growth, keep¬ 
ing them well syringed and supplied with liquid manure so as to insure 
sturdy growth : and when the growth is complete they should have 
abundant ventilation so as to ripen it thoroughly. In order to insure 
rest to the trees they may, when the growth is matured, be placed out¬ 
doors in a sunny corner, but in a dull and wet period this should be 
avoided, or means should be at command for warding off heavy rains. It 
is essential that Fig trees for early forcing have the wood matured early, 
and be given a few weeks’ rest—the more complete it is the better. 
B 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
PRACTICAL BEE-KEEPING. 
No. 13. 
When a bee-keeper has decided to adopt one of the 
three systems of management before laid down he will 
naturally inquire, unless he already possesses the neces¬ 
sary knowledge, how his stocks must be managed to bring 
such a system to a successful issue. It will also be of no 
little practical value to every bee-keeper if he is able to 
learn how to manage an apiary upon each of these several 
systems, because, although this year he may be so cir¬ 
cumstanced that he judges the first system to be the 
more profitable one for him to adopt, another season 
a change of residence may necessitate a change in his 
management if he desires to obtain the greatest results. 
All these three methods shall, therefore, be treated 
at length and in order. When stocks are to be 
managed upon the first, or non-swarming, system there 
are several points to which special attention must be paid, 
and upon the care and attention paid to these points 
depends success and failure. 
From time to time some system of management, which 
it is claimed will entirely prevent the issue of swarms 
against the wish of the bee-keeper, is introduced, and for a 
short period appears to be attended with success. I do not 
believe that the bee-keeper has yet drawn breath who can, 
in a practical and easy manner, prevent a swarm from 
issuing if the bees have determined to throw off their 
surplus population. It is useless to clip the wings of the 
queen and to destroy queen cells; this may postpone the 
evil, but will not prevent it. The only practical way of 
preventing the issue of a swarm is to take away the desire 
by removing the necessity. By such a course a very great 
measure of success is assured. It is recognised that the 
desire for swarming is engendered by the necessity laid 
upon the bees in common with all other creatures of race- 
perpetuation, and, therefore, it is this necessity which we 
must remove, and the necessity having been so removed 
the desire will be lost. It is true that some difficulty 
attends upon the removal of the necessity, because the 
necessity returns upon the bees at certain periods. Now, 
the two principal causes which give rise to a necessity for 
increase, and hence engender the desire to throw off’ a 
swarm, are— 
1, An old enfeebled queen. 
2, A population too large for the hive. 
A queen becoming enfeebled excites in the minds of the 
bees a fear of extinction unless they raise a successor. 
This they at once proceed to do, and in raising one gene¬ 
rally raise several other princesses, thereby having, as it 
were, more than one string to their bow. If these young 
queens are raised at a time when the stock is strong and 
populous, the old queen leads forth a swarm, and leaves 
the young princesses to occupy the throne she abdicates. 
The old queen going with the swarm has some relaxation 
from her labour because the swarm has to build the cells, 
and the breeding season drawing gradually to a close there 
is less necessity for so large a supply of eggs being daily 
produced. In the following year perhaps the same event 
happens, until at last the old queen dies, and possibly, 
unless the bee-keeper gives assistance, the stock or 
swarm, of which she was then mother, is destroyed. If, 
instead of allowing this old queen to survive, the bee¬ 
keeper had in the preceding autumn supplanted her by a 
young fertile queen, the necessity occasioned by the en¬ 
feebled state of the queen, which would without such 
removal have been head of the stock, would have been 
removed, and the probability of the issue of a swarm, if 
due attention is given to the second point, will have been 
removed. 
A young queen must be kept at the head of every 
stock. This is the first necessary step which must be 
taken to prevent the issue of a swarm. 
The second point is one which requires much care and 
judgment in the bee-keeper, the slightest inattention often 
being the sure precursor of failure. 
Supers must be provided immediately that the stock 
is ready for supering. Super must be added to super, so 
that there is always sufficient room to keep every bee at 
work, and to prevent the rapid rise in temperature which 
makes a hive too small for the colony located in it unbear¬ 
able. A delay in placing the first super may occasion 
failure in spite of every effort made afterwards to remedy 
the mischief. I believe that no colony headed by a young 
fertile queen will ever throw out a swarm provided suffi¬ 
cient super room is given at the right time. It is diffi¬ 
cult, I know, to tell the exact day when a stock is ready 
for supering, but it must be done if success is to follow 
our efforts. If there is any doubt a super should be 
placed during the morning of a fine day, and removed 
