164 
JOURNA'L OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 16, 1894. 
6.30, and reached our destination by 9.15 a.m. They were then 
removed from truck, and carted two and a half miles, then carried 
about 200 yards to a sheltered spot. The whole of the bees of 
seventy hives were all flying by 1 p.m. without the escape or loss of 
a single one, nor the slightest signs of overheating. This is a feat 
that I challenge anyone under the modern arrangements to accom¬ 
plish so successfully in the same space of time. 
Weighing the Hives. 
As the hives were carried to the lorry, stripped of their 
wrappings, everyone was carefully weighed, which proved our 
heaviest hive to have risen in weight 55 lbs. since the last week in 
July. This was a Punic stock. Fifty per cent, of my stocks rose 
to within 3 lbs. of that weight, while the other portion were on an 
average 10 lbs. lighter. T have never taken bees to the Heather in 
better condition, and with ten days settled weather I shall have 
some weighty hives, with a large surplus of honey. Since I set 
them down the weather has been showery, but the flowers are full 
of honey ; and although the bees may not have gathered surplus, 
they have kept themselves very different from what they did in 
1893 at the same period of the year. They will all be weighed at the 
end of the season, and your readers shall know the results. The 
heaviest one referred to above is 125 lbs. gross, tare of hive 42 lbs., 
so that everyone may understand the facts. It will be observed 
by those who read other bee literature on hives for the Heather 
that it is impossible they could even reach the third weight of my 
hives, which are less in compass than any others lately brought out. 
It will also bo noticed that hives averaging a cwt. each is no mere 
child's play to handle so successfully in the time occupied. 
My nuclei are all brought from the heights, and to appearance 
are all mated, so that I am prepared with good stocks for another 
year. I only regret I have not some of the teachers here who say 
that queens are not prolific until some months old, to give them 
ocular demonstration to the contrary. I say it unhesitatingly, and 
without the slightest fear of anyone being able to disprove the 
fact, that queens are never more fertile, as most animals are, than in 
their matured youth. Bee questions, amongst others, we should be 
careful to answer, and above all neither to mislead nor deceive 
ourselves or others, wilfully or in an ignorant manner. 
The Season. 
The season has been one with bees we have never before 
experienced, leaving many persons in the lurch who depended on 
one system of management. As your readers know from long 
experience I have many plans suitable to our variable and change¬ 
able climate and seasons. The above notes are written solely for the 
benefit of bee-keepers who have not as yet had long enough 
experience how to make the most of bees whatever the seasons 
may be, but in order to be successful must watch my tactics.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
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 
unavoidably. 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 communications. 
Black Hamburgh Grapes (TF, /S.).—The cause of the berries 
being so pale in colour will be published next week, as it is not possible 
to do so in this issue. 
Onions Unsatisfactory (J. S. B.'). — Tour letter shall have 
attention in our next issue, there not being time for a thorough 
examination of specimens arriving on Wednesday morning. 
Snails amongst Bucharls Plants (<?. II .').—The small snails 
will do harm sooner or later if allowed to increase. Give the plants a 
watering through a fine-rosed can with perfectly clear lime water about 
nine o’clock at night, as the snails will be moving then, and it will 
“ settle ” all it reaches. If it does the plants no harm, as we do not 
think it will, repeat the watering in a week, and at further intervals as 
may be desirable. 
Destroying Plantains on Dawns (TF. Z).)—The best plan we 
have tried is to lift the Plantains during moist weather with a daisy fork. 
If care is taken it will draw them up by the roots, and any that" break 
off near the top can have sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) dropped on the 
part, and it will kill the root. Our plan in using it is to clean out an 
old blacking bottle, tie a piece of wire round the neck so as to form a 
handle to hold the bottle, which makes all safe in handling, then make 
notches at the end of a stick about as thick as the finger, then notches 
all round, and about 1 inch up the stick; some of the sulphuric acid 
being put in the bottle apply the notch end of the stick and it will 
retain sufficient of the acid to apply to each Plantain, putting it on the 
root. It will kill the Plantain by applying it to the centre of each 
plant; but we prefer to pick them up. Care must be used with the 
sulphuric acid, not trusting it to a careless person. 
Peach Trees Unsatisfactory (ZT. TF.).—The trees are afflicted 
with the English form of “ yellows,” or lack of chlorophyll. The wood 
is very weak and long-jointed, which may to some extent be due to 
defective ventilation, but the roots must be in a very unsatisfactory 
medium, and until that is rectified, also the ventilation, it is useless 
striving to improve the condition of the trees. If the trees were care¬ 
fully lifted and replanted in autumn as soon as the leaves fall or the 
wood is firm and ripe, they would be better—that is, come into bearing 
sooner than young trees. It is presumed that they are not otherwise 
defective, but well furnished. If they are unsatisfactory in other 
respects it would be the better plan to remove the trees and plant 
healthy young ones. With careful lifting unsatisfactory Peach trees 
recuperate quickly, but they must have a proper border and efiScient 
drainage. The fruit could be used for tarts. 
Dettuces B.). —Endive is a good substitute for Lettuce in the 
autumn, but all the same the latter is usually in demand as long as it 
can be had. Seed should therefore be sown at least three times during 
the month of August, and two out of the three sets may then be just 
suitable for protecting or storing in a fully grown state next autumn. 
Naturally very much depends on the weather, and no dependence 
should be placed upon any one sowing. Black-seeded Cos, white Cos, 
and All the Year Round Cabbage Lettuce are suitable for present 
sowing, the last named with Early Paris Market answering well for the 
later sowings. Lettuce forms a good succession to early Potatoes, 
whether these have been lifted from warm borders or in the open. 
Make the soil fine, level, and firm, and moisten the drills if at all dry 
prior to sowing the seed. Rather less room will be needed from this 
date, and the rows of Cos varieties may be arranged 10 inches and the 
Cabbage varieties 9 inches asunder. 
Cabbage and Broccoli Plants Diseased-looking- (A, 31 ).— 
The specimen sent has been badly infested with aphides, which, with 
the substance used to destroy them, for they are all dead, brown, 
shrivelled, or skeletonised, only skins remaining, and the recent trans¬ 
planting is the cause of their present appearance. There is no internal 
parasitism—at least, we cannot discover the threads of any fungus in 
the tissues—but the cells are very small, and in the white patches 
entirely destitute of chlorophyll corpules. Nature, however, will set 
that right, as you may see in the purple veins, and the plants will 
probably recover, as that sent is perfectly healthy at the roots. There 
are some fungal filaments in the nests of the defunct aphides, which 
appear to be those of Oidium Balsami, but it has not pushed “ fruits ” 
(conidophores), and may not do so, as the fungus is not particularly 
fond of Cabbage and Broccoli, but is partial to Swede Turnips. We 
should give the plants a good dressing of soot—say a peck per rod— 
distributing it over the ground, including the plants. This will probably 
enable the plants to grow out of their impoverished condition, but they 
are badly affected in their small leaves. We have seen some as badly 
afflicted as yours this season, but they (Cabbages) are now forming good 
heads, and quite healthy in appearance. 
manufacture of Superphosphate or Dime from Bones 
(TF. JV.). —In making superphosphate the bones are often broken into 
quarter or half-inch portions. This is because the user wishes to 
see for himself that bones have been employed in the manufacture. 
That practice, however, is not best, for the calcium phosphate is 
only partially acted upon by the sulphuric acid, and the soluble 
phosphate diminishes in the superphosphate by keeping. Super¬ 
phosphate is best made from ground bones by placing the meal 
in a tub along with water and sulphuric acid in the following pro¬ 
portions by weight:—1 lb. bone meal, f lb. water, and | lb. sulphuric 
acid. Place the meal in the tub, add the water, mix, then add the 
sulphuric acid, and stir. Perhaps you wish to dissolve ordinary bones. 
In that case let them be dry, and if broken up roughly all the better. 
Place them on a hard earthen floor, having taken an account of 
their weight, and surround them with a rim of ashes, which must be 
fine. Sprinkle with water, or if a large quantity, pour on the bones 
as much water as they will suck up, then pour on two parts of sul¬ 
phuric acid to ifive parts of bones. It will boil violently for a while, 
and when this has subsided the mass will get tolerably solid. The 
ashes may then be mixed with the dissolved bone, shovelling all up 
together, and in two or three days it will be dry enough for use. The 
proportions are 5 lbs., or cwts., of bones, soaked with as much water 
as they will absorb, and 2 lbs., or cwts., of sulphuric acid. This is an 
excellent preparation. Another, but slower, is to take a large hogshead, 
quite watertight, and cover the bottom with 6 inches of dry earth, and 
