them pliable. Varnish the bowl with asphal- 
tum varnish ; screw in rings for the hanging 
cords to pass through. When the varnish is 
dry, arrange and fasten these twigs or roots 
on the bow) in anyway your taste may de¬ 
vise. The best way is to bend one of them 
round the top of the bowl and fasten it 
securely down : then twine several pieces 
round in the same way, till the whole surface 
of the bowl is covered. Fasten one round 
the top rim of the bowl, by way of finishing 
it then varnish 
these branches 
like the bowl, 
■1 o J-. <-1. Il 
od. If you pro- W- 
fer, you can ~ '■ijl l fs 
take, instead of Ilf Aj 
twigs and roots, Hw Jl v air ill ■ 
cones, acorns, \~1jgkl yi 
black beans, ’W jjr) 
seeds, and / * 
arrange them on W* 
the outside of Ifflr 
tiio bowl in the 
form of flowers, dm 
or any pattern ifi 
your fancy may ^ 
suggest and then &sj 
varnish them. 
Baskets may M 
be made by pro- Mi 
curing some 
small sticks of __ s= g|U||S^HHB 
the oak or maple ^• ■ • iMFyTO|i!y! 
Cut Of CijUIil 
ranging ’tbem in 
the form of a WORK-TABLE C0V1 
log-cabin. After the sticks are nailed to- i 
gethor, a wooden bottom most', be Listened 
down. This basket is easily made, and looks 
quito-pretty when covered with vines. 
Other pretty baskets may be made by : 
shaping wire in the form of a basket, paint- 
extremity swarm out and either go off, or 
join other colonies that have a supply—it may 
be only to hasten the destruction of their hos¬ 
pitable neighbors, liven if a regular system 
of feeding is not adopted, the bee-keeper 
should examine all of his stocks at the open 
log of spring, and feed those needing it. 
4. In the fail of the year a good bee-keeper 
will strengthen all his weak colonies by in> 
era) feeding. In this instance the food should 
be given as fast as the bees will take it, so 
that it may be capped over before winter 
otherwise it may ferment and produce dial 
case. 
•’». Where supers or boxes are used the bees 
will not deposit honey in them until the 
brood chamber is filled. Sugar, sirup, or 
dark honey may be fed to them to do this 
with, so that the nice clover-honey may be 
deposited in the boxes. 
G. At the end of the liouey season some 
boxes will be not quite full. Honey may be 
fed to the beast to finish them out. 
7. When bees are affiictod with dysentery 
or cholera, or other disease induced by bad 
honey, or infection in it, all of their stores 
should be taken from them, empty com!) giv¬ 
en them, and then they should bo supplied 
with pure sugar syrup. Or if no empty comb 
can be procured the infected comb should bo 
emptied of its liouey with the Melipult, and 
after being thoroughly fumigated with the 
smoke of burniug sulphur, exposed to the air 
for a few hours and returned to the hive, and 
the sirup fed to the bees to be stored in it. 
8 When the nucleus system of swarming 
is resorted to, (that is setting up small eoi<> 
nies and building them up,) it cannot be de¬ 
pended upon with certainty, unless any de¬ 
ficiency or cessation of natural forage is made 
BASKET BOUQUET HOLDER 
FEEDING BEES 
We illustrate a French device for the safe 
transmission of bouquets by rail or express, 
any distance—a neat wicker work bouquet 
holder, empty and open in one case, and 
closed upon the bouquet ready for shipment 
in tiic other. It will be seen at once tliat a 
bouquet thus guarded is in uo danger of 
being crushed or rumpled, and, moreover, 
escapes the withering effects of being brought 
into contact witli the warm hand, as it is 
when carried in the ordinary way, Its fresh* 
nesH is further maintained and prolonged by 
surrounding the lower part of the (lower- 
steins with damp moss. A piece of string, 
jmssed round the “handle” of the bouquet 
and then fastened to the lower part of the 
holder, will keep the. bouquet firmly in its 
place, and the holder may then be upset or 
even thrown roughly about without danger 
to its contents. The holder may be made in 
various sizes and shapes, to suit bouquets of 
particular patterns. That from which our 
illustrations were sketched, measured a foot 
and a half in diameter and the same in iiight. 
The following excellent article was con¬ 
tributed to the Louisville Weekly Ledger of 
March 12, 
It is said to be from the pen of 0. 
L. Adair, an experienced apiarian and well 
known writer on apiculture :—No bee-keeper 
— — can have the best 
success that, docs 
mu under- mod 
the necessity for 
f ' iicly feeding. 
Few resort to it 
m at all, while very 
>■ ", A few are own 
HK renf jttf aware of it* im- 
jf I V' /V portauee. Our 
standard au- 
"|jr thora either pass 
over the subject 
1 j in a careless way 
y| 1 1 ggu or condemn it 
HjRjEr altogether, 
xggrf Mr. llos.MEit, 
whose wondcr- 
vNjum^ ful success has 
lillt made everybody 
UwMg^ store with woii- 
^ der and in cre- 
WiMtl ’ American Bec- 
~i " w r- Keepers' Socie¬ 
ty, that “ The 
was to keep the 
ER.—(See Page 271.) feeding aU 
the time when 
they can get no honey in the fields, regard¬ 
less of the time of y-ear.” 
W'c propose briefly to notice the conditions 
under which it is either necessary or bene¬ 
ficial to food bees. 
1. hi the spring of the .year the queen will 
not breed much, until honey is being gat hered 
rapidly by the bees, so that by the time the 
A MIMIC HOUSE AND GROUNDS 
corner among its correspondents. Although 
“Constant Header” differs somewhat from 
“ Hose Ifcraniiim,” i must say I think her 
taste as an amateur florist above criticism. 
Judging from the odorous little bouquet re¬ 
cently received from her by mail, 1 
sert she knows howto 
buds successfully 
great liking for domestic 
admire even buys, 
upon winter bouquets, 
er Hose’s fastidious judgment would 
can ns- 
grow pansies and rose 
I must confess I have a 
fancy work, and 
r, when gracefully poised 
J do not know wheth- 
consign 
my production to the “ bug-burr-and-stick ” 
attic, or not,; but 1 like to indulge this taste 
to its fullest extent. I have, in my boudoir, a 
mimic house and grounds, which covers the 
size of a stand, and is, in turn, covered by a 
glass top. It is us perfect as my taste will 
make it. The structure, of sycamore bark, 
combines tints in imitation of marble, and 
over it trails a luxuriant vine of sea moss on 
wire. There is an abundance of trees, a 
weeping willow made of thread dipped in 
green wax, which weeps as perfectly as I 
could desire ; a pair of Rhododendrons, with 
paper foliage, are blooming a heavy crop of 
Wuitzias, for which, by the way, T are in¬ 
debted to Hose, as 1 am for the Heiipterums, 
which, m tiny, single stars whiten my Syriu- 
gas. Iu one tree, a nest the size of a thimble 
top displays four speckled eggs to the moth¬ 
er bird perched near by. There are crosses 
of white, ivitli ivy vines of green wax, wee 
Portulaeca seed basket s and minaturo pots 
of blooming / uses. Though fawns are gener¬ 
ally considered very destructive to herbage, 
my mild-eyed little zephyr one never takes a 
nibble. A marble statuette, which crossed 
the Atlantic as a gift of a friend, is on duty 
beside a tiny lakelet of mercury, on which is 
poised a snowy swan. Behind all tower 
rocky peaks and dark-green hemlocks, while 
in front, a rustic fence of grape-vine twigs 
shuts out Scotch snuff in the only capacity I 
use it -as dust for a country road. It is truly 
a home, for there are children at play, and 
a large, floss silk dog slumbers on the piazza. 
If any of the Huralists have pretty, new 
designs for rustic bask-el s or vases, will t hey 
be kind enough to furnish descriptions i 
Fearing I have already consumed too much 
space, J will reserve the rest for another time. 
Bradford Co., Pa. Anna E. Young. 
j. l ne quoeu-brecdor cannot pursue his 
business with much success, except while 
honey is abundant, unless he resorts to time 
ly feeding, and when it is necessary to shut 
up or coniine the bees, even if they have hon¬ 
ey in the comb, it i.s best to give them some 
food, as it keeps them better satisfied, and 
enables them to go on with their work, and 
if a queen is present there will be no cessation 
of ovipositing. 
The natural food of bees in mature state is 
saccharine juices or secretions of plants 
known as sugar, ordinarily grape or fruit 
sugar, as they are the most accessible; hut 
m they are never in nature free from other 
secretions of the plants, they necessarily 
vary. Cano sugar generally is purer and fur¬ 
nishes the best food. It may bo stated os an 
ascertained fact that, the purer the sugar, and 
the freer it is from any foreign .substance, the 
better it is suited to the sustenance of the 
bees. Pure white sugar, dissolved in water 
with a little heat, so as to be of the ixmsis- 
colony becomes populous enough to gather 
much honey a considerable part of the best 
of t he honey season is past, and frequently, 
in some localities, all of it. By commencing 
as soon as the boos can fly- out, and continuing 
to feed until the flowers yield honey, a 
month’s time may be gained, iuid the surplus 
honey increased four fold. If once com¬ 
menced it must be continued, and enough 
food given to feed the growing brood; for, 
to stop when the comb is filled witli brood 
and eggs would result in starvation and 
death. The feeding should not be too abun¬ 
dant, as the bees will fill the comb cells, and 
leave the queen no room to lay ; and, besides, 
it would bo an unnecessary waste. A few 
tabUwpoouHful, at first, will do ; but, as the 
brood increases, the quantity should be in¬ 
creased to a half pint or more each day-, 
2. It frequently happens in the spring, ufter 
can ne given. A 1 coffee sugar will answer 
every purpose. The lower grades of brown 
sugar will do for feeding, if consumed in the 
summer, but for winter use it should be pure, 
lively addition of drugs, cream of tartar, or 
any other, slippery elm, sassafras buds, or 
anything except sugar, as frequently sug¬ 
gested, is unnecessary, if not injurious. 
Brood can not be reared without farina. 
The natural supply- is found in the pollen of 
flowers, and when gathered by the bees is 
known as bee-bread. But any of the farina¬ 
ceous grains will furnish it. Lzierzon first 
noticed that bees would substitute rye meal 
for the pollen of flowers. Since which the 
meal and flour of oats, wheat, barley and 
Indian corn have been successfully substi¬ 
tuted for the natural pollen, and found to 
answer the same purpose. 
REMOVING OLD COMB 
Z. O. Fairbanks^ writes the Germantown 
Telegraph “In reply to the inquiry-made by 
y-our Ohio correspondent as to whether ‘ it is 
l good to remove old comb from bees, and if 
so what is the best time,’ we answer that it 
all depends upon conditions. Combs filled 
with old bee-bread, or cut up from worms 
having invested them, it would pay to re¬ 
move. Our opinion is that combs of two de¬ 
cades may- be in as good condition for breed¬ 
ing pui-poses as virgin comb. If comb needs 
removing from bees, and if it cannot be re¬ 
placed with good comb, 1 think the best time 
to remove it is when the bees are carrying in 
stores. Comb so removed, or removed from 
the brood-chamber of a stock of bees at any¬ 
time, the bees will be very apt to fill its place 
with drone comb, which would most likely 
prove of much greater damage than profit. 
The scientific bee-keeper of the present day 
secures ail the old comb, if clean and whole 
and free from bee-bread, that ho can, then 
takes special pains to remove from the brood 
chamber nearly all the drone comb that lie 
finds in it, replacing it with good worker 
comb. This lie can do best in early spring, 
when the comb is most free from honey and 
brood.” 
HANGING BASKETS 
l riESE baskets are among the prettiest or- 
nanients.a room can have, especially- in win¬ 
ter, when they remind us of the summer 
which has passed. They are in universal use, 
and the florists keep a large supply of them! 
But these are quite expensive, and besides the 
florist is seldom seen in the country, where, 
all through the summer flowers bloom by the 
wayside, in the fields, and grow in tliick 
luxuriance through the woods, and where 
in winter every home has its own green¬ 
house plants. It. is not to the florists one 
need go, when, with a few simple directions 
any ingenious boy and girl can make pretty 
and inexpensive hanging baskets. We will 
give some such directions for those who de¬ 
sire them. 
First, take a wooden bowl of any size you 
desire ; then obtain from the woods a quan¬ 
tity of rough, crooked or knotty twigs or 
roots ; soak them in water so as to make 1 
basket boitc 
any of our readers attempt to make 
Annie B. Wager. 
should 
them. 
wtanner cuts on uie supply, and even con¬ 
fines the bees to the hive, and uuless a supply 
of food is furnished, the queen will cease to 
lay, and perhaps ranch of t he brood perish. 
At such a time feeding will be profitable. 
3. There is no season of the year in which 
there are so many colonies of bees die out as 
in the early spring, before the flowers yield 
honey, the bees having exhausted all their 
winter stores, die of starvation, or in their 
FLORAL BREVITIES, 
I he New Double Geran ium 
