Vol. LXV. No. 2962 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 3, 1906. 
WEEKLY, ifl.OO PER YEAR. 
make a pansy bed under or near a tree if it can be 
HANDLING BEES IN A BARREL. 
HOW TO GROW FINE PANSIES. 
The Soil Must Be Rich. 
On page 744 the writer of ‘.‘Experience with Tansies” 
seems to understand the matter well, and emphasizes a rich 
soil. I have often wanted to know just how to prepare the 
soil for a pansy bed for our own pleasure the season 
through. We have horses, cattle, sheep, a few hogs and 
poultry. If we only knew which was best we would use 
Ihe manure from any of this stock. I think Information 
along this line would interest many farmers’ wives. e. is. 
The pansy is unquestionably the most popular of all 
flowers grown from seed. It flourishes so well in all 
localities, and gives such excellent satisfaction with 
almost any treatment and cultivation, that it is seldom 
grown to perfection, and very rarely seen at its best. 
Probably not one person in 50 who grows it ever saw 
what is considered a first-class flower. There is 
great difference between the best 
strains of seed and the ordinary kinds, 
such as are usually found on the mar¬ 
ket at low prices. The largest and fin¬ 
est flowers cannot be grown from poor 
strains and common seed; neither can 
they be grown with the indifferent cul¬ 
ture usually given them. 
Pansies may be divided in several 
distinct classes. There are the self 
or solid colors, the face pansies, a 
class with the large dark spots at the 
base of each of the lower petals; the 
Giant Trimardeau, the largest of all; 
the edged or bordered pansies; the 
fancy, a strain that embraces all the 
spotted, striped and mottled kinds; the 
tufted, and the Odier. This class is 
perhaps the most magnificently-colored 
of all varieties. The finest of this 
class bears but very little seed, which 
is very expensive, often selling at 
wholesale for its weight in gold. 
Pansy seed may be sown with good 
success at any season of the year, and 
also any day except Sunday, but it is 
usually sown in March or April, again 
in July and August. When sown in 
the Spring under glass the plants will 
be large enough to transplant to the 
flowering bed in May. They will 
bloom in July and are in their prime 
during the Fall months, and in the 
Spring of the second year, and on 
these large and well-wintered plants 
we get the great profusion of bloom, 
after which the plants becomes ex¬ 
hausted. When seed is sown in Au¬ 
gust it is very important that the 
ground be kept moist and shaded; pa¬ 
per and other material is often used 
for this purpose, but the best is sphag¬ 
num or meadow moss. When seed is 
sown in hot weather it often fails to germinate; the 
temperature is usually too high, and this shading pro¬ 
vides the proper temperature, which is about 65 de¬ 
grees. Care must be taken to watch the bed daily; 
when the seed begins to sprout and the plants are com- 
hig through the ground, remove the moss gradually. 
I 'ansplant the young plants when large enough, or 
dun them out where they are to remain till Spring, 
:I| d then plant in the permanent bed. The pansy de- 
1 'ghts in a very rich soil; in fact, it cannot be made 
too deep and too highly enriched with well-rotted com- 
1"»T if the roots are kept moist and cool. A great 
many people have the idea that shade is of great benefit 
*° the pansy, but after making a specialty of this flower 
0r nearl y years, during which time I have grown 
them in great quantities, and where they have been 
ull Y ex Posed to the sun for the entire day, I do not 
hnd shade for them either necessary or desirable. Never 
avoided. The secret of growing fine pansies is to keep 
them cool and moist atf the roots, and plenty of sun¬ 
shine. Pansy plants will stand almost any degree of 
cold weather without material injury, and when they 
are destroyed in Winter it is by keeping them too warm 
or allowing them to freeze and thaw alternately, which 
causes them to decay. The best covering for the pansy 
when not grown in cold frames is long strawy horse 
manure shaken very lightly on them after the ground 
is frozen, and allowed to remain undisturbed till Spring. 
It should then be removed and placed between the 
plants, serving as a mulch during the hot weather. Al¬ 
though the pansy grows exceedingly fine and gives 
great satisfaction when grown entirely in the open air, 
the most perfect flowers can be grown under glass 
during the late Fall and Spring months, when special 
treatment can be given them, and there are few flowers 
that will give so much pleasure as a bed of pansies 
gi own in tlicit wn,y. t. M. white. 
Monmouth Co., N. J. 
R. N.-Y.—The tufted pansies, or Violas, casually re¬ 
ferred to by Mr. White, have given us a great deal of 
satisfaction. 1 he flowers are much smaller than the 
high-bred show pansies, like old-fashioned “Johnny- 
jump-ups,” but they are extremely floriferous and hardy, 
continuing to bloom after hard frost. Last year we 
picked tufted pansies in the open border December 24. 
Experience with tufted pansies was given in Ruralisms, 
issue of February 18, 1005, where reference is made to 
some of the fine named varieties. The plants spread 
at the root more than ordinary pansies, forming broad 
tufts. While bloom diminishes during Summer heat, 
they flower freely in Spring and Fall. 
In August, 1905, we succeeded in capturing from a chest¬ 
nut tree a swarm of be6s, which, for want of a better 
hive, we put in a sugar barrel containing a grocery box, and 
in this the bees have lived ever since. The barrel lias a 
wooden lid on, and holes were bored in the sides near the 
bottom of barrel for bees to go in and out. They have not 
swarmed to our knowledge, and the hive seems* to be so full 
that on warm nights they bunch themselves just outside the 
barrel, near the little holes. We have the barrel in the 
second story of the granary. Can you tell us how to get 
them, or part of them, into the regular hive purchased for 
them, how to get the honey, and if it is not very unusual 
for bees to come out of their hive pn a warm day in Feb¬ 
ruary? j. h. s. 
Pennsylvania. 
It is a little late to transfer bees this time of the 
year; still, it may be done, however, provided that you 
do not have too. much cool or cold 
weather after you attempt the work. 
All things considered it would be ad¬ 
visable to defer the job until next 
Spring, when fruit trees arc in bloom. 
There are two ways of getting bees out 
of a box or barrel into a modern hive. 
First, blow a little smoke into the bar¬ 
rel or box, just enough and no more 
to stupefy or quiet the bees. Turn the 
box upside down and place over it an¬ 
other box of the same dimensions; 
drum on the lower box, the one in 
which the bees are located, keeping up 
the drumming until most of the bees 
pass up into the upper or empty box. 
Quietly lift it off, then proceed to cut 
out the combs from the lower box, fit¬ 
ting them into the frames of the mod¬ 
ern hive. Combs should be cut just 
a little larger than the inside dimen¬ 
sions of the frames, then crowded into 
position. Do not attempt to use pieces 
of combs that do not contain brood. 
Any with brood may be fitted into 
place and secured by wrapping several 
folds of string around the frame con¬ 
taining the pieces. As fast as the 
combs are transferred into frames they 
should be put into the new hive that 
occupies the old stand. When all the 
combs are cut out that are worth sav¬ 
ing and secured in the frames, the box 
of bees may be shaken right over and 
in front of the new hive and the work 
will be completed. In 24 hours after 
the bees have secured the combs, take 
out any frames wrapped with string 
and remove it, when the frame may be 
replaced. 
1 lie second method is somewhat like 
the first, except that only about one- 
half or two-thirds of the bees should 
be drummed into the empty box. These ought then to 
be shaken in front of the modern hive which should be 
filled with frames of foundation. Old hive should be 
turned right side up and placed about a foot to the 
right or left of new hive now on the old stand; but the 
entrance should be reversed so that all flying bees will 
go to the new hive. At the end of three weeks all the 
brood will have hatched out, when with a second drive 
the remaining bees can be shaken in front of the new 
hive. Old hive should be removed entirely. Any chunks 
of honey secured "by either method may be reserved for 
the table. All drippings of honey should be thoroughly 
cleaned up to avoid robbing. Tf possible the work 
should _ be done when the bees are gathering honey, 
otherwise there is liable to be robbing and stings. Bees 
may fly any day in Winter that it is warm enough, pro¬ 
vided they are wintered outdoors. In most localities of 
the North it is not unusual to have a flying day every 
month during the Winter when the temperature rises 
to 60 or 65 and the sun shines brightly. e. r. root. 
a 
NEW HARDY HIBISCUS, CRESTED BEAUTY. NATURAL SIZE. Fig. 345. 
See Ruralisms, Page 816. 
