THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
| 50 
[October 24. 
i 
year, and will not swarm. [ He is quite right.'] The comb is nearly to 
the bottom of the board, and, consequently, part of it is joined to the 
eke. Would you recommend me to take the eke off now, if prac¬ 
ticable? As this has been a bad bee season in this neighbourhood, my 
old parent hive, weighing below 20 pounds, and both, are daily getting 
lighter. In order to preserve them, I have commenced feeding them. May 
1 continue to do so until the frosts set in ? If so, how often a week ?” 
By all means take off the eke, and do it in the middle of a fine day; 
treat the bees with a few puffs of tobacco-smoke in at the mouth of the 
hive, then turn it very gently upon its sides, placing it so that the combs 
arc perpendicular; then, with a short knife, commence cutting out the 
combs as far as the eke reaches ; all may be done in three minutes ; if the 
bees are fierce, give a little more tobacco. Go on feeding as fast as the 
bees will take it until they have 20 pounds stored. Mr. Payne will send 
you a hive with pleasure ; but please apply to him at the time you require 
them, and send him the money first. 
Lobelia Erinus, &c. (Verax). — The nurserymen’s lists say the 
truth about Lobelia erinus and Erinus grandiflora; both are perennial 
and half-hardy. There are many varieties of them, which require to be 
perpe uated by cuttings, as their seeds do not always reproduce the true 
parent. Compacta must be raised from cuttings, as it is more variable 
from seeds than any of them but Erinus. E. grandiflora comes true 
from seeds. March is the best time to sow all of them. 
Campanula (Ibid), —To be sure there is a fine, hardy, deep blue j 
dwarf Campanula ; the name is Carpatica ; and there is a snow white j 
variety of it; both fit for everybody. We have described and recom- | 
mended them repeatedly, and we thought all our readers knew them, and 
recollected what we sung to their praise. 
Lantana Sellowii ( Ibid). —This also we spoke of repeatedly, and 
not long ago. It is a little purple bedder, strikes in the spring as freely 
as a verbena, flowers all the summer, can be taken up and potted from 
the frost, will also come from seeds sown in a hotbed in March or April. 
Ixi a Bulbs (E. Jonas). —About three weeks past you planted these, 
and they are now about two inches out of the ground. Cover the ground 
over them with two inches of leaf-mould or coal-ashes, and cover them 
well in frosty weather with two thicknesses of mats, or, if you can, with 
boards ; the covering to be removed every fine day. 
Flower-Garden (A Young Gurdcncr). —Your design is very pretty 
indeed, and if it is your own conception you must be “ brought out.” 
Let us hear from you confidentially, giving your address. Your list of 
plants is very suitable, but you will improve on it next year when you 
see the effect of your present plan. 
Scarlet Geraniums (G. E. t Westmoreland). — Mr. Beaton will 
write something which will answer your purpose. 
Water Lily ( F . H. Earle). —A water lily will grow in your three feet 
square tank very well. You ask the depth of water necessary : it should 
be at least 18 inches deep, especially as you intend using it for watering; 
there should be also four or five inches of mud at the bottom, for the 
lily to root into. Fresh water every time you take any out will be very 
beneficial to your plant. 
Damson Wine. —We have received this recipe, for which we are 
obliged :—“ To every gallon of water put two pounds and a half of sugar, 
which you must boil and scum three-quarters of an hour; to every gallon 
put five pints of damsons, stoned; let them boil till of a fine colour, then 
strain through a fine sieve ; work it in an open vessel three or four days; 
then pour it off the lees and let it work in that vessel as long as it will; 
then stop it for six or eight months, when, if fined, you may bottle it. 
Keep it a year or two in bottles. Bullace Cheese is quite as good, or 
even superior to damson cheese; you make both the same way, putting 
in the kernels after the stones have been broken. 
Damson Wine. — E. B. sends a recipe for damson wine, which she 
knows to be good:—“ 1 peck of damsons to four gallons of water; cut 
the damsons and put them in a tub ; boil the water and pour it over 
them ; let them stand four days ; then put them in a sieve and let them 
drain ; put the liquor in a cask and put four pounds of sugar to a gallon. 
Burying Bees (B. B.). —The hives are bound with straw previously, 
to prevent the damp injuring the hive, and for this purpose straw is better I 
than any other preservative. Grapes are useless for bees, and you will j 
find about bee flowers at page 316 of volume iii. Let your hives remain 
unmoved until you see what Mr. Payne says in our next number. 
Wintering Greenhouse Plants (J. Barr). —Bead what Mr. Fish 
has stated in our present and last number. 
Iron Training Rods (Grace). —Let these be about eight inches from 
the glass roof of your hothouse, and a foot and half apart, running the 
lengthways of the house. Apply the ammoniacal liquor in the spring. 
Greenhouse (Rev. J. Downs). —The information you require will be 
given next week. • 
J. B.’s Greenhouse (J. S., Cheltenham). —If you refer to his state¬ 
ment, you will find he uses Carman’s Stove, 120, Newgate-street. (Rev. 
C. A. A. Lloyd). —Stoves without flues would not do for choice greenhouse 
plants in a growing state, nor are they good for any horticultural purpose, 
on account of the Carbonic Acid Gas they produce, but for merely keeping 
out frost in the cheapest practicable mode from bedding-out plants, such 
stoves have been successfully used. J. B. is an example. 
Name of Pea (W. L.). —The large bean-like peas you have sent, 
which grow in pods seven inches long, on stems seven feet high, with 
purplish blossoms, are probably The Tall , or French Imperial , one of the 
edible-podded kinds, to be boiled in and eaten with their shells. 
Autumn Planting Potatoes (Potato-eater ).—Your Prince Regents ■ 
which ripen in August, will do very well for autumn-planting. We can- 
not say whether your variety is the same as the York Regent. 
The Employer and the Employed (H. H.). —Itis quite impossible 
for us to give advice when we know neither of the parties ; but if we did | 
we should probably say as we say now—Tell your employer what his late 
steward engaged to do for you. If he replies that he is unwilling to do 
all that you were promised, it then remains for you to consider whether 
you are comfortable and willing to remain upon the terms offered. For 
a head gardener, your wages are low ; but such situations are not plentiful, 
and applicants forthem are very numerous. 
Elm Timber (A Bromley Curate). —Fell it as soon as the leaves are 
all fallen. Either November or December are good months for the pur¬ 
pose. The timber is not so liable to decay as that felled in the spring. 
Back Numbers (G. E. II.). —All these and the indexes can be ob¬ 
tained of our publishers through any country bookseller. 
Germination (A Lover of Flowers). —We do not understand you— 
pray write more explicitly. 
Unripe Figs (A Youtig Entomologist). —We know of no use for them. 
China asters can only be raised from seed. 
Sillett’s Fork Husbandry (C. Greening). —Any bookseller will 
get it for you from Messrs. Simpkin and Marshall. Do not be misled by 
the prices, but calculate his returns at such prices as you can realise now ! 
in your own neighbourhood. 
Weigelea Rosea (A Constant Subscriber). —Turn it out into a border 
without disturbing it. It is perfectly hardy. 
Rabbits (A. B.). —The best and cheapest trap is the wire used by 
poachers. Your steel traps are not strong enough, get larger. 
Bees (—).—The bee traps cannot be purchased, but they are easily 
made. We have no recipe for bitter ale. Answer to your other question 
next week. 
Books (T. M. W .).—We do not know either of those you mention. 
Currant Cuttings (Clerieus). — The insects on the roots of these are 
a species of mite (Acams), and will do them no harm. 
Cover for Bees (W. Snowden). —Nothing is easier than to put a 
broad band, or collar, round the conical part of your common straw hive, 
so broad as to support an inverted milk-pan. We believe that turning 
bees to the north, and shading them from the sun in winter, is a good 
plan. Wait until you have read what Mr. Payne says next week. 
Earthing-over Potato Stems (A. Foster). —This has no beneficial 
effect in preserving potatoes from the murrain ; it must rather have a 
tendency to increase it. In cases where no disease followed such treat¬ 
ment, there would have been none, probably, if the stems had not been 
earthed-over. 
North Border (W. W. H.). —This, 150 feet long, we should partly 
plant with pot-herbs, and the remainder will serve for laying in brocoli, 
placing auriculas and polyanthuses upon after they have done flowering, 
and many such purposes. 
List of Pears (Amicus). —You will find a list of 20 pears, calculated 
to supply you with fruit from July to April, in the first volume of Tiie 
Cottage Gardener. There are about 600 varieties, good, indifferent, 
and bad, which it would be useless to encumber our pages with. The 
twenty selected by us arc described, and full particulars given concerning 
them. 
Artichoke Culture (T. P. R .).—Suckers of this must be planted in 
March or early in April, in rich moist soil, in rows about four feet apart 
each way. Water abundantly and mulch over their roots during their 
time of growth. They will produce heads from July to October. These i 
arc boiled, and the bottoms of their leafy scales eaten with butter and | 
salt. 
Poultry not Laying (L. A.). —Keep them warmer, and feed them 
on more stimulating food, such as fragments of flesh meat, buckwheat, I 
and sun-flower seeds. 
Name of Plants (J. K.). —Your’s is Oxycoccus macrocarpus, the 
large-fruited Cranberry. It succeeds in peaty soil, in a cool situation 
near water. ^ 
Forcing Potatoes (Truro). —It would be quite impossible, com¬ 
mencing at this time, for you to succeed in producing for your employer 
a crop of new potatoes in a 2 -light frame by Christmas-day, how'ever well 
you maybe off for fermenting materials. Asparagus you have sufficient 
time for in the 2-light frame. You will be likely to succeed much better 
j with a crop of potatoes, if you have all things ready to plant the bed the 
j first of January next. Achimenes patens is a stove plant, and requires the 1 
same treatment as other Achimenes. 
Variation of the Compass (Weathercock). —In putting up your 
vane, the true north in the neighbourhood of London must be 22 ° 30' to 
the cast of the north, as pointed out by the magnetic needle. In other 
words, the variation of the compass there at present, is 22° 30' W. 
Name of Plant. —That which came up accidentally in a kitchen- 
garden is Cacalia coccinea; a very pretty half-hardy annual. 
Name of Apple (Rev. T. H. R.). — It is Fearn's Pippin , and has not 
been introduced more than thirty years, if so much. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—October 24th, 1850. 
