April 15. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
41 
behold the pheasants. Nothing was said, and Mr. Dyer 
never did another day’s work on those premises. 
If you think it would add one iota to what is already 
known, or contribute a link to the general chain of useful 
and valuable information which appears in your pages, I 
will, in a future paper, give you our system of rearing and 
management of the pheasant tribe, which was allowed at 
the time to be very successful.— Upwards and Onwards. 
[We shall be very glad to hear again on this subject.— 
Ed. C. G.] 
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
By Henry Wenman Newman, Esq. 
(Continued from page 11.) 
COMPARATIVE MERITS OF A GRASS OR CORN COUNTRY FOR REES. 
IIin' circum cas'ue virides et olentia late serpyllu , et graviter spirantis 
copia thymbree floreat. —Vikgil. 
(Round these places let green spurge flax, and far-smelling thyme, and 
much strong-scented savory, flower.) 
I have mentioned in another place my opinion that a 
corn county in England is the most favourable for bees, 
and my reason is, that, having been a rambler nearly all my 
life, I have found by far the greatest number of bees kept 
in com countries ; but a good deal of woodland is certainly 
advantageous, on account of the honey-dew on the trees. 
The finest honey dew I find in my neighbourhood is on the 
bare bark of the TVych Elm, in March, before even a 
swelling bud is to be seen, particularly after a severe winter, 
on which thousands of bees are to be seen a few days before 
the earliest willow catkin is in blossom. The Lime and 
Oak are proverbial at another season. The Laurels for 
three or four months afford a great exudation for bees. 
It is rather presumptuous in me to contradict so great a 
man as Huber, but he certainly advocates a country of 
“ meadows and pasture,” with some “ fields of black grain ” 
intermixed ; perhaps we must make some allowance for the 
climate in which he lived. Hampshire, on account of the 
variety of pasturage, is one of the best counties in England 
for bees; it contains heath in many places, particularly in 
the New Forest. Going through Belgium last summer, in 
July, I could see little else for the bees but the buckwheat; 
in every fourth or fifth field was this grain in full blossom. 
Should an extraordinary number of bees be desired by 
any amateur, he must cater for them in the way of pastur¬ 
age, and that not a little, in sowing Borage, Rape, Turnips, 
and Clover, besides planting a host of trees favourable, such 
as the variegated Sycamore, a most beautiful bee-flower, out 
in April, and Osiers of all sorts. The late and early blossoms 
are those that are wanted, as all counties in England, from the 
middle of May until the middle of July, afford bee pasture in 
abundance. If a farmer have a large stock of sheep, or other 
cattle, he must have grass in proportion; the bee-owner 
must prepare the same. 
Let the bee-owner who has the means have abundance of 
Crocuses, Erica camea, Osiers of all sorts, Ribes, and Goose¬ 
berries and Currants, for the early part of the season, and 
within 300 to 400 yards of the apiary, for in the uncertain 
spring weather the bees do not go very far. In the late 
part of the summer there ought to be the Borage (late 
sown), Mignonette, Salvia, and Thyme of both sorts. If 
this late and early pasture were more attended to by api¬ 
arians, the failure of their stocks would not be so frequent. 
As an early blossom, I have lately found that the Norway 
Maple affords a fine pasture for bees in April; it has a 
yellow blossom, and is a most ornamental tree in plantations 
and pleasure grounds, and has the good quality of being a 
fast grower. 
It is a great fund of amusement to visit and mark each 
tree and flower as it is developed, as well as to mark their 
early visitors. 
“ Thou wert alive, thou busy, busy bee. 
When the crowd in their sleep were dead; 
Thou wert abroad in the freshest hour. 
When the sweetest odour comes from the flower; 
Man will not leam to leave his lifeless bed 
And be wise, and copy thee, thou busy, husy bee.” 
BEST KINDS OF PEAS. 
I know that many of the readers of Tiie Cottage Gar¬ 
dener are, like myself, members of horticultural societies, 
and therefore, of course, desirous to be as successful as 
possible in competing for the different prizes given for 
vegetables; but to be so they must be experienced in the 
choice of the kinds of vegetables they cultivate for exhi¬ 
bition, as there are points and properties in them, as well as 
in flowers, which are looked to by the judges, the principal 
of which are size, shape, flavour, and colour. Now, as to 
kinds, we will take the pea as an example. If an inex¬ 
perienced amateur or cottager wished to grow one or two 
sorts for exhibition, and these sorts to combine good proper¬ 
ties for showing, and also to be of a prolific and profitable 
kind, and having none experienced to direct him in his 
choice, he would naturally refer to a catalogue of some 
celebrated seedsman, and would there find somewhere about 
thirty different kinds enumerated, the most of which would 
have some good properties appended to them; and probably, 
like myself, he would have to cultivate the most of them 
himself, to find out, by experience, which was the best for 
exhibition, and of course to combine the good qualities of 
being prolific and profitable,—to save him the trouble and 
expense of going through that ordeal I will endeavour to 
give him my experience on the subject. 
I was induced at first to try the Ringwood Marrow, as it 
was recommended (I think by Mr. Barnes) in the first 
volume of The Cottage Gardener : this would not do; 
the pods were not even opened by the judges at the show. 
In succeeding years I tried the following varieties, viz.— 
Flack's Victory, Victoria Marrow, Warner’s Emperor, Bed- 
man's Imperial, Blue Prussian, Hairs' Mammoth, Bishop's 
Lonypod, Fairbeard's Surprise and Champion of England, 
Burbidge’s Eclipse, Blue Scimitar, and many others. 
Among all of these I have found none equal to the last- 
mentioned—that is, the Blue Scimitar —for exhibition pur¬ 
poses, as from the number of peas in each pod, and its 
flavour (the most essential points for exhibiting), few other 
kinds are comparable to it; it is also a very prolific pea, and 
lias sometimes as far as ten, or even eleven, peas in one pod. 
The only objection against it, if such can be called an ob¬ 
jection, is its height, as it grows upwards of five feet, and 
therefore will be considered by some as unsuitable for a 
small garden. The next best pea to the foregoing is, I con¬ 
sider, Fairbeard’s Champion of England. This I have also 
been fortunate in winning with ; the only objection to it is 
also its height; but the pea for profitableness, and which I 
can safely recommend for its many good qualities to cot¬ 
tagers or any others, is Burbidge’s Eclipse. This I can 
safely vouch for as the best pea in cultivation, and combines 
every good property, except in size of pods, that a pea ought 
to have. Its height is only about two feet, and it will grow 
on any sort of soil. The next to it which I prefer of the 
dwarfer kinds is Bishop's Longpod ; this, also, is a very pro¬ 
lific sort, and worthy to be grown in any garden. There is 
another pea deserving of notice, but its immense height ex¬ 
cludes it from the cottager’s garden : I mean Thurston's 
Reliance. This has very large pods, and of excellent fla¬ 
vour. The variety of peas above enumerated are many 
of them an early sort, and may be used profitably through¬ 
out the season. The method used to cause the pods to 
fill sooner, and better, is to nip off the tops or main 
shoots soon after they commence blooming, which has 
the effect of advancing them several days, besides caus¬ 
ing them to throw out side-shoots, and of course making 
more blooms, and keeping them lower. Before con¬ 
cluding, I would take the liberty of warning my cottage 
friends to abstain from purchasing any new kinds of peas 
of pretended wonderful qualities, until they have been fairly 
tried, or recommended by some good authority, for to my 
cost I have found that many such have turned out different 
to what was represented in the advertisements. This advice 
is also applicable to all new kinds of vegetables, and new 
flowers also, and, therefore, my counsel is—“ wait a little 
longer.”—G. I. B. 
BEE HOUSES.—GIVING WATER, &c. 
As Mr. Payne has given his opinion in favour of a bee- 
house for a north aspect, I presume to send you a description 
