April 29. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 69 
Sow in drills from twenty to twenty-three inches apart, 
according to the quality of the soil. The seeds may be 
dropped in patches, about nine inches asunder; half-a-dozen 
seeds in each, not dropped too closely. As soon as the young 
plants “ show,” every weed should be drawn, and then the 
plants singled so that no two touch. In the course of three 
or four weeks after, the ravages of the fly will have proved 
them, if the fly appear; and now, on the first shower, all 
blanks may be made good, and the surplus plants thinned 
out, unless they are required for some other plot, when, 
of course, such must be proceeded with. The patches 
must be thinned finally to single plants, which will be 
about eight or nine inches asunder. Henceforward good 
hoe culture, and perfect freedom from weeds, is the point to 
aim at. Those who sow swedes in seed-beds to transplant, 
must be ruled by the time when the plants will be required. 
If the ground will not be at liberty until nearly August, why 
the bed need not be sown until the end of May, later than 
which is useless. We would by no means sow in rich soil 
for the latter purpose; plants thus produced are but ill 
qualified to withstand a July sun, accompanied with much 
drought. It is better to sow on rather poor soil; and where 
liable to the “ club," by all means trench deep and bring up 
a little of the subsoil, unless a very barren material. We 
generally avoid “club ” in all the Cabbage-worts by the latter 
practice. It ought to be more generally known, that the 
swede bears transplanting after it has formed a bulb in the 
seed-bed as large as a hen’s egg. Indeed, we feel assured 
such will both make stouter plants betimes, and endure 
drought better, having a fund of stored-up sap to draw on. 
Let us, therefore, advise those who depend on transplanting 
swedes, to succeed early summer crops, as early potatoes, to 
sow rather early and thinly on poor soil—say in the middle 
ol May. A\ e sow in four-feet beds, making little drills across 
with the finger, at about four or five inches distance. This 
is far superior to the broadcast plan, as producing sturdier 
plants. 
Transplanting. —Let us advise our readers to make a 
constant practice of dipping the roots of all things in puddle 
through the summer, whether wet or dry weather; the 
benefits are great. To this end the operator should always 
take a deep basket, with a little wet litter in, and a bucket 
hall-full of dunghill drainings. When arrived at the seed¬ 
bed, he can put a spadeful of soil into the bucket and stir 
well, then dip each bunch of plants as they are drawn. 
Seed Sowing. —It is oftimes difficult, in dry and bright 
summers, to get small seeds to vegetate, and precautions 
should lie taken accordingly. Our constant maxim is, to 
water the soil thoroughly, previously to digging, forking, or 
drill-drawing. The succeeding operation then buries an 
amount of bottom moisture of a character to endure until 
rain comes. If, in addition to this, the seeds are soaked in 
tepid water for six or eight hours previously, they generally 
vegetate in a few days. Small seed-beds may be easily 
shaded with a little litter, but such must be removed as 
soon as the plants appear above ground. 
Thinning-out. —When young crops are much too thick, 
and the weather is bright, the thinning should not be done 
at once, especially if weedy, for the sunshine frequently 
much injures their tender and partially-blanched stems. 
Better to draw all weeds first, then on a second occasion to 
rough-thin them, and on another to “ single-out,” and so on, 
as before noticed. 
The Hoe. —This useful implement is generally most 
efficient, as to cultural processes, when the soil is three- 
parts dry. All weeds cut with the hoe should be raked 
clean oil' at each application; a round-toothed iron rake, 
the teeth about two inches apart, is best for this purpose. 
Insects, Dressings for. —We shall find a mixture of 
new saw-dust and very fine cinder ashes a most useful 
application. We do not, however, wait until half our crop 
is devoured, but keep a heap always ready in-dours, and 
apply some to every suspicious crop the moment the seeds 
break the surface. Those who are troubled much with 
snails and slugs, will find it a good plan to place small 
patches of cut grass, here and there, round the suspected 
plot. When half-decayed, these vermin will flock to it, and 
must be collected either late in the evening or very early in 
the morning. 
Watering. —Let there be no watering by “dribblets;” 
the maxim must be a good soaking or none at all. Slight 
waterings increase the leaf-action in the way of perspi¬ 
ration, without furnishing a corresponding vigour of root- 
action to sustain it; hence plants frequently “ flag" more 
after slight waterings than before they had any. Never, 
however, water in such a way as to puddle the surface. 
When soil is liable to this, the watering must be done at 
two or three applications, waiting half-an-hour between each 
two. In drill-planting, it is best practice to fill the drills 
with water an hour or two before sowing. 
Cleaning Processes. —Never hoe weeds in wet periods; 
it is worse than labour in vain, for it generally entails an 
injury on the texture of the soil, and cannot prove a cleaning 
process. During such periods there is nothing like the 
spade—dug in, they are done with. Let, however, anything 
like seed-weeds, if such should have been so disgracefully 
permitted, be pulled aw’ay first and brunt. And now let it 
be remembered, that what maintains one tuft of groundsel, 
chickweed, or any other gross herbage, will maintain a 
cabbage, a swede, or a mangold; and this is not all,—the 
damage they do by shading and choking the crops is very 
considerable. R. Errington. 
THE APIARIAN'S CALENDAR.— May. 
By J. II. Payne, Esq., Author of “The Bee-keeper’s Guide.” 
Transferring Bees. —Notwithstanding all that has been 
said in The Cottage Gardener respecting the transferring 
of bees from an old cottage hive to the improved one, and 
the many instances there given of the total destruction of 
many of the stocks so operated upon, I am continually 
applied to for the best method of doing it, and I now repeat 
what I have said in all cases where my opinion has been 
given, never attempt it, for in many cases the stocks are at 
once entirely destroyed, and if not, are rendered so weak that 
they are of no value. Now, where a transfer is desired, 
allow the old stock to swarm, and put the swarm into the 
favourite hive, and immediately upon its being hived, put 
it upon the same stand, and in the identical position which 
the parent hive had previously occupied, and carry the old 
stock some two or three hundred yards away, as recom 
mended by “ A Country Curate,” in page 26 of the present 
volume of The Cottage Gardener, and at page 12 of vol. 
vii., for by this means the population of the new swarm will 
be greatly increased, and the old hive for a time nearly 
deserted. Where a transfer is desired, I will venture to say 
that this is the only safe way of effecting it. 
Bees in the North. —I shall feel much pleasure in 
receiving reports from those persons who, through my re¬ 
commendation, may have been induced to place their bees 
in a northern aspect; but nothing can be more unfortunate 
for this experiment than such a season as this, not a single 
genial day to bring them out. My stocks in a greenhouse, 
and in a south aspect, have been carrying hi pollen most 
profusely every sunny hour for a long time, and their popu¬ 
lation is rapidly increasing, whereas those in the north have 
scarcely made their appearance outside the hive. One 
advantage, however, I have been enabled to discover, which 
is, that they have consumed much less food than the others, 
but if early breeding is retarded (which it should be the 
object of every apiarian to promote) we shall not be gainers, 
but the reverse, from a northern aspect; however, it must 
have a fair trial. 
Placing shall hives, &c. —This must soon be prepared 
for, and I would recommend each glass to be furnished with 
small pieces of guide-comb, and set by in readiness, but not 
put on until the stocks show evident signs of want of room, 
and then the bees will commence working in them imme¬ 
diately ; indeed, they will be tilled with bees in an hour or 
two after being put on. 
Ventilation. —I have found the best method of ventila¬ 
ting is to raise the small hive or glass about one-eighth of 
an inch all round, but not so much as to allow the bees to 
escape. The stock-hive, also, may be raised upon blocks 
or wedges half-an-inch when swarming is feared. Miner, in 
his American Bee-Keeper's Manual, recommends stocks to 
be raised half-an-inch from the floor-board all round, during 
the year, so as to allow egress and ingress to the bees at 
any part of the hive. This plan may, perhaps, be practised 
