312 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 20. 
THE CONTRAST. 
Walking the other day in one of our public gardens, 
where the beds were systematically arranged, and the plants 
scientifically labelled, I accosted a young workman, with a 
rake in his hand, and asked him if he knew the name of 
a plant standing a short distance off. “No, I do not.” 
“ Do you know the name of that one yonder?” pointing to 
another. He confessed himself still at a loss. “ Why, my 
friend,” I remarked, “ if I worked here, with the opportuni¬ 
ties there are for improvement, I would learn the name of 
every plant in the garden.” “ Oh,” rejoined lie, “ I know 
enough for the work I have to do, and that’s sufficient for 
me.” Now this self-contentedness, or stoical philosophy (if 
philosophy it may he called), is not exactly the condition of 
mind to carry a man well through life, or to prosper him in 
his vocation. That workman evidently stood in his own light, 
or, rather, in his own darkness, and in the way of another 
who would have gladly embraced his neglected advantages. 
Improvement attends not the man who is content with igno¬ 
rance. He had not learnt the art of lightening labour by 
taking an interest in it; he worked mechanically, hut not men¬ 
tally, and to work without either head or heart is drudgery. 
Profit is said to he like corn shown to a hungry horse—it 
excites to action ; and to obtain higher wages, a man must 
qualify himself to receive them. Pay, without merit, is not 
the world’s policy. But labour has other wages, which are 
too often overlooked—I mean those wages resulting not from 
eye-service hut from a principle of duty, which, if a man 
performs heartily, he shall receive here and hereafter. 
On the same day it was my privilege to visit another 
garden, where the plants were mixed in the flower borders, 
and unlabelled, hut arranged with the view to effect and 
continuance of bloom. “ Are you fond of flowers, sir ?” said 
the gardener, after I had addressed him. “Very,” I replied. 
“ We are not on the bedding system here,” he continued. 
“I like to have flowers all the year round, and though 
the design is not obvious, yet our borders aro so planted, 
that take any given space, say from three to six feet, ac¬ 
cording to the habits of the plants, and you will see spring, 
summer, autumn, and winter ones alternately placed, that 
some flower maybe always in bloom.” “But this,” I re¬ 
marked, “ requires skill, and a knowledge of the characters 
of plants, and some may occasionally come to hand of which 
you are ignorant.” “ True,” said he, “but that is not often 
the case, and when they do I soon acquire their history.” 
In truth, I found this man perfectly master of his art, and 
among the extensive variety of plants cultivated in the 
garden (and it was large) there was not one but what he 
was intimately acquainted with its name, order, and class. 
Gardening was his hobby, and the plants his pets. He 
had books, and was fond of collecting new plants, for they 
were the means of extending his knowledge. I could but 
contrast the difference between this man and the former, 
and reflect on the larger amount of happiness which the 
latter enjoyed; in the ono case labour was unalleviated, in 
the other, pleasure sweetened toil.—S. P., Rushmere. 
CONFINING BEES. 
An instance of the effects of confining bees, under circum¬ 
stances somewhat similar to those related by B. B., has 
lately come under my observation. A very populous hive, 
which had not swarmed, requiring feeding in June, was in¬ 
advertently closed at the mouth. On being opened a few 
hours afterwards, in the evening, the bees rushed out, and 
a large cluster remained outside all night. Next day, about 
two hundred drones were brought out dead; no doubt they 
had been suffocated. Should any accident occur to a hive 
the poor drones are sure to be the first sufferers; they are 
as inferior in strength and endurance to the workers as the 
queen is superior. I assume B. B. did not see the drones 
bullied, but only carried away. Was a “ Country Curate’s ” 
monster hive pressed for food when its drones were killed, 
June 1st? It was extraordinary the drones should have 
been destroyed when there was a certainty of young queens 
coming on. We can scarcely regard the bees as such specu¬ 
lators as to calculate on the resources of neighbouring 
hives. 
The observation of a correspondent, that tho “ working 
bees will not kill a queen,” applies, as he remarks, to those 
reared in the same family. I have seen the queen of a 
weak liivo, which became the spoil of plunderers, furiously 
struggling with five or six workers, but I came too late to 
the rescue, one of them had planted its sting in her breast. 
Introducing a stranger queen into the centre of a hive, she 
was instantly seized, imprisoned, and smothered; the pro¬ 
cess occupied five hours. When at length she fell, the 
bees, missing her, surrounded and imprisoned their own 
queen in an impenetrable mass, from which she did not 
emerge till the intruder was carried dead out of the hive. 
Would your correspondents recommend feeding with 
barley-sugar as available for cottagers, or when extensive 
feeding is requisite? I have supplied an apiary by the 
stone, without any risk of the bees being bedaubed, using 
honey, or the syrup, according to Mr. Golding’s recipe in 
“ The Shilling Bee-Book,” and putting it into combs as he 
advises, or, in the case of a cottage hive, having a small 
wooden bowl, with a tube through it three inches long and 
three-quarters of an inch in diameter, the end of the tube 
being fixed into tho hole at the top of the hive, and covering 
the syrup with a float of cork. All that is necessary is to 
give the syrup sparingly till the bees are accustomed to it, 
and a taste of honey at the first will invite them. Such a 
bowl costs fourpence; the tube could be put in for a trifle, 
and I have had the bees in the bowl by hundreds, enjoying 
all the advantages of “top feeding.” —Investigator. 
[Having expressed doubts as to the working bees employ 
ing their stings as a weapon in destroying their queen, we 
received the following note from “ Investigator: ”—“When 
I had separated the workers from the queen, I found a sting 
left in her breast. She exhibited the usual effects of the 
venom in a few minutes, becoming paralysed in the limbs. 
Huber relates an instance in some respects similar, but 
supposes the queen was stung by accident. I presume to 
differ on this point with the illustrious naturalist. Dr. 
Bevan relates an instance of a worker being stung by a 
queen. There is no doubt the workers destroy each other 
in this way ; I have frequently observed it. Having placed 
a dish, on which there had been honey, near tho apiary, it 
attracted bees from all the hives, and became the arena of 
a battle-field, where the combats were more than comm only 
furious. One bee had a sting left in the thorax between 
the wings, and died on the spot; two others, mutually vin¬ 
dictive, hooked the barbs of the two stings together, and 
thus remained prisoners. In the contentions which are 
seen at the mouth of the hive, it appears only those acting 
on self-defence employ their weapons ; the intruders attempt 
to escape, sometimes being held prisoners till they deliver 
up the stolen property.”] 
POLAND VERSUS HAMBURGH FOWL. 
The Pole fowl counts three varieties, the Black, with white 
tuft; the White, with black; and the Spangled (properly 
so called). The true-bred Pole may be known by the total 
absence of comb, a thickened lump of skin on the top of the 
head, from which springs a large tuft or crest of feathers, 
so large, indeed, as almost to blind the best birds; the beak 
is raised into a knob over the nostrils, different to any other 
breed; they are often muffled or bearded, in which case 
their wattles or gills are wanting, or very small; their feet 
are of a slaty lead colour, the nails and soles of the feet 
white, and of a large size, though some very pure bred 
birds will be found small on account of their being bred too 
much in-and-in, which also causes them to be delicate, 
otherwise I consider them as hardy as other poultry, and 
excellent layers, rarely wanting to sit. It seems to me a 
great pity they should he so scarce, as they are really a 
very handsome as we" as productive variety of fowl. 
The colour of the Black variety should be of a beautiful 
raven black, changing in different lights to purple or green, 
with the crest quite white; occasionally the cocks of this 
breed show a little white at the lower ends of the quill 
feathers of the tail, which, though it disfigures the bird, is 
not, I believe, considered any mark of bad breeding. The 
chickens, when hatched, show the tufts from the first; they 
are black, with white tufts and white breasts. 
