346 
THE COTTAGE GARDENETl. 
August 26. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
i The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
the Cottage Gardener , 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London .** 
Spur-pruning (A. C -, Devon ).— Mr. Errington will in due time 
I say more about spur-pruning ; at present other matters of equal import 
press. The original spur shoots will remain permanently for many years, 
and will enlarge into huge excrescences, resembling an old osier stool, 
| after a few years. Judicious stopping will not cause the embryo buds to 
| start; injudicious stopping sometimes does so. Pray study our papers ; 
you will find we have written guardedly. Why do you not introduce 
those planted last winter, to ripen their wood ? White Muscadine, Ulack 
Prince, and Black Ilambro’, would do out in a Devon climate. Black 
Prince is a good house grape, so is White Frontignan, Esperione we have 
not grown, but it is spoken pretty well of. Overbearing will ruin any vines, 
if persisted in. You will see in back Nos. how to treat them ; it is not 
simply a question of vigour, but rather of glass surface j in other words, 
of light. 
Bees. — B. B. writes thus:—“I will now proceed to give you further 
information relative to stock No. 3. On the 17 th day from its swarming 
| a few drones were perceived, as if the wholesale slaughter, to which 1 
I before alluded, had been stayed by the presumed requirements of the 
case, for on the 20th day hissing was heard, and on the 21st the young 
queen was thrown out. Stock No. 8, I treated similarly; it piped on the 
12th day, and on the 13th the young queen was thrown out. Stocks No. 2 
and 13, have not proceeded so satisfactorily. Concluding the bees had 
become lazy, for they do seem to have fits of indolence, I turned them up on 
the 30th July, about six weeks from their swarming, and took from each 
about 4 lbs. of comb ; neither of them contained many bees, and no brood 
could be discovered, and perceiving, on the 5tli of August, that No. 13 did 
not work, I took it up, but did not find a particle of honey or brood, 
and no queen ; the half-pound of bees I gave to No. 2. How do you 
account for the ill-success of the plan in these two instances 7 Do you 
not think the shortness of drones —several of my hives besides these tour 
began to kill their drones early in June—in the apiary, may have been 
the cause, as it seems evident the queens had not began to breed. I 
shall lie curious to know the result of No. 2, and shall be obliged by your 
informing me how to proceed. I ought to remark, that at the time of my 
depriving No. 2 and 13, some drones were found in each, but may not 
have been out of the hive, and, therefore, useless to the queen. No. 13 
gave me, lpth of June, a swarm of 4^ lbs. No. 2 gave me, 3rd of July, a 
swarm of 4 lbs. Last year it was suggested that your bee-keeping corres¬ 
pondents should send particulars of the honey taken from stocks, and 
swarms, and upon what system procured. I trust you will call upon them 
for such, and if some kind of register was kept, an idea may be formed 
of the goodness or otherwise of the seasons. I have heard persons call 
this a good season ; I have not found it so. My hives arc much lighter 
this year than they were this time last year, and have been losing on the 
average since 12th July ; on 23rd June, most of them were as light as on 
23rd April; from 23rd June to 30th June, there was a slight increase, 
and during the first twelve days of July the hives increased, on the 
average, at the rate of three-quarters-of-a-pound per day, but these 
same hives have since been retrogading at nearly the rate of half-a-pound 
per week. Only stocks that were literally crammed with bees, from three 
to four hives, have given any glasses, and out of seventeen hives, I have 
not five of weight sufficient to stand the winter. I shall be gratified to 
know how my brother bee-keepers have fared. Can you name to me any 
safe and more easy method of preparing the wax than the common one, 
in a cloth strainer? Dr. Bevan speaks of a vessel, but gives no dimen¬ 
sions, and the difficulty I find is in separating it from the dross, which I 
am told can only be done by some chemical process. Can you inform 
me what this process is?” [“ I am puzzled to account for ‘ B. BAs* 
failure in the instance of his stocks, 2 anti 13. I am decidedly of opinion 
that the massacre of the drones had nothing to do with it. May not the 
wet and windy weather we had in June have had something to do with 
it ? I myself have lost a stock in the same way, which puzzled me ex¬ 
ceedingly, as there was no queen found in it after the lapse of six weeks 
from the time the swarm issued. I can only account for it by supposing 
that some accident must have befallen the young queen when on an ex¬ 
cursion from home in search of the drones, for the hive was very full ot 
bees and drones , and on a careful examination of the hive, I found a 
large and most perfect royal cell, with the lid still attached to it, and 
fresh gnawed, evidently showing that a young queen of large size had 
not long issued from it. I remember observing, some time ago, how 
unfortunate the season had been for any successful trial of experiments. 
1 quite agree with B. XL, that the season, on the whole, has been a very 
bad one. *Tis true the hives ‘ looked up ’ a bit in the first half of July, 
so that I was privileged to take about 12 lbs. of beautiful honey-comb, 
in a super from one of my April artificial swarms, and expect to take 
about as much from two other hives, but what is this as the result of a 
whole season. None but the very strongest hives (in respect to popu¬ 
lation) will in most places have stored more than enough honey for their 
winter’s supply, and I anticipate many a sad tale of failed and failing 
stocks next spring. Reverting to your correspondent’s mishap, on rc- 
llcction, it has occurred to me, that when a swarm has issued, and been 
located for a few hours in the old stock’s place, it would be well to 
examine the latter, which may very easily be done, as but a com¬ 
paratively small number of bees will then remain in it. Blow (through 
a veil of course) among the combs, which will drive the bees up, and 
then see if there be a good deal of ceiled brood in the combs. The more 
the better; but if there should chance to be but little criled up , there 
might be some danger of failure from a subsequent deficiency of popu¬ 
lation. In this case the swarm had better be removed elsewhere, and 
the old stock returned to its place. Will this explain B. BAs failure ? 
1 see a correspondent, who signs himself * J. W.,’ in your number for 
the 5th of August, in answering ‘Doncaster,’ of the ‘safe practice’ 
of ‘ removing the old stock, and putting the new swarm in its place,* 
adds, ‘ I generally do it, and to advantage.* May I ask him how long 
he has known of this plan, which, perhaps, though a recent discovery of 
my own, may have been known to Methuselah, and be ‘as old as the 
hills’ after all? It is written—‘ There is nothing new under the sun A 
We should be greatly obliged to him for some details of the results of 
this mode of treating hives, in comparison with those of other systems.— 
A Country Curate.”] 
Rees : Fumigating, &c. — Cymro says—“A friend of mine has three 
hives of bees, which lie intended to stifle with brimstone, but has agreed 
to let me have the bees, and to empty the hive in what way I think 
proper, but objects to driving them, because the (straw) hive will be 
turned upside down, and fears the loss of honey from unsealed combs ; 
and again, the bees may not take to the upper box. My present in¬ 
tention is to fumigate them with Racodium cellare, on their own hive 
boards ; but I am at a loss to know how much smoke I may put in, or 
how long I am to blow through the fumigating box, and how long to let 
the smoke remain in the hive. I do not want to carry it too tar, only 
sufficient to prevent them from flying or crawling about; and I want to 
unite the three hives in one, and let the three queens tight it out. What 
sized hive would be required to hold that quantity (the present hives arc 
straw’ ones of the usual size, and were supplied with good swarms) ? I 
am of opinion that one eighteen inches square inside, by ten inches 
deep, would not be too large. What think you ? I have in my pos¬ 
session a swarm that was hived on the 14th of July; it is an old straw 
hive, and the person from whom I had it put a stick through the top 
hole, which prevents me from putting a glass of any description on the 
top ; therefore I cannot feed them (when required) by the top hole. Now, 
I w ish to make them quit their present residence, and take to a wooden 
bar-hive. If I placed this straw one on the box, would they leave the 
upper, and build comb in the box, and let them enter through the lower 
hive board, and stop up the straw one? Would the same object be 
obtained by placing the new hive beside the old one, and let them enter 
that way ? Would it be better to hive the three lots separate, until they 
recover themselves, for a day or so, then let them unite by placing the 
three boxes one on another, when altogether upon the fourth box under¬ 
neath, and let them unite that way, and have but one entrance at the 
bottom ? ” [“ It is a pity ‘ Cymro’s ’ friend will not let him drive the 
bees from his three stocks. There need be no fear of loss of honey 
running out at this period of the year; no combs actually unceiled can 
be so full of honey as to create that danger. However, if it cannot so 
lie, ‘ Cymro ’ must fumigate as lie proposes. His plan of fumigating the 
bees on their stand is not good. I have had experience of it. My 
present plan of conducting this operation is to turn a suitably-sized 
common hive bottom upwards in a pail. In the top (that is, bottom now) 
I stick a small flour-dredger (with a lid on), pierced all over, top and 
bottom, with innumerable holes. It is rivetted to an iron spike about I 
three or four inches long, which pierces into the straw, and makes it 
stand upright. Next fill the dredger with a good-sized bit of fungus, well- 
lighted, and when it smokes cheerily set the full hive quickly over it, and 
bind a cloth round to prevent the smoke from escaping. If it acts, there will 
soon be a famous din among the bees, then a profound silence, succeeded 
by a noise of hailing bees. Wait some fifteen minutes, and then lift ofF 
the upper hive. All three hives may be set over the fumigator at the 
same time, one after another, and be so united together at once without 
further trouble. But let ‘Cymro’ take care to provide them with a 
queen, for queens are very difficult to dislodge by merely fumigating. 
Should the fungus go out, it may be renewed as often as necessary. 
* Cymro’s ’ hive, eighteen inches square and ten inches deep, is twice too 
large for a stock to be reared now by artificial means. Ilis swarm of the 
14th of July will not descend into a box put under them to work comb 
this year, neither will they enter one put at the side.—A Country 
Curate.”] 
Ranunculuses ( Reginald Forbes). —Mr. Groom, Florist, Clapliam 
Rise, recommends you the following:—Amours, Is. ; Aschan, 2s.; Con- 
i stantia, 2s. ; Penzance, 2s. (id. ; Faunus, 2s. ; Le Temeraire, Is. ; 
Alphonso, Is.; Achilles, Is.; Prince of Wales, 2s. (id. You propose 
planting scarlet and white Turbans as an edging to the named sorts, but 
you will not produce a good effect by so doing, as the Turbans should be 
planted in the autumn, and are generally in flower before the others, 
which most persons plant in the spring. Most of the Auriculas you 
mention arc now out of cultivation near London, those obtainable, and a 
few others, are among the following:—Grime’s Privateer , 3s. 6d. ; 
Oliver’s Lovely Ann, 3s. fid.; Pollett’s Highland Boy, 3s. fid.; Stretch’s 
Emperor Alexander, 5s.; Taylor’s Glory , 5s. In our Calendars, b. 
means beginning of the month ; m. the middle; and e. the end. 
Foulstone’s Budding Facilitator ( Gallina ).—We cannot give 
you the maker’s direction ; we have applied ourselves, but can obtain no 
reply. 
Goslings (Ibid).—Our correspondent says:—“The weight of Gallus's 
goslings is exceedingly good, as given in your paper of the 12tli instant. 
Mr. Parker’s three goslings, sent to the Show at Lewes, weighed, at 
fourteen weeks old, 42£lbs. They left home on Monday morning at 
half-past two, a.m., and did not arrive in Sussex till the evening of the same 
day. It was very hot weather, which, combined with a journey of 
between two and three hundred miles, and being knocked about from 
one station to another, to say nothing of being closely cooped up between 
fifty and sixty hours before they were weighed, for the Judges did not 
weigh them till the Wednesday morning (the day on which they were to 
inspect the poultry), all naturally tended to their losing weight, which 
accounts for their only weighing 4ulbs. on that morning.” 
Forcing Cucumbers (J. T.).—We, like you, have heard of the mar¬ 
vellous production of this fruit in three weeks from the seed, but we 
never saw it done, neither did our many gardener friends whom we have 
enquired of. The fact is this, seeds of good early-bearing cucumbers, 
sown the beginning of May, in a strong, growing heat, and afterwards 
skilfully attended to, will perhaps produce a fruit of fair table size in five 
or six weeks from the time of sowing. But what of that ? Cucumbers 
are as plentiful as potatoes then, and what is accomplished in May could 
not be done in mid-winter. For frame purposes you will find Cuthill's 
Black Spine possessing as many good points as any we know of, in¬ 
cluding hardihood, fruitfulness, and good eating quality. The Roman 
