376 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September V. 
i forcible deprivation ; it renders the bees very vindictive and restless for 
a long time, and numerous casualties in death of stocks take place if not 
done with great judgment. Should a bee-keeper be very sensitive about 
killing his bees, he must go to considerable expense in purchasing all 
his hives and boxes with proper covers to contain glasses of all sizes, 
suited to the nature of the season. I am one of those old-fashioned 
apiarians who think that the quiet mode of deprivation is the only safe one. 
Suppose a man keep ten stocks of bees, and is able to take eight full 
I glasses of honey, the purest of all, this is much better than running the 
! risk of taking too much by driving or fumigation. It is very easy to talk 
of turning up a populous hive, with 40 lbs. weight of honey, on 15,000 
j bees, and placing an empty hive on the top, to beat the full hive until all 
the bees have gone up into the empty one! and so cut and carve the 
combs, ad libitum. When the hives are separated, what can the bees 
be about ? quite quiet, of course; then, after all the uproar and confu¬ 
sion, the deprived stock is to be returned to its place, and the bees in the 
empty hive placed near so as to allow them to return. Let llusticus 
adopt the glasses and small boxes if he will, and cut them with a copper 
; wire as they are filled ; he will find this a much more suitable plan for 
his own comfort, and that of the bees also, there being always this differ¬ 
ence, that in the deprivation by glasses the main body of the bees is not 
disturbed, and no danger done to the honey by puff balls in sulphur.” 
Taking Honey.— A Worcestershire Man says:— “A few days ago a 
sudden fancy came over me, and a friend who was staying with me, to 
take a common straw hive of bees by storm. He dressed himself in a 
veil, thick leather gloves, and great coat, tying his wrists and legs round 
with string, and having made himself impervious to the bees, he delibe¬ 
rately marched up to the stand, took away the full hive to the distance of 
four yards, having first put a new straw hive, ready prepared, in the 
place of the old one. He placed the old hive on a wheelbarrow, shook 
out the bees, and at once cut out the comb, and laid it on dishes on a 
table previously placed near the barrow. It was the operation of a few 
minutes. The bees returned to the new hive; but it became evident, in 
the after-part of the day, that the queen bee remained in the wheelbarrow, 
from the bees leaving the new hive and clustering round her. The new 
hive was removed to the barrow, over the cluster of bees, and at night 
replaced on the stand. The bees all appear to be settled, and beginning 
to work. Will the bees be able to support themselves at this late season, 
or would they have been, had the process taken place a month ago ? It 
was evident that the bees, during the last three weeks’ wet weather, had 
been living on their honey. What is the objection to this plan, which 
involves no expense whatever, and was performed without a single 
sting?” [There is no objection to the above plan (which I have often 
adopted to expel bees from a hive), save the danger of destroying the 
queen, who will be often crushed to death in process of cutting out the 
comb, for she is generally the last to quit the comb under the circum¬ 
stances of this treatment of the hive. Unless your correspondent have 
liberally fed his bees already, they will certainly have all died by this 
time ; and if he does not feed them with as much prepared food (honey, 
■ or sugar-hcer or sugar water,) as they can eat during the next month, 
| they must die during the winter, for they have comb to make, as well as 
honey to store, for their winter supply.—A Country Curate.] 
Lovell Cochin-China Fowls.— An Old Subscriber says—“ I have 
i had them some time, and did I not desire to show Cochin-Chinas for a 
prize, I should prefer the Lovells to any other kind whatever; but they 
cannot be made to weigh more than six or seven pounds, the hens, and 
nine pounds very good male birds, and this would prevent them from 
taking a prize now as Cochin-China fowls. For beauty they surpass the 
large kinds ; they have short legs, well feathered, small bone, beautiful 
white fiesh, quite equal in that respect to the Dorking ; they fatten fast— 
indeed, if well fed, need no cooping for the table ; they are extremely 
hardy (having escaped the roop when all my other fowls have had it), and 
much tamer than any other kind; their feathers are beautifully downy ;— 
in short, I think they possess all the good qualities of the Dorking as 
J well as of the Cochin-China ; and I would not be without a few of them 
on any account. Two pullets I hatched in January last began to lay in 
May, and, notwithstanding their extreme productiveness, are excessively 
fat. Should any of your correspondents wish for the stock, I will supply 
them at a reasonable rate, as I have two or three pairs more than I want, 
and also some excellent Cochin-China chickens, from a splendid male 
bird of Mr. Holt’s, and a Sturgeon hen. As an amateur, I do not want 
to make a high price of them ; but I think it a pity to cat them, when 
so many would be glad of them for stock.” 
Vinegar Plant {Ibid). — “I see some of your readers are enquiring 
for the Vinegar plant, the only economical thing for producing pure, 
wholesome vinegar, of an excellent flavour. Any one enclosing 4s. 6d. 
worth of postage-stamps can have one sent to them, with directions for 
ensuring a constant supply of good vinegar for about 3d. a gallon. The 
money will be applied to a charitable purpose.” Any person who applies 
for these must send the application in a stamped envelope. 
Golden and Silver Pheasants (D. L.). —These are not tender. 
Mr. Nolan says he has kept the Golden Pheasant in an open aviary at all 
seasons, and found it to be an earlier layer than either the Silver or Com¬ 
mon Pheasant. He recommends them to be treated exactly like the 
latter. The white Lily with pale pink spots, if shaped like the Martagon 
Lily, is no doubt Lilium lancifolium punctatum y and the pink with 
crimson spots, L. L. speciosum. 
Age at which Fowls Breed (A Novice). —Buy The Domestic Fowl 
in the series of Richardson’s Rural Hand Books. For Spanish fowls 
apply to Capt. Hornby, R.N., Knowsley Cottage, Prescot. Pullets some¬ 
times begin to lay when only five or six months old ; but neither pullets 
nor cockerels should be used for store until eight months old. Hens 
will lay without aDy intercourse with a male bird, but whether they lay 
as well, or as soon, we cannot say. 
Caterpillar (X. Y. Z.).—If it has a horn or hook at the tail end, 
your description agrees with that of the Privet Hawk Moth— 2£ inches 
i bright light green, with seven stripes of lilac and white on each 
Bees (W. W.). —If in a straw-hive, we know they will thrive with no i 
other protection than a milk-pan turned over them, and sheltered from 
the wind by shrubs. We do not know the price of Mr. Taylor’s zinc 
shades. 
Various (T. Hill). —Look to a previous page to a note about nails. ; 
Zinc Wire can be bought of any wire worker in London who advertises 
in our pages. Peaches , Nectarines , Plums y and Apricots will ripen on a i 
slanting roof in Derbyshire, if trained on a trellis, and well protected from j 
frost, &c., when in blossom, for the blossoms are more liable to be cut j 
off by frost than when grown against a wall. The advertisement would 
be five shillings. We think five or six toes in a Cochin-China fowl is a 
mark of degeneracy, if it appears on more than one of a brood occasion¬ 
ally ; for that may be an accidental malformation. 
Chicory Culture in Jersey, — H. F. has obliged us with the follow¬ 
ing :—Chicory is generally sown in April, in drills, one foot apart, and j 
kept hoed and free from weeds, and taken up in the autumn, when the 
leaves decay, and dried and stored for use. It likes a sandy deep soil. 
Ciiittaprats. —Cochin says there arc three varieties of these, and lie 
will, therefore, be obliged by Amateur informing him which of the three 
he found to be the best layers, as mentioned by him at page 297 • 
Lice in Poultry (Semper vigilans). —Mix together equal parts of 
Scotch Snuff and Pulvis Digitalis; and, turning back the feathers, rub 
the mixture well in among their roots. If you have a large box of dry 
sand or coal-ashes in your loft, the fowls will keep themselves free from 
vermin. Your other question next week. 
Work on Greenhouse Plants (S. H. S .).—Macintosh’s little 
volume, called The Greenhouse , Hothouse , and Stove y will suit you. 
Poultry Nomenclature- T. G. y “ In the advancing state of poultry 
affairs, begs to suggest a nomenclature, which, with the slight alteration 
of one word, will describe the ages of our fowls. This now is done by 
circumlocution, and provincially varies so much, that the description of 
one district is with difficulty understood in another. I, therefore, pro¬ 
pose that chicks of the first year shall be called cockerclls and pullercts; 
birds of the second year stag-cocks and pullets; and afterwards cocks 
and hens, naming their years according to their ages.” 
Fowls in confined Space (S. L.).—In your twenty-feet square 
yard, twelve-feet square hen-house, and the run of a meadow for an hour 
daily, no fowl is better suited than the Cochin-China. There is no 
remedy against a hen wanting to sit, except taking her from her nest 
and shutting her up for a few days. We never heard that hens in a 
confined space are more inclined to sit than those which have a wider 
range. 
Tulip Bed {Rev. A. M.). —According to your request, we have ascer¬ 
tained that Mr. Groom will arrange you a bed, and find the bulbs of a 
bed of thirty rows of first-class tulips, for fifteen pounds. The following 
are recommended by him :— Cherry and Rose: Aglaia, Catalani, Ciau- 
diana, Duchess of Sutherland, Duchess St. Albans, Emily. Byblozmens: 
Addison, Imperatrix Florum, Lewald, Michael Angelo, Mentor, or Reine 
tie Sheba, Roi de Siam, Rubens. Bizurres: Catafalque (Dutch), Duke 
of Clarence, Garrick, Marshal Soult (Groom’s), Optimus, Platoff, and 
Polyphemus. Now is a good time to prepare the bed. The following 
Tulips are new this season— Rose: Fleur de Marie. Bizarres: Dr. 
Horner, Marquis of Bristol, Earl of Derby, Duke of Northumberland, 
and Earl of Clarendon. 
Call-Ducks. — A Clerical Friend says, “ I should like to know some¬ 
thing more about those exceedingly pretty little birds, call ducks. 
Naturalists do not seem to assign them a distinct position as a species, 
and yet besides the characteristic from which they derive their name, 
they vary from other ducks both in size and form. I have some beautiful 
dark coloured ones little larger than teal, but of a rounder figure.” 
Names of Plants {Brentingby Cottage ).—We think Coclilearia 
acaulis. {Markhum). —Yours is Origanum dictamnus, Dittany of Crete. 
It belongs to the Natural Order of Lipworts, or Labiates, and to Didy- 
namia Gymnospcrmia, Class and order of Linnieus. (T. M, W.). —No. 1, 
Lantana crocca; No. 2, Veronica Lindleyana. {A Subscriber , E. N.). 
—Your shrub from seed is Asclepias parvifiora. {Mary Theresa). —Yours 
is Statice tatarica , increased by careful root and crown division, in either 
spring or autumn. {W. S. W.). —The fruit you sent was very much 
crushed, but we think it is of the Momordica charantia . We know 
of no use to which it has been applied. It is of a dangerous race, 
one of the same genus being the Squirting Cucumber, M. elaterium , 
a most violent and dangerous purgative. {Investigator). —Your spe¬ 
cimens are so dried up, that we cannot even tell whether they'are 
Pinks or Carnations. Why will not our correspondents pack in green, 
damp moss ? {W. C. Horton). — Coreopsis tinctoria y and a variety of it 
called atro-sa?igui?iea. {Rev. R. M. E.). — Salviu fulgens ; not Abutilon 
but Achimenes rosea y or coccinea ; the weed is Parsley Piert, Alchemilla 
aphanes; the red-berried plant is Crataegus pyracanthu , or Evergreen 
Thorn; the Phlox we cannot name. {S. H. S.).~- Your fungus is 
Scleroderma cepa; probably poisonous. {R. Wells). —Common Hemp, 
Cannabis sativa. {H. B.). —Your plants are, 1. Lythrum salicaria. 2. j 
Tanucetum vulgare. 3. Specimen imperfect. 4. Bartsia Odontites. 5. i 
A Senccio, not certain which. 6. Achillea ptarmica pleno. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, iu the Parish of \ 
Christ Church, City of London.-—September 9th, 1852. 
