202 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
for He has spoken to us of them, “ canst thou bind 
the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands 
of Orion;” has given a yet brighter light to the 
“glory of the stars;” and lias caused them to teach 
a deep lesson to man of his own nothingness, and 
God’s unapproachable majesty. How merciful is the 
Lord our God, “ who hath His dwelling so high” and 
yet vouchsafes to instruct liis ignorant rebellious peo¬ 
ple by every thing, however grand, however simple, 
that He has placed around them. His hand has 
made them; His power sustains them; His Spirit 
invests them with speech and language, if man will 
but “ hear and understand.” Let us, then, sometimes 
enjoy an evening walk, in spite of winter cold. The 
silence, the stillness, the brilliancy, are tranquillizing 
and delightful. The roar of the railway-train breaks 
the silence occasionally; it is the noisy, unmusical 
work of man’s hand. The night-wind sighs among 
the trees too, at intervals; it is the work of God’s 
hand, and the contrast strikes us powerfully. There 
is a word for the Christian in every sound, as well as 
in every sight. “ The wind blowing where it listetli,” 
conveys a deep and important lesson to the listening 
heart. Let us, as we hear the soft rising breeze, raise 
our hearts to Him who can bestow the influence of 
the Spirit, that while we have a “name to live” 
among men, we may not be found “dead” in the 
sight of God. 
HISTORY 'OF AN APIARY. 
Whilst amusing myself this afternoon, by skim¬ 
ming through the two first volumes of your most 
interesting and useful paper, especially observing 
the various notices on “ Practical Bee-keeping,” 
which dot it at irregular intervals, the thought 
struck me that, at this dark season, you might find 
room for the insertion of an amateur apiarian’s 
experience in this year’s first part, if drawn up 
in a sufficiently interesting form. If I may judge 
of others by myself, a detailed narrative of the for¬ 
tunes of an apiarian, judiciously written, would be a 
not unwelcome boon to many—to all young apiarians 
certainly, if they have any passion for the practical 
management of bees. If dry manuals of instructions, 
however imperfectly written (as too many are that 
have fallen under my notice, and betraying, not sel¬ 
dom, the ignorance or presumption of their authors), 
are eagerly bought up by a bee-loving public, and 
are allowed to reach a second and a third edition, 
what favour might not be expected to be shown to a 
really interesting history of the actual experience of 
an apiarian of long standing, in which instruction 
would be agreeably blended with anecdote? We 
want facts, sir, as Mr. Beaton and yourself have 
repeated. I throw this out as a hint to such men as 
Mr. Payne, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Golding, or Dr. Scuda¬ 
more, of Canterbury—whose useful little work on 
“Artificial Swarms” (Longman, 1848, 2nd edition) 
I would heartily recommend to your readers—who 
ought to have a mass of interesting information 
relative to their hopes and fears, successes and dis¬ 
appointments in bee-keeping, enough to fill a folio. 
I have materials, already in my own hands, to fill a 
small volume, but I wait for a few years; and then, 
if my seniors and professed guides in the science do 
not come forward, perhaps I may take my own hint, 
and try the temper of the public myself. In the 
mean time, I will, with your permission, write an 
occasional sketch of the fortunes of my own apiary, 
iou shall judge if it be worth a place in your paper. 
The study of bees has afforded me infinite plea- 
[ January 10. 
sure for the last six years; although, it is true, I 
have had my share of disappointment—hive after 
hive has perished, and experiment after experiment 
has failed, and left me often no more profitable 
result than the wisdom of a dear-bought experience. 
“ Try again,” however, has been my motto through¬ 
out, so I have neither despaired nor been discou¬ 
raged, but am still as passionately addicted to the 
study of bees as ever. My former apiary has passed 
into other hands—a younger sister of mine having 
succeeded me as its tutelary genius. Under her 
sole and active superintendence, after a long period 
of unfruitfulness and ill success, owing to my fre¬ 
quent and long-continued absences from home, it 
has begun to assume a more promising aspect. 
This last summer, finding myself located as a cu¬ 
rate in the rich county of Herefordshire, not very 
far from Dr. Bevan’s former abode, at a distance of 
300 miles from home, I commenced a new apiary. 
In the cottage which I occupy are two narrow win¬ 
dows, each sufficiently large to accommodate two 
colonies. These, which have hitherto served no 
more useful purpose than to assist in swelling Her 
Majesty’s revenue, I have devoted to the purposes of 
an apiary. In May last, I ordered to be constructed 
suitable boxes, fitted up with all the newest improve¬ 
ments, according to Mr. Nutt’s plan, with this differ¬ 
ence, that there are only two boxes instead of three to 
each colony; the windows not being wide enough 
to admit of more. Should a third box be necessary, 
I have room to storify. The passages from the hives 
communicating with the open air, are tunneled out 
of the lower frame of the window-sash, and then 
slope upwards through the flooi'-board into the centre 
of the stock-box; this board being made to fit close 
to the sash. The whole window is shut in by cup¬ 
board-like doors, and is under lock and key; and the 
apiary is open to inspection at all times and seasons 
from the inside. Many visitors, experienced bee- 
masters included, have visited my apiary, and pro¬ 
nounced it to be unique and perfect in its way ; and 
well it might be, as no cost has been spared to make 
it as complete as possible. 
Well, sir, into this stock-box was hived, on the 
25th of May, a magnificent swarm (which I shall 
call a), which took to its new abode immmediately, 
and worked and bred with such rapidity, that on the 
25tli of June—a month later, exactly—1 was obliged 
to give them a bell-glass (a small one), and to open 
the communication with the side box, or they would 
have thrown off a swarm. This I was assured of at 
a later period, when, on cutting out some of the 
combs, I discovered several incipient royal cells, 
which, it would seem, they had abandoned when 
moi'e room was given to them. Be this as it may, 
however, they took immediately to both bell-glass 
and side box, in which they stored seven pounds of 
the purest honey, which I took from them on the 
25th of July. I then stored them up for the year, 
having observed an evident relaxation in their la¬ 
bours. From the stock-box I subsequently took 
eight pounds moro of honey, making, in all, fifteen 
pounds as the harvest of the first year. The box 
weighed 31 pounds before I spoiled it. This hive is 
now in very good health. 
Encouraged by the success of my first hive, I pur¬ 
chased a second swarm (b) from a cottager, and hived 
it, on the 18th of June, into a rather large straw 
cottage hive, after Mr. Colton’s plan, which was suf¬ 
fered to stand in a friend’s garden till September. 
Although this was a remarkably small swarm, the 
queen was so good a breeder, that a month later this 
