THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
203 
January 10.] 
stock became almost as populous as the other. A 
gift of five pounds of coarse honey, on their first 
settlement, made them work with such activity, that 
the hive weighed upwards of 20 pounds in September. 
It now stands in one of my narrow windows, in a 
bedroom about 15 feet from the ground, whither I 
had it transferred, for convenience of feeding and 
watching. To this hive 1 added, in September (be¬ 
fore transferring them to my cottago, at which time 
I gave them half a gallon of prepared food), the 
population of two other hives, that had been doomed 
to premature destruction. The advantage of this 
was manifest in October, when, during the ivy season, 
they were nearly three times as active as the other 
hives; but I expect greater tilings of them in the 
spring. 
Having a spare set of collateral boxes fixed in the 
same window as a hive, I occupied them on the 10th 
August with a powerful colony (C), which I had also 
saved from a sulphurous death, composed of two 
swarms united. These afforded me very great amuse¬ 
ment for a long time after my other bees had ceased 
from their summer labours. As there was little or 
nothing to be collected out of doors, I fed them libe¬ 
rally for five weeks on prepared food (a mixture of 
honey, sugar, beer, wine, and salt, in the proportion 
of a tea-spoonful of salt, a glass of sherry, half a 
pound of honey, and three pounds of Barbadoes 
sugar, to a quart of beer) : of this food they con¬ 
sumed about three gallons; three-parts filling the 
box with comb of the purest white, and storing the 
liquid besides. At the end of the five weeks, they 
weighed 25£lbs., which had diminished by only half 
a pound on the 13th November, two months later, 
when I weighed them again. They are still very 
numerous, and in good health. 
Besides the above three colonies, I purchased two 
very rich hives in October, each weighing over 301bs., 
with a view to carrying out several interesting expe¬ 
riments in the spring. Of these I have nothing to 
say at present. 
I had purposed to give here an account of the 
method I have adopted in uniting these swarms, 
without the assistance of fumigation. It is, I believe, 
quite a novel plan, and was accidentally discovered 
by myself; but I must reserve it for some future oc¬ 
casion, as I have already extended my paper to a 
sufficient length.—A Country Curate. 
EXTRACTS EROM CORRESPONDENTS. 
Antirrhinums eor Wall Culture. — Many of 
your readers may not be aware of the advantages 
which this tribe of flowers offer for the above pur¬ 
pose. I have a stone wall, four feet high, stretching 
from my parlour window down one side of my gar¬ 
den. It is about one foot thick, and surmounted by 
a coping of bricks, set edgeways; which, covering 
only nine inches, leaves a ledge three inches wide 
near the top. Along this ledge I, some years since, 
sowed mixed antirrhinum seed, and the result is, a 
mass of bloom, of all colours, throughout the summer 
and autumn; indeed, so gay and attractive is the 
effect, that it excites the admiration of all visitors. 
They require no soil; no labour beyond cutting them 
down in the winter, and will freely sow themselves, 
and produce every year some new and beautiful va¬ 
rieties—many unsightly objects might be thus co¬ 
vered.—S. P., Bushmere. 
Flowers for Bedding. —Your Mr. Beaton does 
good service, by the description and management he 
gives us of his border flowers; but there is one 
flower, which, as a bedder, may possibly have escaped 
his notice—it is the Cedi rosea , or Rose of heaven, 
a species of dwarf Lychnis; it comes early, blooms 
profusely, continues long, and requires no trouble in 
the cultivation. My plan is, to take up, during the pre¬ 
sent month (December), the self-sown seedlings from 
the summer plants, and set them in knots, three or 
four together, each knot about 18 inches apart. A 
bed of any size may be thus formed, and in May, 
June, and July, it will be one mass of brilliant pink 
flowers. They will bloom longer than July, if allowed 
to remain in the ground; but I usually replace them 
with geraniums, or some other favourite.— (Ibid.) 
The Hydrangea. —This plant is not so generally 
cultivated as it might be; it is admirably adapted 
for lawns, and will amply repay any little extra atten¬ 
tion. I have had one about twelve years, and the 
summer before last it measured 36 feet round, and 
had on it upwards of 1,100 head of flowers, many of 
them of immense size. It grew too large for the place 
in which it stood, and in the autumn of that year I 
cut the earth round its roots into a ball, and, with 
the aid of two horses, drew it out, and placed it in 
another situation. This summer it increased in size, 
but had not so many blossoms. Next year it bids 
fair to resume its pristine glory. It is covered with 
straw during winter— (Ibid). 
Greenhouse Heated by Kitchen. —I have one 
of two small rooms over my kitchen, fitted up as a 
greenhouse. It has a western aspect; size, about 
twelve feet by ten feet. The warmth of the kitchen 
underneath is sufficient to keep out slight frost. In 
case of severe frost, I have steam from the kitchen 
boiler, conducted by an inch pipe into two tins, each 
about eighteen inches long, ten inches wide, and a 
foot deep. Without any trouble or mess, by simply 
turning a stop-cock, I can get any heat I require. 
The waste steam, and the condensed steam, each 
escape by small tubes through the wall. The above 
hints may be useful to some of your readers. And 
now I solicit a word of advice. My plants, quite a 
miscellaneous collection, throve amazingly well dur¬ 
ing the summer and early autumn months; but now 
(December) I find several things—geraniums, cal¬ 
ceolarias, and cinerarias, for instance, looking most 
wretchedly.—G.B., Barton. 
[If a room, or greenhouse, by the side, and not over 
the kitchen, can be heated as described by our cor¬ 
respondent, it is a very available mode; but if over a 
kitchen, the difficulty in the way of keeping the plants 
duly at rest, &c., is almost insurmountable.—E d. C. G.] 
Ohio Squash. —Its treatment is, in every respect, 
similar to the vegetable-marrow; and is available for 
cooking, when cut; for hoarding, for winter use, if 
cut when about half-grown ; and also for your excel¬ 
lent soup, if cut when ripe. The crop is a more cer¬ 
tain one, and more prolific than the vegetable-mar¬ 
row; and the fruit weighs, when ripe, from seven to 
eleven pounds. Are you acquainted with the Mam¬ 
moth Brocoli, ordinarily weighing 27 tbs., in one year’s 
growth ? My reason for mentioning one year is this, 
a brocoli is grown at Wilcove, a small village near 
here, called the Wilcove Brocoli, which grows even to 
20 tbs.; but the plan pursued is as follows :—Those 
plants, which do not head in the spring, are pricked out 
again the following season, when they grow to the 
size above-mentioned. I have also a cucumber, well 
adapted for a cottager, and, I believe, a new variety; 
it generally bears three at a joint, and of a moderate 
size, in the open ground. Being most anxious to ad¬ 
vance the cause of your journal, I should be happy to 
send you a few of each.— Thos. Mould, Devonport. 
