THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
297 
February 28.] 
fore they are planted out, so much the better. One 
great advantage they have over most things that are 
planted out, if dry weather follows immediately after, 
which it often does in June, is that they will be found 
to withstand it; the well established root of the former 
year supports them under such a temporary trial, and 
they continue to grow and flower amongst the earliest 
and with the latest of the season, until frost cuts them 
off. It is somewhat strange that this fuchsia will not 
shoot up again the following spring, like the other 
kinds; 1 have frequently tried them; and although 
the fleshy tuberous root is quite sound, in spring 1 
never saw one shoot up again, which makes it ne¬ 
cessary to prepare plants every year. Some people 
have tried taking up the old roots, and storing them 
away like dahlias, and which I have sometimes done; 
but 'it is seldom that the wood is sufficiently ripened 
to keep the winter, and the roots are often more 
fibrous than tuberous, that many of them are apt to 
perish, and those remaining do not make such 
nice plants as seedlings. Yet it may be adopted 
where the plants have been growing on ground not 
too rich. I may remark, that I have perceived very 
little variation in seedlings: they usually come as 
much like the parent as they can be. 
S. N. V. 
EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 
Stupifying Bees with Ether—Feeding Bees.— 
1 have seen, upon several occasions, inquiries in your 
paper as to the stupefaction of bees by chloroform. I 
have never tried chloroform, but I have tried ether : 
I give you the results. 
In the August of 1847,1 purchased sixpennyworth 
of pure and good ether; and having poured a. portion 
of it upon a piece of sponge, I placed it on the floor¬ 
board of the hive, and stopped up the entrances to 
prevent the admission of fresh air. At the expira¬ 
tion of a quarter of an hour 1 lifted the hive, and 
found that the fumes of the ether had taken little—I 
may say no effect: T do not think more than half-a- 
dozen bees were under its influence. I then gave up 
the trial till another day. My next attempt was with 
a piece of sponge placed in a funnel, the tube ot 
which was turned in a horizontal direction. I he 
end of the funnel was placed inside the hive ; and 
through the tube I attempted to blow, to make the 
fumes of the ether ascend into the hive, but my suc¬ 
cess was little greater than upon my first attempt. 
My next attempt was made by placing the ether in a 
small, but wider necked bottle, through the cork of 
which I passed two tubes, one of which was made to 
pass into the mouth of the hive, the other I blew 
through. I succeeded in this manner —not in stupi¬ 
fying the bees, but in rendering them so quiet that they 
allowed me to take away several pounds of honey, 
without attempting to sting me, although I had num¬ 
bers of them crawling all over me. The bees re¬ 
covered in a short time, and swarmed in 1848, but 
died in the very bad bee spring of 1849. I do not 
recommend any of your readers to have recourse to 
ether in stupifying bees, not only on the score of ex¬ 
pense, but also because it is a tedious, and by no 
means a certain process. I now make use of a littlo 
fungus when I want to stupify my bees; and I last 
year put several stocks to sleep, with the greatest 
ease, with a little fungus and a common tobacco pipe. 
I have just had two hives made upon the plan recom¬ 
mended by you in vol. I., p. 269, and I have little 
doubt but they will answer well. I think straw far 
the best material for hives. I have tried wooden 
boxes upon several occasions, and till this year (and 
it is now only February) I have never - succeeded in 
keeping my bees alive in wood during the winter; 
frost or damp has always hitherto beaten me. In the 
autumn of 1.849, however, I determined to try en¬ 
casing my box in dried fern, and I believe that the 
experiment will prove successful; at any rate, upon 
cleaning the floor-board, about ten days ago, my hive 
was well and flourishing. 
I am rather surprised that Mr. Payne does not lay 
greater stress upon the aspect required for bees du¬ 
ring the winter months, viz., a due north aspect. 
If any of your readers will take two hives in the 
second week of November, of equal weight, and give 
one a N., and the other a fe. or S.E. aspect, and 
then weigh them again on the first of March, I think 
he will find the hive either on S. or S.E. aspect will 
have consumed twice as much as the sister hive on 
the N. aspect; and I think he will also find that, as 
a general rule, the hive wintered in a northern as¬ 
pect will swarm from 10 days to a fortnight sooner 
than that upon the S. or S.E. 
I read with much interest a letter in your 67tli 
number, from a “ Country Curate.” I am very anxious 
to know how your correspondent administered the 
food which he supplied to the two swarms united in 
August? Was it given at the top of the hive, or on 
the D floor-boards? and in what vessel?—S. E. 
[In answer to the concluding query, we have been 
obliged by the following from a “ Country Curate ”:— ] 
“For the last year or two I have invariably sup¬ 
plied my bees from the top of the hive, in preference 
to the old plan from the bottom. I have tried feed¬ 
ing them in a drawer beneath the hive; and, by a 
contrivance on the principle of the usual water- 
fountain for bird-cages, have had a supply constantly 
kept up in a kind of reservoir in the centre of the 
floor-board; but I am persuaded from experience, 
that there is nothing like top-feeding, as well because 
it prevents any annoyance from robber bees, and be¬ 
cause of the much greater facility in managing the 
business ; besides which, I can supply them with a 
much larger quantity of liquid at a time. My box 
feeder is not unlike that described in page 136 of your 
first volume, in principle—though it is made of zinc 
instead of wood; and 1 should think it will hold a 
great deal more, besides that the liquid does not soak 
into the wood. . 
It is a circular trough or pan, 7 inches in diameter 
and 2 inches in depth. In the centre of the bottom 
is pierced a hole (say 2 inches in diameter, to fit ovei 
the 2-inch hole at the top of my hives); into this 
hole a cylindrical tube of zinc is soldered, ascending 
4 inch into the trough, and descending about an 
inch into the hive (the latter may be better dis¬ 
pensed with, I now think). To one side of the trough 
a funnel-like piece of zinc is adapted, through which 
the liquid is poured from time to time, when needed , 
a few holes being pierced at the base of it, so that the 
liquid shall pass under the plate upon which the bees 
feed. This plate is made of perforated zinc, and is 
buoyed up by floats ot cork of sufficient thickness to 
keep it always above the liquid. Of course, it falls 
and rises with the latter, but cannot rise highet than 
the level of the cylindrical tube, up which the bees 
ascend to feed. To facilitate the ascent of the bees, 
a piece of wire is wound spirally about its innei side, 
from top to bottom. The whole is covered by a 
square or octagonal pane of glass. As the tube rises 
only 14 inch in the trough, there is left the ample 
space of 4 an inch between it and the glass for the 
bees to pass freely in and out of the hive. Apjaiians 
