244 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
of the eyes; it nourisheth very much ; it breedeth good 
blood; it stirreth up and preserveth natural heat, and 
prolongeth old age ; it keepeth all things incorrupt that are 
put into it; and, therefore, physicians do temper therewith 
! such medicines as they mean to keep long ; yea, the bodies 
j of the dead being embalmed with honey have thereby been 
i preserved from putrefaction.” 
The honey which is brought to market is sometimes 
adulterated by being mixed with flour; the adulteration 
j may be ascertained by putting a small portion of the 
! honey into pure water; if the honey be pure, the whole 
will be dissolved in the water, and the water be still clear; if 
' it has been mixed with flour, the water will be clouded and 
| milky looking. 
We now come to the ordinary uses of honey. Besides its 
‘ uses at the breakfast and tea tables, honey, as is generally 
known, is the principal ingredient used in making Mead 
and Metheglin ; vinegar made from honey is very excellent, 
and honey-soap is much recommended for the cure of | 
chapped hands; for making these things, mead, metheglin, | 
vinegar, and soap, we shall give such receipts as we have 
tried ourselves, or seen recommended by others whose 
recommendations we can safely follow. 
Mead. —The following receipt for making Mead will be 
found in vol. iv. page 138 of The Cottage Gardener, and 
makes an excellent, clear, cooling drink. “ Tour five gallons 
of boiling water upon twenty pounds of honey, boil, and 
remove the scum as it rises; when it ceases to rise, add 
one pound of hops, and boil for ten minutes afterwards; 
pour the liquor into a tub to cool; when reduced to 75° of 
Fahrenheit, add a slice of bread toasted and smeared over 
with a little new yeast; let it stand in a warm room, and 
be stirred occasionally; and when it carries a head, tun it, 
filling up the cask from time to time. When the fermenta¬ 
tion has nearly finished, buug it down, leaving a peg-hole, 
which may soon be closed ; bottle in about a year.” Of 
course, less than six gallons may be made by using a pro¬ 
portionately smaller quantity of each ingredient. 
The following receipt was given to us by a cottager living 
near Basingstoke. The Mead made by it is stronger and 
much more luscious than that made by the former receipt; 
it is not so clean and refreshing ; but being made from the 
washing of the combs, which would otherwise be given to 
the bees to clean out, or else be thrown away, it is much 
cheaper. Wash as many old combs in the quantity of 
water to be made into Mead as will make it strong enough 
to float an egg so far above the surface that a portion of it, 
about the size of half-a-crown, may be visible; boil the 
liquor with ginger and allspice according to taste, for 
about three-quarters-of-an-hour; work it with yeast in the 
usual way, and then tun it: stop down when the working 
has ceased, and (if made in the autumn) the Mead will be 
ready to drink in the succeeding summer. 
Metheglin. —The only receipt -which we rememember 
ever to have seen for making is the following, which is 
from our old friend, Butler, and is given in his own quaint 
language: doubtless, it would make a very excellent beverage, 
though, most likely, it has not been often tried. “ First 
gather a bushel of sweet-briar leaves and a bushel of tyrae, 
half-a-bushel of rosemari, and a pek of bay-leaves. 
Seethe all these (being well washed) in a furnace of fair 
water; let them boil the space of an hour or better, and 
then pour out all the water and herbs into a vat, and let it 
stand till it be but milk-warm : then strain the water from 
the herbs, and take to every six gallons of water one gallon 
J of the finest honey, and put it into the boorne, and labour 
! it together for half-an-hour; then let it stand two days, 
stirring it well twice or thrice each. Then take the liquor 
| and boil it anew, and when it doth seethe, skim it as long as 
there remaineth any dross. When it is clear, put it into 
the vat as before, and there let it be cooled. You must 
then have in readiness a kive of new ale or beer, which, 
as soon as you have emptyed, suddenly whelm it upside- 
I down and set it up again, and presently put in the 
Metheglen, and let it stand three days a working; and then 
i tun it up in barrels, tying at every tap-hole (by a pack-thread) 
a little bag of beaten cloves and mace to the value of an 
j ounce. It must stand lialf-a-year before it he drunk.” Our 
friend is rather large in his quantities, and he ought to have 
mentioned how much his furnace held. A couple of gallons 
June 29. 
might he tried, reducing, of course, the quantities of in¬ 
gredients in proportion. The receipt is enough to make one 
feel thirsty. 
Vinegar. —The following receipt for making vinegar will 
also be found in The Cottage Gardener, vol. iv. page 338. 
“ Put half-a-pound of honey to a quart of water, boiling hot; 
mix well, and expose to the greatest heat of the sun without 
quite closing the vessel containing it; but yet sufficiently so 
to keep out insects. In about six weeks this liquor becomes 
acid, and changes to strong vinegar, and of excellent 
quality. The broken combs, after being drained, may be 
put in as much water as will float them, and well washed. 
The linens also and sieves which have been used for 
draining honey may he rinsed in the same water, and with 
this make the vinegar; first boil and scum it before mixing 
it with the honey.” We presume that honey is only to bo 
used in making vinegar from the washings of combs, and 
the rinsings of the linens and sieves, when these rinsings 
are not strong enough themselves ; say strong enough just 
to float an egg. 
Soap.— To make honey-soap, take a pound of the best 
curd soap, cut it into very thin slices, put it into a saucepan 
with a pint of milk ; boil it till melted ; then add two table- 
spoonfuls of honey, and boil it again till the whole is 
mixed; scent it with oil of Lavender or Bergamot, and put 
it into shapes.—It. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
PEACHES IN VINERY. 
“ I have a small Peacli-house Vinery. The Vines are 
trained up the rafters, and are throwing out little roots all 
up their rods. They are trained on the spur-system. Should 
those roots be removed ? The Peaches are trained on trellises 
under the Vines, and also on the back-wall. The Grapes 
are just turning their colour. As I cannot use the syringe 
so freely now, I see the red spider has made its appearance, 
what quantity of sulphur would he sufficient for me to use 
at a time ? My house is twelve feet wide and twenty-four 
feet long. I have, also, some Vines in pots growing from 
eyes; the rods are about three feet long. What length should 
I allow them to grow before they are stopped ? Should I 
remove any of the buds up the rods? My house is heated 
with liot-water. I have a hundred of lute white Brocoli, 
which were put out late last year; they have not headed yet. 
Do you think there is any chance of their heading if 1 let 
them remain ?—A. B.” 
[To grow Peaches under Vines is never attended with 
great success, and is as certainly the cause of greater trouble 
to the cultivator. Do not remove the rootlets issuing from 
the branches until the time for autumn-pruning arrives. 
Those rootlets are caused by the air being kept excessively 
moist. Water the floor frequently and abundantly. Four 
ounces of flowers of sulphur will be enough for one fumi¬ 
gation of your house. Do not stop nor disbud your Vines 
in pots at all the first season. Buy Mr. Elphinstone’s 
capital little shilling book on “ Growing Vines in Pots.” 
Your Brocoli was probably planted out too late for heading 
this year. If so, it may head next year. The plants you 
enclosed were—1. Alyssum maritimum variegatum. 2. 
Oxalis rosea. 3. Linaria cymbalaria.] 
PEAR-TREES AND ASPARAGUS. 
In answer to It. II. GUI, wc reply; Pear-trees never 
bear the year after planting. You must refer to back 
numbers for their culture. The old Pear-tree against your 
wall, and not bearing, probably requires root-pruning. Do 
it at. once. The Louise Bonne of Jersey has not rooted 
well with you. Keep its roots well mulched over. Asparagus 
never should be cut until the second year after planting, 
and then sparingly. As for treatment of the beds, adopt 
the following, which is from the pen of Mr. Downing, in 
the American “ Horticulturist.” He says— 
“Every one who has seen my beds has begged me for the 
seed, thinking it a new sort; but I have pointed to the 
manure-heap (the farmer's best bank), and told them that 
