THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
OoiOBEIl 21. 
and eartli shall pass away," but God's “Word shall not pass 
away.” Let the example of poor old Betty encourage all 
' widows to trust in God. 
COTTAGE GARDEN, AND WHAT SHOULD RE 
THE NOVEMRER CROP, 
BREAllTH, 27^- YARDS ; LENGTH, 11 YARDS. 
Hast hedr/c. 
1 
.4Ucij and liaspberri/ border, Ci fect. 
1 
Cabbage tribe succeeded by next spring and 
summer’s mixed crops. 
feet. 
Two rows of prickly sTiinach - I 
Alley - - - - 1 
Three rows of spring brocoli (Knight’s 
Protecting) - - - !) 
Alley - - - - 1 
Three rows [Apple tree] of early spring 
cabbage - - -0 
Alley - - - -1 
Four rows of Scotch kale - - 12 
Alley - - . -1 
Two rows of savoys - - I 
Alley - . . - 1 
Potato division (autumn-planted). 
a> 
1 = 
s 
tC) 
1 
Sixteen rows of potatoes, at 30 niches 
apai't - . - 10 
Apple tree. 
C 
•0 
<0 
0 
Succession winter division following the mixed 
crops, and to become occupied with the 
roots next season. 
•>5: 
A dying crop of lettuce succeeded the 
two rows of spring cabbage, and the 
row of ash-leaved kidneys, now in 
their turn succeeded by a trench of 
parsnips - - - 3 
A ridge of turnips (swedes) - - 4 
Alley - . . .1 
Two rows of transplanted swedes, or 
sown turnips - - - 3 
Alley - . .. .1 
One row of [Apple tree] savoys (strong 
and early planted) - - 2 
Alley - . . .1 
Two rows of autumn cabbage - 2 
Alley - . . ,1 
Two celery trenches (growing between 
tliem a row of cabbage, savoy, or 
stone turnips) - - . II 
Two rows of strawbcixies (growing be¬ 
tween them white and black Spanish 
radishes) - . .7 
Alley (or a row of potato onions) - 1 
Walk, 4 feet. 
I HONEY SEASON IN NORTHUMRERLAND. 
1 f^ season being over, and the last hives brought 
. 10 moors, in accordance with the wishes of some of 
I the correspondents of The Cottage Gaudeneb, I will 
communicate the result of the hai-vest in Northumberland. 
The season, though I must call it ciitical, has been an 
average good one. The months of .luly in the gardens, and 
August on the moors, were very productive, but then many 
hives had received so severe a check from the tniserably 
cold and rainy weather in June, that they were not in a 
condition to prolit by the succeeding fine weather. 
It may not be.^inac'ceptable to describe the plan I have 
pursued, in a locality where the honey season is short, and 
which has answered so well, that I always intend to adopt 
it. My hives are hlr. Golding’s “ Grecian,” which 1 am 
pleased to see ai'e pronounced by “ A Country Curate,” tlie 
lie phis ultra'' of hives. Preferring, as a matter of taste, 
“ the time-honoured straw hive," to those of other materials, 
it seems to me that the extreme lightness and simplicity of 
these, with the facility of working them, and having the 
whole contents of the hive at the disposal of the operator, 
entitles them to that distinction, while the price places them 
wlthm the reach of at least a rich cottager. Following the 
directions in the shilling Bee-book, when the hived swarmed 
I cut out all the royal cells, and returned the swarm, with 
its queen. No re-issue took place, and the whole strength 
of the hive being thus concentrated under a queen two years 
old, the bees stored 28 lbs. of honey in a super during 
July. I should add, that I have always found ventilation, 
and affording additional room, quite ineffectual in jirevent- 
ing swarming. 
I am almost inclined to dissent from the sentiment of 
“ A Country Curate,” “ that there is nothing new under the 
sun,” for the destruction of drones immediately after 
swarming is a featiue in the economy of the bees whicli I 
do not remember to have been noted by any author, and its 
singularity must plead an excuse for a recurrence to a 
subject which may seem tedious. The early destruction of 
drones and drone pupa, alluded to in Nutt’s book (an appeal 
to it as an authority would surely be a retrogade step in the 
path of apiarian science), is what all bee-keepers have ex¬ 
perienced in an ungenial season before swarnung. This 
year it was seen in many hives, in June, but have we any 
record not to render its ooouiTence immediately after 
swarming unparalleled ? It would almost tempt mo to de¬ 
populate a hive, in order to watch the effect on its future 
prospects. May I say, the idea of a reserve for younger 
queens is fanciful, those left by the old queen being hatched 
within at most ton or twelve days of each other, and to the 
last the succession to the sovereignty is doulitful, as I tins 
year ascertained, for in a hive which did not swarm a second 
time, the first hatched (pieen, having disposed of two 
others, was herself destroyed, when a week old, by one 
(the last) which had not been liberated from her cell more 
than twenty hours. Does it ever happen that a stock 1110011 
has swarmed will swarm again ivitli the young queen, of 
course after an interval of some weeks ? But even supposing 
such an extreme case, the queen would lay drone eggs 
before making a deposit in the royal cells. 
These observations occupy much valuable space in the 
pages of The Cottage Gardener, which, however, are lent 
to the extension and progress of science, as well as pi-actice, 
and as the latter must alivays be dependent on the former, 
it is hoped they may not be considered inappropriate.— 
Investigator. 
SITTING HEN’S NESTS. 
A iVAEH situation has advantages which may not always 
be foreseen, and the following instance is remarkable, 
showing how long eggs may be left uncovered without de¬ 
stroying their vitality. I had supplied the eggs (B!),and 
lent a sitting hen to a neighbour, and when she had sat in a 
granary ten days, was shut out, through the carelessness of 
a servant. Being a stranger in the farm-yai’d, the hen was 
not recognised, but supposed to have strayed in from an 
adjoining walk, and thirty hours elapsed before it was dis¬ 
covered that the hen had left her nest. The farmer’s wife 
despaired of her brood, but, to her surprise and pleasure, 
eight chickens were hatched. The tiled roof of the granary 
was fuUy exposed to the rays of the sun, and the tempera¬ 
ture very high, probably above 80° during the day, and not 
much lower at night.— Investigator, Lilburn Tower. 
