October 2 . 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
13 
adopting this treatment, the population of the new swarm 
will, in a few days, be amazingly increased, because all the 
bees in the old hive (with few exceptions) will Hock to it, 
as many, at least, as have been abroad will, on their return 
home from their first expedition into the fields, after the 
issue of the swarm, naturally fly to their old and well-known 
locality. Thus a double advantage will bo the result; first , 
as is reasonable to expect from the increased population, 
there will be a larger quantity of honey collected than 
usual, and, secondly, the issue of second swarms or casts 
(which, in this country, are of little value,*) will, in most 
cases, be prevented. 
When the season of plunder arrives, instead of taking up 
the casts and old hives , as is the present custom, 1 advise 
that the prime-swarms become the spoil of the bee-master, 
i.e, as soon as he has brought his apiary to its full com¬ 
plement of hives. They are those swarms, be it observed, 
which contain the purest honey, and they are always the 
heaviest. At the same time, the old stocks will (if no second 
swarm issue from them) become very heavy during the 
summer, and be in magnificent order against the winter; 
moreover, I may repeat, they will, if they have thrown a 
swarm at all, of necessity have young queens. The bees of 
the plundered swarms may be saved with advantage, and 
united to the stock from which they issued originally, or to 
any other neighbouring hive, after getting rid of tlieir queens. 
This, in a few words, is the system of managing bees, 
which from experience, as well as persuasion, of its value, 
both in respect to simplicity and profit, I heartily recommend 
to the notice of your readers. It has been said of it that it 
introduces a complete revolution in the management of bees 
as at present conducted. This may be true, but its novelty 
is no objection to it, unless it prove itself unsuited to general 
practice, which I am confident will not be the case. 
In my next paper I shall unfold the experience which, I 
think, has fairly justified the high opinion I entertain of this 
new plan of treating bees, which originally suggested itself 
to me as a mere conception of the mind. 
A Country Curate. 
* Our cottagers, at present, generally consider themselves fortunate, 
and their apiary prosperous, if it have produced many swarms in a 
season; this, too, is a mistake. It is to be hoped that in future weight, 
not number, of hives will be the acknowledged testimony of success, and 
that our cottagers will be pointed out as model bee-keepers, in propor¬ 
tion as they have many prime-swarms and few casts to exhibit in their 
gardens. Occasionally, it is true, when swarming takes place early, and 
casts are forward and large, an apiary may ,figure high both in number 
and weight, but this is the exception, not the rule, as every bee-keeper 
knows full well. In general, either the cast is of little value, or the old 
stock has become weakened overmuch by a too great drain of its popula¬ 
tion. This is especially the case where more than two swarms issue from 
the same hive. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Hahkotiiamnus elecans (Rev. J. 11 .).—It is not worth a groat the 
dozen, but if you like it, you may have it in bloom four or five months iu 
the year. Ours has been in bloom since last March, little dreaming that 
it is destined to the faggot-pile by and by. If yours is against a wall 
train the shoots at full length, and stop all the side-shoots when they are 
three inches long. If it makes strong shoots from the bottom, or from 
any part of the trained ones, rub them out altogether, and next summer 
it will flower all the season. Fuchsia spectabilis has disappointed hun¬ 
dreds, and we cannot just yet say the way to get it into good condition. 
The best we have -lias been in the open border all the summer, and it is 
just potted and brought into the greenhouse. We cannot answer letters 
by post, nor is it desirable, for questions suggest ideas useful to thou¬ 
sands ; and as an instance, few would buy Habrotharnnus elegans after 
the above answer. 
Forest Trees and Shrubs for Chalky Soil (An Early Sub¬ 
scriber). — Birch, Beech, Spruce Fir, Spanish Chestnut, Scotch Fir, 
Larch, Elm, do very well with us on steep calcareous banks. The 
different Thorns arc our best flowering trees on that kind of soil. Lilac 
. docs very well, and so does the Guelder rose, Deutzias, Philadelphus of 
sorts; also Spirceus, Laburnum, Double-flowering Cherry, and the 
different Cotoneasters. Furze, or Gorse, is quite a chalk plant, and the 
Broom tolerably so, as are the common Clematis, or Traveller’s joy, and 
the Cotoneaster microphylla. After these plant any common things, they 
sell cheap in the nurseries. All the Laurels and Laurestinas, with the 
evergreen and Asiatic Berberries, do remarkably well on such soil. 
Insects on Bulbs (Barnabas ).—The insects which are in great 
! numbers in your soil are a species of Julus, or Snake Millepede. It is 
doubtful whether they attack either the bulbs or roots of plants until 
decayed by previous disease. However, if you open the soil where they 
are, and mix it with fresh slacked quicklime, you will destroy them. 
Cattlkya Mossi/E diseased (Ibid ).—The brown-blotched leaf of 
the Cattleya enclosed is suffering from canker, caused through too 
much water being allowed to rest upon the leaves, at some time within 
1 the last two months. The best remedy is to shake every particle of mould 
j from it, and fasten it on a clean block. This will cause the plant to 
push out vigorously, make new shoots, and throw off the disease in a 
very short time. 
Geraniums for Beds under Shade (A Subscriber). —The Pink 
Ivy-leaved, if it will suit the rest iu your parterre, is the best thing we 
know of to look well under the shade of trees. Dandy is the next best 
Geranium for its leaf; Grossulariaifolia the third best. But better than 
all, the Golden Chain, which would be at home in the shade, and yet it 
stands the fiercest rays of the sun. 
Lilium excelsum (A Subscriber). —We do not know your plant by 
that name; from your account we think it is a hardy one, and the little 
bulbs on the stems maybe taken off now and planted round the side of a 
pot, in sandy loam. As soon as the bottom leaves turn yellow, withhold 
water, and let it go to rest in the winter, and next April plant them all 
out-of-doors, and you will probably see flowers, and learn more about it. 
Fancy Dahlias (Rusticus). —They arc liable to run to seifs, or one 
colour, in hot wet summers, and when planted on rich, strong, or well- 
manured land ; but the self-colour is not permanent. It is best, however, 
not to plant the old roots, but to force them in the spring, and get up a 
stock from cuttings. Mr. Barnes, of Stowmarket, showed us his system, 
by which he keeps all Dahlias down to three feet, or thereabouts, and we 
can assure you there is not a better Dahlia grower in England. He 
plants them very wide apart—five feet, and more in some cases—every 
plant is a perfect specimen all round; the knife never touches them. 
With the finger and thumb he begins to disbud them as soon as the first 
side-shoots come out; he never allows but one eye to a joint; the 
opposite eye is rubbed out all over the plant, and sometimes the two 
eyes are rubbed off, where the shoots grow close, but that is seldom the 
case with him ; all weak flower-buds he destroys as soon as he sees 
them. 
Box-Edgings (Julius). —What is said usually about March being the 
best time to plant box-edgings, is only founded on the customary practice 
of dressing gardens in the spring. October is a better time, and Novem¬ 
ber is even better than March, for planting dwarf box, only it is not 
fashionable to do so. But box-edgings may safely be planted any month 
or week in the whole year. We planted many yards of it at the end of 
last June, and without any roots, and not a sprig failed, although the 
edging is but four feet from the bottom of a west wall, in a high and dry 
situations. 
Blue Larkspur (Thornycroft). —The best blue one we have seen for 
many a day, and were it not for the light eye in the centre, it is all we 
want; pray save seeds from it, and by picking out the best blues from 
the seedlings, for another season or two, you will establish the old variety. 
Many thanks for the trouble you took. 
Bees—Keeping Honey in the Comb (Twickenham). — Our cor¬ 
respondent says—“ I made two doubling boards, and placed two stocks of 
bees thereon ; in May I gave them the two extra hives, whichll find now 
were much too large; I removed them to-day, and found about 18 lbs. 
of honey and comb in'.each hive, no pollen or brood, some of the combs 
filled on one side only, some unsealed, and some empty. I am thinking 
of pasting paper on the bottom and sides of the hives, and letting the 
bees have them again next February, as I do not like to destroy the 
comb, and the stocks have now sufficient food for the winter. I wish to 
know if the honey will keep good under these circumstances ? ” Yes ; 
the honey will keep remarkably well in the way you propose. Keep the 
hives in a dry place, and in the same position they stood while filling : the 
combs will be of great use to the bees next year. 
Bees-Bee-glasses (Vicarius). — Payne’s improved Bee-glasses, 
which are open at the top, are not intended to be the first glasses put 
upon a stock-hive, but when a small bell-glass has been put on and 
partially filled, then an open glass is to be put between it and the 
parent hive. 
Raspberries and Strwberries (B. B.). —Sec what Mr. Erriugton 
says to-day. 
Box, or Barrel Churn. —More than one correspondent (J. K., A 
Beginner) having written to us for our opinion as to the best churn for a 
small dairy, we should be glad to know the experience of some of our 
readers, and shall be much obliged by their writing to us on the subject. 
We wish to compare their experience with our own. 
Guano (W. II.). —This is one of the most powerful of manures, and 
will be beneficial on any soil if properly applied. It is not, as you seem 
to think, to be applied indiscriminately over your “fruit and vegetable 
garden of four acres,” but should be given to each crop as it is inserted, 
and that in a very diluted state. Our own experience fully confirms the 
following experiments:—Mr. Maund applied it to strawberries once a 
week in a liquid state (four ounces to a gallon), it made them very 
vigorous and productive; but sprinkled upon some young seedlings of 
the same fruit it killed them. Two ounces per yard (5cvvt. per acre) 
were sprinkled over onions, and they doubled the untreated in size. 
Potatoes manured with one ounce and a half per yard, were rendered 
much more luxuriant than others having no guano. Brussels sprouts 
were half-destroyed by being planted iu immediate contact with nine 
parts earth and one part guano. Geraniums were greatly injured by 
liquid manure of guano (four ounces per gallon), but plants, of various 
sorts, in pots, watered only with guano water, half-an-ounce to a gallon, 
have flourished astonishingly; none have failed. Mr. liendle and other 
persons record, as the result of dearly purchased experience, that where 
Guano has failed to be beneficial, or has been injurious, it has been 
applied in quantities too powerful for the plants to bear. In a liquid 
state, half-an-ounce per gallon, and given to growing plants once a week, 
it never fails to be productive of vigour. 
Roses for Trellis (A. B. C.).—' The six best for your verandah arc 
Felicite perpetuelle, creamy white ; Laura Duvoust, pale pink; Gracilis, 
pink; Inermis, red; Myrianthes, blush; and Princess Louise, blush- 
white. 
Asparagus Beds (T. P.), —There is no possible mode of culture 
whereby you can make plants of Asparagus, three or four years old, 
planted now, bear next season. The proper time for planting is April, 
just as they commence growth. We have known such plants cut from in 
the summer of the following year, but the heads were small, and there 
had been, from the time of planting, and during all the periods of growth, 
an unlimited supply of liquid manure. Potatoes, plant at the end of 
October, and grow none but early-ripening sorts, such as Forty-folds, 
Oxonians, Ash-leaved Kidneys, and Rylott’s Flour-balls. 
