198 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Among all that I have met with, I do not think I have seen 
one lot in five true to the kind; and among these (I suppose 
from degeneration), many have been deficient in one impor¬ 
tant point—size. From this, I judge that many others have 
been equally unlucky with myself, and it is this belief which 
has led to my present remarks. 
I cannot help feeling astonished when I hear persons 
speak of crossing this magnificent breed of fowls with the 
Dorking, or some other kind, and am at a loss to under¬ 
stand why such an excellent sort should be interfered with. 
I suppose this singular fancy for cross-breeds may, to a 
great degree, account for the number of indifferent and half- 
bred birds often sold for the true kind, and for the extreme 
difficulty which is always found in getting them fine and 
pure. The most common of these cross breeds is the result 
of a mixture of the Cochin-China with the Dorking sort, 
which are fine, plump, weighty birds, but very inferior to 
the Cochin-China in most respects, and I have never met 
with one which has inherited the quality of good laying from 
the Cochin-China parent. They may be detected, generally, 
by the fifth toe; and I think invariably by the length and 
bearing of the tail, as -well as by the size of the wing. 
From the appearance of birds frequently purchased in the 
markets, and other places, a cross with the game fowl seems 
also to have been much resorted to of late. These make very 
indifferent birds, being deficient in size, as well as in other 
marks of the Cochin-China breed. "With the Spanish they 
are said to form good birds for the table, but of these I 
cannot speak from my own knowledge, as I never had any. 
These fowls, when pure , are so excellent in every good 
quality, that I think they need only to be known experi¬ 
mentally to find a place in every poultry yard, where a few 
guineas present outlay can be compassed without great 
inconvenience. "When of the true sort they are most abun¬ 
dant layers, early and 'good sitters and mothers, and lay 
again within a few weeks after producing chickens; they 
are the tamest, most tractable fowls I know, and are easily 
confined to the place intended for their use ; a thing which 
is often found very difficult with the lighter and larger- 
winged sorts. For the table they make large, excellent 
birds, rather resembling the pheasant in flavour; but I 
believe few persons have, at present, the heart to put many 
to this use. Should nothing happen to prevent it, I will 
next month furnish our readers with such a minute de¬ 
scription of their appearance, as may, I hope, prove a useful 
guide to many, and save them from the numerous disap¬ 
pointments through which I have struggled to success. 
Anstf.r Bonn. 
HISTORY OF AN APIARY. 
Those of your readers who have followed the narrative 
of my last summer’s bee-experiments, in respect to artificial 
swarming, will, I doubt not, have begun to weary, and ask 
for their result. This I purpose giving in this paper. 
The prime-swarm of May 11th, did very well on the whole, 
considering that its queen was not (so far as I could con¬ 
jecture) a young one. It weighed 32 lbs. 12 ozs. of contents 
on the 24th of July, including what might have been stored 
in two small glasses at its top and subsequently carried 
below.* "While this swarm succeeded thus well, the cast 
which was forced on the 30th, from the old hive, turned out, 
as I feared, a complete failure. It reached its highest state 
of prosperity about the end of June, but its net weight never 
exceeded !) lbs. After June it began to decline, so much so, 
indeed, that anticipating its end, I deemed it prudent, on 
the 30th of July, to break it up, after uniting its population 
to that of a strong swarm, which had been given to me on 
the 27th of June, and the weight of which did not, at the time, 
exceed 12 lbs. net, though otherwise both populous and strong. 
This united stock teas the identical one which I buried in the 
around last winter. On breaking up the cast, after the bees 
had been joined to their neighbours, I narrowly examined 
every comh, and found a good many eggs, and now and then 
* Out of this hive, which was very strong in population, a swarm (also 
artificial) was forced on the 22nd of last month (May), according to the 
process explained in Ch. vii. of the English Bee-keeper. It was hived in 
in one of my large hives, as many bees as possible being suffered to escape 
from the old hive, which, as well as the swarm, is doing well (and must 
have a young queen by this time), though the first twelve days of June, 
save the first and second, have been most unpropitious. 
[June 20. 
a little brood ; but it was evident from the condition of the 
hive, that the bees were too few to attend to the brood suffi¬ 
ciently, as there were several dead grubs found in it, and 
young bees imperfectly developed. It was manifest, there¬ 
fore, that in this, my first trial of the artificial-swarming 
system, I had mismanaged the process: the prime-swarm 
was made too early in the year (a very late season, be it 
remembered), and too many bees had been driven out of 
the old stock on the occasion of its formation. 
Of this I became, the more convinced when I learned the 
success of my friend Mr. C. in respect to his hives. His 
first fine swarm (artificial) of the 21st of May attained the 
weight of 51 lbs. of contents on the 5th of July following, in 
little more than six weeks’ time. It was then broken up 
and plundered, much too early in the season, as the bees 
might yet have added from 10 lbs. to 20 Ills, of honey to their 
stores before the close of the honey season, which did not 
terminate here till the 5th of August. Most of the bees 
were saved, and returned to the hive with some portions of 
comb, in the vain hope that they would recover themselves 
before winter, but on the 21st of September they only weighed 
Bibs, clear. By feeding, however, they have contrived to 
live out the winter, and are gradually restoring themselves; 
though at the present moment (June 9) the honey-hive 
is only half full of comh. 
On the same day that this hive was plundered, the other 
artificial swam of the 21st of May had attained a net 
weight of 30^ lbs., and it amounted to 41 lbs. when weighed 
again at Michaelmas. This hive has done magnificently 
this spring. Not only is there an immense quantity of 
honey in it, but it is in the utmost vigour, after throwing off, 
literally, a monster (natural ) swarm on the 30th of last 
month. After its issue the bees in the old hive commenced 
an instantaneous massacre of their drones, a tolerable indi¬ 
cation that they have no intention of casting. So large -was 
the swarm (which was housed in a set of Nutt’s boxes) that 
the bees commenced working in all three boxes simultaneously. 
The weather, however, is sadly against us here, scarcely a 
drop of honey having been added to the stores of the hives 
for the last fortnight. The hurricane of the 8th, moreover, 
has, I fear, ruined my chance of obtaining surplus honey 
this year; I must have lost many thousand bees, which 
the warm weather tempted out never to return on that day. 
Such are amongst the drawbacks of an exposed situation ! 
Of my friend’s two artificial casts, the one was plundered 
on the 21st of September, when its net contents (comb of 
bees) were found to weigh 15 lbs.; the other weighed 20 lbs. 
at the same time, it having been reserved as stock. This 
hive (by no means a small one, 13 inches by 11) is as full of 
bees as it can be, which are, moreover, at the time I write 
(June 13th), working diligently in three bee-glasses. It wall 
probably swarm the first fine day, of which, however, there 
seems little prospect for the present. A Country Curate. 
LONDON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S SHOW. 
CHISWICK, June 7th. 
TITCHER PLANTS. 
The grand feature of the day, both as regards novelty 
and singular beauty, was a large collection of Pitcher Plants, 
from Messrs. Veitch, of Exeter. These attracted, very de¬ 
servedly, general admiration, from the nearly ten thousand 
visitors on that day. We noted, particularly, the following ; 
several plants of most of them being present. 
Cephalotus follicuuaris, with numerous pitchers. 
Nepenthes also marginata. 
N. ampullacea, numerous clusters of pretty tiny pitchers. 
N. distillatoria, 8 ft high, well pitchered. 
N. piiyllamphora, 6 ft high, with numerous green pitchers. 
N. Rafflesiana, pitchers very large, 16 on one plant. 
N. s an guinea, large pitchers, one plant had 11 upon it. 
Sarracenia variolaris. 
S. flava, with pitchers 3 ft high. 
S. purpurea, in flower. 
S. Drummondii. 
STOVE ORCHIDS. 
These were truly fine, both as regards culture and bloom. 
There were eleven collections, and three single specimens, i 
containing one hundred and fifty-one plants. 
Acineta Barkerii ( Eollison ), three spikes. 
A. Humboldtii {Carson), nine spikes. ( ilullison ), four spikes. 
Aerides affine {Blake), two spikes. {Veitch), two spikes. 
