THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
246 
size of your pig), and give him those whole, instead of 
barley-meal; you will find that you are able to fat him for 
much less than you could do, if he had been fed according 
to the usual plan ; and the flesh will be as good, if not 
better. If you know any farmer who grows oats, they will 
generally let you have them, on the promise of being paid 
when your pig is killed. Do not try and sell your pig till 
it is killed, you can, generally speaking, get more for it cut 
up, than when it is alive ; besides, you get a couple or three 
days’ dinner from the inside. Directly you have sold it, pay 
i for your oats, and then put the remainder of yottr money 
into a drawer, making a promise to yourself not to touch it 
till your landlord calls. 
Bees, in a good season,' are very profitable, and as they 
cost a mere nothing to keep, every cottager should own 
some hives. Having eased your minds of the burden of the 
rent, I will tell you how to get a new gown for Christmas ! 
You all know how easy it is to give a penny a-week, but how 
hard it is to keep it; therefore, belong to a clothing club,— 
pay in regularly from a Id to 2d a-week, and, at the end of 
the year you will receive your own 4s 4d, besides the addi¬ 
tional money which the charitably-disposed people about 
you may add. If any of my readers live in or near towns, 
many charities are open to them by the payment of a Id 
, per week. In the country there are fewer ; but there are few 
districts, I suspect, where the cottager could not belong to 
a club of some sort, or a Provident Society. This latter 
charity is a most admirable one : by the payment of a small 
weekly sum you are enabled, when ill, and unable to work, 
to support your family without applying to the parish, 
which, I know, goes to the heart of many a poor man to be 
obliged to do; and yet, unless you belong to a society of this 
sort, how can you help yourself when ill ? Before joining 
any club examine the rules well, and see who has the ma¬ 
nagement of it, for sometimes clubs are established con¬ 
taining rules which oblige a man to spend money in the 
public-house, and are otherwise improperly conducted. 
There is one other way of laying out your money, which, 
although it does not bring you in money in return, yet pays 
you ample, aye, more interest, than all the other places I 
have mentioned,—I mean pennies expended in schooling. 
Our children are lent to us by the Lord for a little season, 
and it is in youth that lasting impressions are made. In a 
short tine, we shall have to render up our account, and if we 
have neglected our children, what excuse shall we have to 
offer ? In all our English schools children are taught the 
value of their souls. This consideration alone should make 
you only too glad to send them; but when, added to this, you 
know that they are taught to read, write, and work, and are 
forming habits of industry and neatness, does it not seem 
madness to neglect the opportunity. Think, when laid upon 
a sick bed, perhaps for weeks together, what a comfort it will 
be to them, to be able to pass away pleasantly a few hours by 
reading; think how much more comfortably they will get on 
in after life, by having in youth learnt habits of order and 
study. God has given us His Holy Word, and is it not 
shameful for us not to insist on our children’s learning to 
read it ? A child can scarcely be too young to go to school. 
If an infant school is in your parish, directly your child can 
walk it ought to be sent there. Depend upon it, it is hap¬ 
pier there than it would be at home, left to itself, whilst 
the mother is attending to her duties. When your children 
are obliged to leave school, in order to earn their bread, 
make them attend regularly their Sunday school. A bless¬ 
ing will attend these means of bringing your little ones to 
Christ; but, remember, that our children ought to be like 
Samuel,—“ Children of many prayers.” A Friend. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Bees (H . T .).—Your plan is perfectly practicable. As to the swarm 
which so mysteriously disappeared, the wherefore is not difficult to divine. 
No doubt the queen was not hived with the swarm; either she did not 
issue from the hive at all, or she returned thither at the moment the 
swarm was hived, or she escaped somewhere else, and the bees not being 
cognisant of her absence in the confusion, but discovering it afterwards, 
left their new hive one by one, and returned home. One of these reasons 
will surely explain the mystery, unless, indeed, the swarm was not care¬ 
fully “ watched till 5 p.m.,” andso escaped in a body to some previously 
explored locality. If either of these conjectures is right, you will pro¬ 
bably by this time have had the swarm you drove out of the same hive, 
with, perhaps, the double advantage of its being a larger one, and having 
a young queen —and these united advantages are a grand secret in success- 
[JULY 17. 1 
! 
ful bee-keeping. If, however, from circumstances you have to carry out 
your proposal, of uniting your hives, do it as follows :—Hive cast No. 1 | 
from the old hive, as intended in the new hive. As soon as a cast from 
No. 2 , issues (and should it not issue, it were better, if a permanent \ 
stock is wanted, to purchase another, and to add to it, as soon as pos¬ 
sible), hive it temporarily, and let it stand till dark. Now lift No. 1 
gently off its stand, and set it on the ground in an open space at hand, I 
taking care to elevate it on sticks or stones about an inch from the ground 
on every side. This done, after a short interval of time (say half an hour) 
bring No. 2 gently to the spot, and with a smart blow dash the bees out 
of it, close to No. 1 . Where there are two assistants, this operation might 
be better reversed, i.e., after duly arranging the stocks on which No. 1 is 
to rest, let one person dash out the bees from No. 2 , on the space of 
ground between them, while the other instantly, but gently, sets No. 1 
over them. All jars must be avoided, if there is to be no fighting, but 
this will not be. The bees of No. 2 thus rudely handled, will march with 
alacrity to their new hive ; the queens will settle their difference during 
the night, and the swarms be peaceably domiciliated together long before 
morning, especially if the night has been cool. Nothing then remains to 
be done, save to restore No. 1 to its stand as early in the morning as 
possible—say about 4 or 5 o’clock. This plan is perfectly safe and easy. 
No lights should be used. For the treatment of the old hive, will not the 
following suggestion be found a good one ? A fortnight after the issue of 
the prime swarm, or a little later, it will generally be found that most of 
the brood left by the old queen, has been hatched out, while few, if any, 
eggs will have been laid by the new one. Let the bees then be all forced 
out, either by driving or fumigation, and the swarm thus made be joined 
to the hive which stands nearest to it. It is of little advantage to join it 
to any other hive (and, therefore, to No. 1 , if it stand at a distance), as 
many bees will lose themselves in their certain return to their old quarters, 
and, attempting to enter the neighbouring stocks, will pay for their in¬ 
vasion with their lives ; and this will entail the sacrifice of as many bees 
of the invaded stocks. If much brood still remains in the old hive, it may 
be treated in the manner explained in The English Bee-Keeper (Riving- 
ton’s), page 102 . Should the old hive not cast, all the bees might be 
driven out at the end of three weeks, and put into the new hive, as a new 
swarm, but they must be fed liberally later in the season, if it is resolved 
to keep them as a permanent stock. {A Country Curate.) 
Cumbers {Julius). —All the climbers you name are hardy enough for 
the wall, except the common Passion-flower, which will require some 
little protection for a few years. The reason why you do not find out the 
names in the dictionary is that you have been taught to spell them 
wrong. There never was such a name as Amelopsis; look for Ampelopsis, 
and if you do not find out all you want to know about it let us hear from 
you again. 
Morphology {Ibid). —Your cauliflower exhibits a strong case of 
morphology, such as we have never seen. 
Changing Pits into Greenhouses (IF.).—Your case has met with 
attention. See Mr. Fish’s paper to-day. If not definite enough, write 
again. 
Shelves of Greenhouses {William K.). —In such circumstances 
have them level. See Mr. Fish’s paper. 
Cape Shrubs (0. Y.).—Those named, or most of them, will be killed 
in winter, The subject will receive further attention. 
Warts {Constant Reader, London). —Touch them with nitric acid. 
Their tops will become yellow, and, in a day or two, dry ; scratch off 
this stained portion, and touch them again with the acid, repeating the 
process until the warts are removed. 
Mossy Walks {Ibid). —Sow salt over them thickly, then water them, 
and when quite dry frequently sweep them with a ling or heath broom. 
Netting {Georgius). —We know of no book teaching how to make 
garden nets, but almost any village housewife could teach the boy to net, 
and you can have them netted to any width and length you require. If 
employment for the boy is not a paramount object, you had better buy 
the netting. 
Training Out-door Vines (Manette). —If what Mr. Errington says 
at page 225 does not give you sufficient information, please to put a defi¬ 
nite question ; but do not ask us to write an essay on Wall Vine-culture. 
Mills for Crushing Corn, — W. N. W. begs to inform Incubator 
that the mills mentioned in The Cottage Gardener for May 23 may 
be obtained of Barnes and Co., Fenchurch-street, London ; Deane, Dray, 
and Deane, King William-street, London Bridge ; or of any respectable 
outfitting ironmonger for emigrants. The price is from three or four 
shillings and upwards. 
Bees. — Roger of Monmouth writes to us thus;—“May 22,—Got a 
swarm of bees home ; hived this day. Description of hive—straw, flat 
wood top, three one-inch holes in it. June 14—-Fed twice before this 
date, weather being cold and wet. June 21 —Put on a small bell-glass, 
seeing them crowded, which was as soon as any appearance of the least 
crowding. June 27—Seeing glass full, and much clustering at the mouth, 
put on one of Mr. Payne’s glasses, the former one on the top of it. All 
seemed to go on very well; they worked well in both glasses, when, 
owing to the very hot weather, and their clustering so much at the mouth 
of the hive, being afraid of swarming, which I much wished to prevent, 
I on the 29 th moved the hive half-way round, and gave them a side hive, 
taking both glasses of the stock hive, and putting them on the side hive. 
However, I was obliged in about two hours after to move them back 
again, the bees being in such commotion. Then all seemed to go on 
well again, I must here remark, I ventilated both hives well. July 1 — j 
Fancied I would make the bees work the glasses on the side hive again. 
Tried them—found it would not do. Removed them back again, and 
things seemed to go in the old course. At half-past four p.m. looked at j 
the glasses. They were nearly empty. They had swarmed, and hung in 
a cluster from the bass matting in front of the house, used in shading it. 
An immense cluster it was—as much, apparently, as would fill a hat. I 
then hived it into the empty side hive, and placed it by itself in the bee- j 
house, and put the largest glass on it. The smaller I let stay on the 
stock hive, as the height between the shelves would not allow me to 
place it in its original position. Did I do right? July 2 —This day the 
