372 THE COTTAGE GAKDE^ER. August 11. 
suppose you had crossed Dobsonii with the pollen of Basilisk, by the best 
i camel-hair brush that ever was made, that brush was no better than a 
fox’s brush for the rest of the season, or rather for the rest of your life¬ 
time, unless you kept it in boiling water, or in spirits of wine for a certain 
time, to kill all the pollen of Basilisk that stuck to it, before you could 
calculate on the next cross. All pistils do not become glutinous when 
ready for the pollen ; in the Rhododendron and White Lily, very much 
so ; in the Geranium, never. If you look at a Geranium flower just 
opening, you will see the pistil all in one ; a few r hours after that it begins 
to divide at the point, into five divisions, and, finally, each division rolls 
back, so as nearly to embrace the style ; in that state it is fit to receive 
the pollen for one, two, or three days, according to the state of the 
weather. When the pollen parent is scarce, take only one stamen, and 
dust all over the fine turned parts their whole length, and the work is 
finished. When we have plenty of flowers, we pull one off for the pollen, 
I cut away the petals, and apply all the anthers at once. Thus about eight 
or ten flowers can be crossed in one minute. 
Roses ( Verax:). —We can suggest no remedy for the want of colours 
in your Tea and Noisette Roses, which, we think, is caused by so much 
wet and want of sun. Your Cloth of Gold, 25 feet high, with trusses of. 
18 and 20 flowers each, is just as it should be. We murder half our 
Roses by too much cutting. Can you not turn it right or left, or back on 
itself, horizontally, rather than cut it at 25 feet, which is not a quarter of 
the space it will fill, and ought to fill now that you have allowed it so 
much strength ? Jaun Desprcz tree rose—if you mean a standard, it 
ought to be pruned in the spring, like a hybrid China; that is, the oldest 
wood should be thinned out, very weak branches cut away altogether, 
and the rest left at full length, or merely taking off a few points to regu¬ 
late the shape- It is during the summer that such roses ought to be 
pruned, by stopping them ocecasionally. The best time to prune the 
Persian Yelloiv is just at the moment it has done flowering, and at no 
other time ; the same as with Rhododendrons and Azaleas, then you can 
cut it when you like, so as to keep it to any shape you please. 
Holly Hedges (Ibid). —It is not at all good practice to plant hedges 
of Holly with plants five or six inches high, unless in dressed ground, 
where no mud is allowed; but now is a very good time to plant them, 
and so on to the end of September. 
Bees (Rusticus, A. B.). —“About the middle of June a strong hive 
swarmed, and was hived in my absence, and after two or three hours 
appeared to return to the hive. The next day we observed about fifty or 
sixty bees all day long clustering on the grass near where the swarm had 
alighted. On examining the spot, I found what I believe was a dead 
queen bee—the hive to which the bees were supposed to return was as 
full of bees as before. Is it likely that the queen bee was killed by acci¬ 
dent, and that the bees, in consequence, returned to the hive? I put a 
cap, or ‘ super,’ on the original hive, with some guide-comb, and the 
bees worked into it well. In about a fortnight the same hive swarmed 
again, and the swarm settled in two clusters, one much larger than the 
other. The larger one I hived in a new hive, and the other into a hive 
full of old comb, and both settled very well till evening, when the l ees 
left the hive full of comb, and joined the other, which continued to settle 
and work very well. What was the cause of their settling at first in two 
sets? Was there a queen to each? If so, why should the bees deBert 
the hive full of comb, and join the other ? A few days after, when 
staying with a friend, a hive of his swarmed at two o’clock, which I 
hived, with some trouble, from a lofty branch, and I left them well 
settled: it was a very large swarm. After they had been hived about 
twenty minutes, a neighouring hive swarmed, and settled down on the 
chair on which I had set the first swarm. I swept the main body into 
another hive, and set this hive close by the other, that the bees might 
ascend, which they did in great numbers. I then set the first hive on 
the ground, but in an hour or two I found that the bees were gradually 
leaving the second hive, and drawing into the first, which was quite full, 
though it was a very large hive. At night, the bees all drew up into the 
hive ; but for several days after, even though we put an ‘ eke’ under the 
hive, the bees clustered very thickly on the outside, and all round the 
base of the hive. The weather was cloudy, but close and warm. There 
was no fighting of the bees, and no dead bees about. What became of 
the two queens ? Was one killed ? Each swarm was very large ; but in 
July, I thought it a happy junction. When I came away, the bees were 
still clustering outside, though there was much rain, and the weather 
was much cooler. Another hive of mine, on which I put a cap, worked 
up well into the cap, but swarmed in a week or ten days after.” The 
queen, in all probability, was old, and not able to fly, and died from 
cold. It was the cast that came out in a fortnight, and with a young 
queen; it is very usual for two, or even more, queens to go out with a 
cast. Their leaving the hive with comb might arise from its having had 
| bees die in it, or from moths. It is very common for two swarms to join 
when coming out the same day ; it is, therefore, advisable always to 
remove a swarm from the place in which it alighted within five minutes 
after its being hived. The bees clustered outside the hive from want of 
room. One of the queens was killed.—J. H. P. 
Sparrows (A Subscriber), —We never advise poison for destroying 
either these or other animals. The small spring steel trap, or gin, used 
for mouse-catching, if a hard crust is tied on to the fall, catches them 
readily. We had dozens destroyed thus this summer. 
Exhibiting Poultry (P.).—It is one of the usual conditions, that 
the fowls exhibited shall be the property of the party exhibiting them; 
but there is no such condition in the regulations of the Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society’s Show at Gloucester, consequently, Mr. HI. shewing, in 
I his own name, fowls belonging to Mr. A., committed no offence. 
Diseased Grapes (G. J/- x ).—The Grapes were destroyed by 
the white Mildew ( Oidium Tuckeri ) which hasjbeen, and is, ravaging the 
vineyards ot Europe, as well as the vines in our greenhouses and stoves. 
1 he only remedy is flowers ot sulphur. We know a greenhouse 
severely attacked, but the Grapes are saved by holding under each 
bunch a plate of the sulphur flowers, dipping the fingers and thumb j 
into the sulphur, and rubbing between them each berry. 
Diseased Mignonette. — Mr. H. Hew, Gardener to the Earl of 
Caledon, writes to us as follows :—“ The first year that the potato disease 
made its appearance in this country (the North of Ireland) I lost, in the 
month of June, nearly all my Mignonette; the potato disease appearing 
in the middle of July, with a disease so rapid in its effects, that plants in 
robust health were destroyed in 24 hours. I enclose a plant affected with 
the disease. My attention was particularly directed to it this season. I 
first observed the Mignonette attacked on the 20th of June, and on the 
24th of July, the Potato leaves in the garden were affected with the black 
spot on the upper surface, and the white mildew underneath, which, I am 
sorry to say, is quite general through the Potato fields in this neighbour¬ 
hood. Should it prove general, it might be of some service having such 
a warning ; as it would enable many a one to plant Cabbages, or other 
vegetables, between their Potatoes, who might not have the opportunity 
to do so in July. Should you detect any disease, and know a remedy, 
you would greatly oblige by inserting the same in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener.” —Mignonette is very liable to gangreened roots ; but the disease 
has no similarity to the Potato Murrain, beyond the fact, that both the 
diseases are most frequent aud most severe in seasons when excessive wet 
occurs during the hottest season of the year. Therefore, so far, when 
one is prevalent, the other may be anticipated. The decay of the root of 
Mignonette, however, will occur even in the driest season. In soil con¬ 
taining limy rubbish we do not think we ever knew it to occur. 
Diseased Hamburgh Cock (VF. L. T.). —The swollen comb, and 
eyes blinded with rheum, are symptoms of roup. Separate him entirely 
from your other fowls. Wash his head and eyes, once or twice daily 
with milk and water, and give him every morning fifty drops of iodide 
of potassium. Keep him in a dry, moderately w arm situation. 
Market-gardening (S. B. B ).—We are not aware of any publica¬ 
tion on this subject. Can any of our readers furnish us with some essays 
on combining “Farming with Vegetablc-grow'ing for Covent-Garden? ” 
Succession Crop (One who is no Gardener ).—Take up your Potatoes 
at once, and plant Scotch Kale and Brocolis. In September, plant 
Cabbages for spring use. 
William Adams (C.).—The stamps are received. 
Oleander Scale (Pecclda). —Brush the Oleander* all over with a 
mixture of soft-soap, 2 lbs. ; flowers of sulphur, 2 lbs. ; tobacco, lib.; 
and a wine-glass of spirit of turpentine. Mix the turpentine, soap, and 
sulphur, into a paste, with warm water ; boil the tobacco for an hour in 
more water, in a covered saucepan ; strain ; mix with the soapy mixture, 
and add water enough to make five gallons. Do not cut down the plants. 
Bees (Ibid). — “Having a Hive (full of Bees, &c.) which requires 
something done to it, I wish to drive them into another, according to the 
directions given in The Cottage Gardener by a “ Country Curate.” 
Should I do so immediately, or as soon as the drones have been killed, 
or wait until quite the autumn ; and should I put any of the comb into 
the fresh hive with them ? I intend, also, persuading some of my poor 
neighbours to let me have their bees out of the hives which they are 
going to plunder. If I put two or three lots of them into a hive together, 
w'ill they live through the winter without having any comb in the hive, 
but merely with my feeding them as described in The Cottage 
Gardener, volume 6, page 311; and should this be given in a liquid 
state, and at the top or bottom, and ail at once ; or would Barley-sugar 
be equally good for them ?” Drive your Bees as soon as the drones are 
killed. Put none of the combs into the fresh hive ; you cannot secure 
them firmly. Feed them liberally, and they will make combs very 
quickly ; give the food in a liquid state, and at the top of the hive ; give 
two or three pounds at a time, according to the size of your feeder. For 
making the syrup, see Cottage Gardener, volume 6, page 311. 
Barley-sugar would not do for this purpose; the stock must be made to 
weigh 20 lbs. at least.—J. H. P. 
Rabbits (G. Everton ).—A dog having the range of your garden might 
keep them away; but the best remedy is to exclude them by running 
wire netting round within your fence. 
Poultry Queries (F. J. B., Devon ).—Mr. Bailey’s Fountain is as 
good as any, but dear; the smallest, we think, 8s. (id. The cheapest 
and simplest contrivance for water is given at p. 135 of “ The Poultry ' 
Book.” The best Poultry Mark is to file a notch or notches on the 
beak. Your previous letter was not received. Are you sure it was sent ? 
Names of Plants (IF. X. W.). —Your Trefoil is Trifolium fragi- 
ferum. The Solanum-like plant is the “ Deadly Nightshade,” Atropa 
belladonna. (D. G. C .).— 1. Erodium Ricliardi. 2. Rumex sanguineus. 
3. Buptisia Australis. (T. M. IF.). —Agathosrna ciliata. Send the 
moth to us at Winchester. The other did not reach us. (F. G. IF.).— 
1. Some species of Habrothamnus. 5. Probably Mesembryantheinum 
]>omeridianum. We cannot tell Florists’ Flowers from mere single 
flowers and leaves. (IF. P. L.). — Liatris spicata, a very desirable, hardy, 
herbaceous plant, from North America. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somep-ville Orr, of Church Hill, Walthamstow, in the County of 
Essex, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ 
Church, City of Loudon.—August lltli, 1853. 
