454 THE COTTAG 
after his wife was gone to bed,—a hit of a termagant, who 
said she could not a!ford candle for him to waste. He 
would actually sit in the dark and think, and retain a verse 
in his memory until morning, when he would scrawl it down 
as best he could, and get it re-written and corrected by 
some person whom he knew.— Nemo.” 
Mr. Beaton says,—“ A friend, to whom I lent the little 
book, was so much struck by the touching tone of some of 
the poems, with gleams of true poetic genius peeping out 
here and there, that she immediately ordered several copies 
of them. 
“ ‘ My Native Village,’ is full of natural feeling, and I was 
greatly amused with ‘Tea-table Talk;’ and felt much for 
my favourite flowers who fell under the lash of the stingy 
old Nettle and Dock-weed, who evidently did not relish the 
taste of The Cottage Gardener for certain exotic flowers, 
against which Miss Nettle and Miss Dock entertain a very 
different notion from any flower-gardener ever heard of, and 
“ They mix’d it with scandal as ladies do tea.” 
Who, for instance, would have thought any harm of putting 
Master Crocus in bed with Miss Snowdrop? but that is as 
nothing compared to the spleen against a host of popular 
flowers, whose manners and airs they ‘ hold up ’ to each 
other, in such a way as made my sides ache again, although 
the sting was meant for myself, perhaps, for encouraging 
and suggesting such things. After all, however, there is a 
good tone and feeling which runs through all these poems, 
for which I would strongly recommend all persons of good 
taste and feeling (those, of course, who read The Cottage 
Gardener) to order Withers’ Poems, published by Wertheim 
and Macintosh, Paternoster Row, price 3s. Cd., by which 
they would be doing a real kindness to a most deserving 
and very poor labouring man.—D. Beaton.” 
[We recommend our readers to buy the book ; and every 
purchaser, we are sure, will acknowledge that the half-crown 
was well spent.] 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
BEES NOT SWARMING. 
“ What can be the reason my Bees will not swarm? For 
these three years I have tried my hardest to make them, 
but they obstinately refuse. They are placed in a conve¬ 
nient bee house, made of wood, closed in front, but opening at 
the back with shutters. Early in May they became very 
crowded and clustered out every warm day until the 9th of 
J uly. I then gave them more space with glasses ; they took 
immediate possession, and worked well in them when the 
weather permitted. I have just taken some very beautiful 
honey from each. Now, has my bee-house anything to do 
with their not swarming ? 
“ I have made many interesting experiments with them, 
but in this they bother me. —E. Fairbrother.” 
[Your Bees not swarming is a result almost abovo all 
others that is most desired by amateur apiarians. Had you 
been so fortunate as to have put your glasses on in May 
instead of July, you would, in all probability, have had a most 
abundant harvest of honey. Their not swarming rests with 
the queen, and not with your bee-house. 
Having refused to swarm for three years, they will, in all 
probability, do the same next year; therefore, give supers to 
them all at the end of April or beginning of May, and 
increase your apiary by the purchase of swarms.—J. H. 1\] 
THE PINE BEETLE. 
“ A friend of mine has been exceedingly annoyed by a 
splendid plant of Finns insignis being nearly destroyed by 
the ravages of a little beetle belonging to the Scolytidac 
group. Its plan of destruction seems to be by boring a 
small hole in the young shoots, and entirely eating all the 
inside of them. I enclose one of the beetles, and also a 
little sprig of the plant, and shall feel extremely obliged if 
you can inform me, in The Cottage Gardener, any means 
of destroying this pest, as the tree will, I fear, soon be 
E GARDENER. [September 18. 
destroyed, unless some plan can be found to eralicate the 
insect.—J. F.” 
[The insect sent to us is Hylesinus piniperda, ofjwhich 
all that is known will be found in Kollar’s work on destruc¬ 
tive insects, page 303. No means have been yet discovered 
for preventing the ravages of this beetle.] 
THE MANCHESTER AND LIVERPOOL 
EXHIBITION OF DOMESTIC POULTRY. 
On Thursday, the 6th inst., and following day, the eighth 
annual meeting of this Society, of which we gave the prize 
list last week, took place at Saint Helens, Lancashire. Al¬ 
though the number of pens exhibited was not equal to those 
of last season, it was pretty generally allowed that the 
quality of the competing poultry showed very rapid progi’ess 
towards perfection ; indeed, in the Dor Hugs, Hambros, and 
Spanish, there was little to be desired that was not pretty 
generally to be found in most of the rival pens. From this 
cause alone, success in any of these classes was not by any 
means of easy attainment. The Geese and Ducks were, 
likewise, unusually good. In the Turkeys but a single pen 
was shown ; these, though very superior, both in plumage 
and general condition, were far deficient in weight to the 
prize Turkeys we are in these days accustomed to meet with. 
All the Poultry was exhibited in the pens known as 
“ Greening’s Exhibition Pen,” and sufficient shelter for any 
sudden exigence of weather was amply pro rid'd for, by the 
arrangement of the fowls under a very spacious tent. 
Happily, the two days of exhibition were all that the most 
anxious of the committee could desire,—the sun shone 
brightly at intervals, and the pleasures of the meeting were 
not marred by even a solitary shower. The attendance was 
necessarily very good; special trains from Liverpool and 
Manchester, conveying many thousands to the show field ; 
the influx of pedestrians being also unusual. During the 
first four hours (from public admission) it appears that 
upwards of four thousand visitors attended, and judging 
from appearances, the number of sight-seers on the follow¬ 
ing day did not abate. 
As on the like occasion last year, the committee secured 
the services of Mr. Edward Hewett, of Spark Brook, Bir¬ 
mingham, and Mr. William Lloyd, of Waverham, Cheshire, 
to award the premiums of the Society. The rewards of 
this Society being intended to induce attention chiefly 
to those classes that are either the highest in public 
estimation for the uses of the table, or notorious for the 
production of eggs for general market purposes, these 
varieties were the most prominent in the Exhibition, and 
very many successful pens changed ownership at high prices; 
purchasers admitting their astonishment at the general ap¬ 
pearance of the improved breeds, when compared with those 
that for a long series of years had enjoyed the unmolested 
range of their several homesteads. It was a matter of much 
congratulation among the committee to find that not a few 
pens thus disposed of had been raised entirely by cottagers. 
The sudden receipt of so unusual an amount of capital 
causing several parties so situated to give vent to their 
feelings in a manner that produced much merriment among 
the bystanders, whilst listening to the detail of incongruous 
articles they contemplated purchasing, aud which the 
exigence of their circumstances had hitherto entirely pro¬ 
hibited. By such additional means, if properly expended, 
there is not a doubt that some of these individuals will be 
permanently benefited; nor can it be denied that poultry, 
when kept in small numbers, are infinitely less susceptible 
of ailment (of all kinds), than when confined within the 
costly though less suitable accommodation of many of our 
leading amateurs. 
In the pages of this Journal, we have frequently directed 
the attention of owners to the thoroughly bad policy of per¬ 
mitting fowls to eat large quantities of dry corn when on 
the eve of excitement produced by a long journey. At 
St. Helens, on Thursday, were to be seen several pens of 
really first-rate poultry, evidently suffering the most extreme 
