200 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[June 27. 
who somewhere very justly observes, that “ no one who pays 
a fair amount of attention to the management of these very 
interesting insects, will willingly relinquish the keeping of 
! them." Due attention, and a fair degree of intelligence and per¬ 
severance, is sure to succeed. It is only indifference, neglect, 
or ignorance which finds the difficulties which have been enu¬ 
merated insurmountable; and it deserves to do so. Now, is 
any intending bee-master a reader of this paper? I would 
urge him, very strongly, not to grudge a little expense at the 
outset, but to stock his garden with, at the very least, tu-o 
strong hives— Experto crede. My own apiary was at a stand- 
| still during four entire years, because I bad only one stock 
to begin with. Had I purchased two hives instead of only one, 
: I might now have many more, and much more interest- 
I ing details to bring forward than are actually at my com¬ 
mand. By laying a good foundation to the apiary, there 
Mill be so many more chances of success, neither will the 
loss or failure of one hive cause much distress while another 
thrives ad libitum. 
I must pass over briefly the four years succeeding the year 
1814, lest I be tedious to the reader, as my note-book is 
almost barren of interest touching that period. In March, 
1845, another hive was bought from the stock of a long esta¬ 
blished bee-keeper in the place, -who always kept on hand a 
large winter stock, though destroying them according to the 
old jilan. There was much activity apparent in my new 
colony; pollen gathering went on well, and the population 
rapidly increased, so that there appeared every reasonable 
probability of strong and early swarms. Due preparation 
was made accordingly; a set of boxes, not unlike Mr. Tay¬ 
lor’s improved White’s hive, was constructed in good time, 
at considerable expense, and other hives of straw were in 
readiness, but April passed, May and June slipped by, and 
July came, and yet no swarm, though masses of bees de¬ 
pended for weeks together from beneath the floor-board. 
Provoking and vexatious as was this disappointment, there 
was no remedy. A general break-up of our family party at 
the beginning of July, and a continental tour of three months, 
saved me, perhaps, from despairing of success. A probable 
cause of my disappointment was, doubtless, the very unfa¬ 
vourable summer of that year; for so carefully did we watch, 
that I am persuaded the swarms did not escape us. 
During my tour, I kept my bee eyes open ; but I saw no 
hives either in Belgium or Germany, as we travelled rapidly 
from place to place without seeing much of these countries, 
till we settled down in a charming retreat in the heart of the 
Black Forest. No sooner, however, did I enter Switzerland, 
than they abounded everywhere. It was not uncommon to 
see 20 or JO, or even 40, hives ranged systematically on 
shelves against the walls of the picturesque cottages. Honey, 
too, presented itself at every breakfast and tea-table; a regu¬ 
lar item in the bill of fare, as every traveller knows. I much 
regret that I did not make enquiries as to then' method of 
bee management. The fellow-countrymen of Gelica and 
Madame Yicat ought to be able to instruct a stranger ; but 
my stay was short, and my visit hurried, in that interesting 
country. A Country Curate. 
SALTPETRE AND CUBIC-PETRE AS MANURES. 
I have not observed that any one of your coadjutors or 
correspondents has recommended the use of a manure which, 
| in this part of the country, and, I believe, in many other 
districts, is used extensively and beneficially in agriculture, 
especially upon those soils which are commonly called “ hot 
soils I mean saltpetre (nitrate of potash), or another 
salt, which seems to be equally efficacious, and which is much 
cheaper, namely cubic-petre (nitrate of soda). I am not a 
farmer, but I can from experience bear witness to the good 
effect which either of these salts produces upon many 
garden crops. 
The soil of my garden is rather gravelly, and therefore 
rather hot, but not very poor; the adjoining land, which is of 
! the same quality, produces, when fairly cultivated, about 
[ three quarters and a half of wheat per acre, and usually 
about five quarters of barley, and good crops both of clover 
and turnips. Some of my garden crops are also very good, 
especially peas, beans, French beans, both dwarf and runners, 
carrots, parsnips, and spinach, brocoli, &c.; cauliflower, and 
other plants of the cabbage tribe, are good, but do not grow very 
large, especially in a dry season. Potatoes, before they were 
infected by the mysterious disease which has attacked them 
for the last five or six years, were in general of a good 
quality, and by no means deficient in quantity; and the early 
varieties are still pretty good. Endive grows to a very large 
size, though in order to check its luxuriance I use no 
manure for that crop; many of the plants are, I think, not 
much less than eighteen inches, or perhaps two feet, in 
diameter. But to some crops the soil of my garden is not 
favourable ; strawberries, especially, do not grow luxuriantly, 
and produce but little fruit; other plants run to seed pre¬ 
maturely, for instance, lettuces and celery. Now, either salt¬ 
petre or nitrate of soda appear to mitigate, if not entirely to 
correct, this defect. They seem to promote the growth of the 
leaves of plants, and to check the growth of the flower-stems. 
They may, in my opinion, be applied with advantage, at least 
on hot soils, perhaps upon all soils, to crops of lettuce, 
celery, spinach, brocoli, cauliflower, and other crops of the 
cabbage tribe, and I think to any other plants which do not 
grow so luxuriantly as they should do. Above all, either of 
these salts seems to be most beneficial to onions. And I will 
add, that till I used saltpetre, my radishes were hardly fit to 
eat,—they were tough and hot; but since I have used it they 
have been mild and brittle, or (to use a common expression), 
they have “ eaten short.” I cannot say that I have been 
altogether able to overcome the propensity which lettuce and 
celery have, on my soil, to run to seed; but, perhaps, this 
evil might be removed by a more liberal use of the salt. I 
believe I might safely use it more freely than I have done 
hitherto. I understand that the farmers use a hundred¬ 
weight upon an acre, and I believe they apply that quantity 
twice in the season. I also usually give my crops two doses, 
each of half an ounce to a square yard. I administer the 
first dose when the plants, either springing from seed or 
after being transplanted, have begun to grow rather rapidly : 
for instance, in the case of radishes, when they have formed 
two or three rough leaves. That the salt may be scattered 
evenly over the beds, I mix it with a good quantity of sand 
or very dry mould. 
I saw in one of your late numbers that one of your corres¬ 
pondents wishes to obtain the seeds of Melilotus leucantha; 
if that is the plant commonly known by the name of Boclcliara 
clover, as I suppose it is, I shall perhaps be able to supply 
him with a few seeds, as I have two or three plants. If he 
wants it for agricultural purposes, I fear it will not be of 
much use to him. It has been tried in this neighbourhood, 
and has not been found to answer. If it is suffered to 
blossom, the stalks are as hard as sticks; and even when 
it is cut before the flower-stalk begins to grow the cattle do 
not like it; I believe some absolutely reject it.—R ev. Edward 
Simons, Ovington, Watton, Norfolk. 
HEATING BY FLUES. 
Having, atpp. 282 and 313, ofvol. 3, explained my views 
regarding the heating of plant and other houses by hot- 
water pipes, I now take up that much despised yet ever 
useful smoke flue, the merits of which are too often for¬ 
gotten when we listen to the appeal of the advocates of 
hot water, independent of the still more recent yet nearly 
defunct Polmaise system; so that, while we have every 
novelty which ingenuity can devise in the way of attract¬ 
ing attention to the two latter plans, the poor old flue 
scarce finds a friend. If we go into an old structure and 
admire the productions there displayed, and inquire 
how the house is heated, we are told it is only a flue ; 
an emphasis resting on the word “only;” as if the 
merits of the various good things there seen so early, 
was due to other causes, or rather in spite of the means 
employed. Now how does this happen? Is heat abstracted 
from a substance of hard-baked clay, as flue-covers gene¬ 
rally are, less genial to vegetation than that arising from 
cast iron, presuming the amount in both cases to be 
alike ? I confess I cannot see in what way the mild 
moist heat we are told hot-water pipes afford, can differ 
from the heat that would be dissipated were those pipes 
filled with hot smoke instead of hot water—the close air- 
