THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
279 
August I.] 
pressed out, folded up, and pressed out again, until it be 
completely mixed, and formed into a stiff and tougli dough. 
When made, it is to be formed into a lump in the middle of 
the trough, aud with a little dry flour scattered thinly over 
it, covered over again to be kept warm anti to ferment; and 
in this state, if all be done rightly, it will not have to remain 
more than fifteen or twenty minutes. The oven should be 
hot by the time the dough has remained in the lump about 
twenty minutes. When both are ready, take out the fire, 
and wipe the oven out clean ; and at nearly about the same 
moment take tho dough out upon a clean table or large 
square board ; cut it up into pieces, and mako it up into 
loaves, kneading it again in these separate parcels ; and as 
you go on, shaking a little flour over your board to prevent 
the dough adhering to it. The loaves should be put into the 
oven as quickly as possible after they are formed, upon a flat 
wooden shovel with a long handle; and when in, the oven- 
door should be fastened up quickly, and very closely ; if all 
be properly managed, loaves of about the size of quartern 
loaves will be sufficiently baked in about two hours. But 
they usually open the door and look at the bread, to see how 
it is going on.” 
These directions are so minute, and yet so clear, that it is 
scarcely possible to err in practising them. Heating the 
oven is a matter of some nicety ; but observing it done once 
or twice by an experienced hand will give the needful in¬ 
struction. Most ovens, indeed, have a particular brick built 
into the back, which turns white when the heat is sufficiently 
strong. This is a safe guide. 
Bread should not be cut until it is at least two days old ; 
and for family use it is better to keep it still longer. It 
should be kept in a dry, cool place, as damp and heat are 
equally to be avoided; and where large bakings are made, 
the place in which it stands is of some consequence. When 
loaves are first taken out of the oven they should be allowed 
to stand on their heads until they are quite cold. 
HISTORY OF AN APIARY. 
INCREASING THE NUMBER OF STOCKS. 
As I am desirous of inducing some of your readers to 
adopt a very interesting method of increasing their stock of 
bees in autumn, which I tried with perfect success last year, 
and as the season is fast approaching for the purpose, I 
shall bid farewell to the subject of my old apiary, with a very 
few words in addition to what I wrote in my last letter. 
Suffice it to say that, until last year, when I transferred it to 
the care of my youngest sister, and commenced a new apiary 
under different auspices, in a new and more favourable 
locality, I met with no sort of success as a bee-keeper. The 
same luckless hive occupied the identical position in the 
garden where it had stood for years without throwing off a 
single swarm or yielding me a single pound of honey. Its 
fate was ultimately similar to that of its predecessor; for, 
being disgusted with its unprofitableness, I drove it in the 
early part of last July, when on a visit home, and with the 
bees which I saved a good-sized swarm occupied the boxes, 
which had long waited in vain expectation of a swarm from 
it. They did very well till November, when they died in an 
unaccountable manner, probably owing to the old age of the 
queen, plenty of comb and honey being taken from the box 
on clearing it out. 
A brief summary of my success last year with my new 
apiary, as well as a short account of it, will he found at 
pp. 202 and 203 of your third volume. Among the various 
colonies wliich I purchased, or otherwise obtained, was a 
stock composed of two united swarms, or rather families, of 
bees, which I had saved from a sulphurous death. Ill as 
I had hitherto succeeded in my attempts to preserve bees on 
artificial food throughout the winter, I felt confident that the 
thing might be done, if undertaken in a right manner. I 
therefore resolved to try what a doubled colony would do. 
My theory was, that if the population of a stock, to be formed 
by artificial means, were twice as numerous as other stocks 
usually are at this season of the year (August), there would 
be a greater probability of its doing well, because not only 
Would there be plenty of workers in the hive (as well col¬ 
lectors of the furnished stores as wax-workers and nurses of 
tho young bees—for a good queen lays largely at this season), 
but, also, a large surplus of honey-gatherers would be at 
liberty to roam the fields, whose industry would not only aug¬ 
ment the vinter store, but likewise improve the quality of the 
food laid by. Whether this theory be sound or not, I suc¬ 
ceeded in preserving my bees in admirable health through 
the winter and spring, and they have become, and are still 
working with an enormous population, as my strongest and 
most profitable stock, as I shall show by-and-bye. More¬ 
over, on tasting some of this food in April last, which I 
scooped out with a teaspoon through a large, hole in tho top 
of the hive, I found it had a very agreeable flavour—very 
different from, and far superior to the original syrup with 
which I had supplied them—the taste of honey being dis¬ 
tinctly perceptible though not preponderating. Another 
advantage connected with this doubling of the population I 
had almost forgotten to mention, namely, that if it be true, 
as Huber avers, that where two queens exist hi the same 
hive they always, and they alone, seek each others' destruc¬ 
tion, the workers being only passive spectators, perhaps insti¬ 
gators of the combat; if, I say, this be true, is it not probable 
and likely that the most vigorous queen will assert her 
superiority and destroy her rival ? I know that this was the 
case with me, for I picked up the conquered queeu the day 
after the union was effected, and was enabled to compare her 
with her victorious enemy, who was decidedly the largest, and 
she has proved a most fertile mother. 
It is to the method which I adopted in uniting these bees 
that I wish to call especial attention, because, not only do I 
claim to have discovered it (at least, nowhere in the twenty 
and odd bee-books which I have read have I seen even a 
remote hint of the knowledge of the existence of such a 
plan), but it is one of the simplest and most useful of bee- 
operations, as well as a very successful one. I discovered or 
rather hit upon it accidentally, as I was hesitating between 
the adoption of the fumigating or sugnr-and-water drowning 
process of uniting bees, one or other of which is recom 
mended generally by apiarians. I was quite imused to 
either of these plans, and somewhat dreaded the experi¬ 
ment. The scene of operation was the small nursery back- 
garden of some very kind friends of mine who had kindly 
permitted me to make what use I pleased of the population 
of five cottage hives, which they intended to plunder; and 
the time was 8§ p.m., on the Otli of August. After trying 
what I could do by fumigation with one hive, and having 
made a terrible mess of the affair, so that I began to wish I 
had never meddled with the business, I proceeded to try the 
sugar-and-water drowning process, to effect which, I pro¬ 
posed, first, to drive into separate empty hives the population 
of two strong stocks; and, then, after sprinkling each hive 
well with sugar and water, to mix the bees together. An 
awkward, filthy job this appeared, against which my heart 
revolted; however, there seemed no remedy, so to driving I 
went. A magnificent second-year stock, as full of bees as it 
could hold (the more bees the better for the success of the 
experiment), was successfully driven in about 15 minutes 
into an empty hive, which was taken off and put gently aside 
until wanted again. The few remaining bees in the old 
stock were fumigated with sulphur before being taken into 
the house. Another fine and populous stock was next turned 
up as before—an early cast of the current year; but, instead of 
placing an empty hive over it as before, it suddenly entered 
my head to try what driving into the other already temporarily 
tenanted hive would do—the empty hive I mean into which 
the population of the first hive had been driven. But would 
they not fight and destroy each other ? If they did, thought 
I, I have got two good stocks to fall back upon ; so in 
a moment the tenanted combless hive was gently placed 
over the now reversed cast, and to driving we went in good 
earnest. “Hark! what an awful buzzing!” said my com¬ 
panion ; and, indeed, I began to dread a general massacre 
as the hum increased ; presently, however, our tapping 
having ceased, the hum died away, and a profoiuid silence 
reigned within. My success was complete, for on taking off 
the upper hive, an enormous mass of bees was disclosed 
hanging in thick clusters from the roof, united together in 
great apparent harmony and tranquillity. The few remain¬ 
ing bees in the old hive were sulphured as before; and our 
united hive was suffered to remain till morning, resting over 
an empty bucket, and covered with a sheet. Great was the 
