May 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
105 
It is a remarkable fact, that two weak stocks joined 
will collect double the quantity ol‘ honey and con¬ 
sume much less than two of the same age and strength 
kept separately. Stocks must be joined after sunset, 
upon the day that one of them has swarmed; and 
the doubled stock must be placed upon the stand it 
previously occupied: great care must be taken not to 
shake the hive, nor must it be turned up. The combs 
being new and tender will easily break, and the stock 
by that means be destroyed. 
Proper time for Taking Honey. —It is probable 
that in favourable situations, towards the close of the 
present month, some glasses, small Dives, or boxes of 
honey may be in a sufficiently forward state to allow 
of their being taken off, which may be known by 
their being filled with honey, and the combs all 
sealed up; or they may remain till those placed be¬ 
neath them are also sealed up. Upon very strong 
and populous hives, in a good season, it is necessary 
to place even a third, but this must be remeved with 
great caution, and certainly not before the end of 
August or the beginning of September, and not then 
unless the parent hive contains full twenty pounds of 
honey. 
Manner of Taking Honey". —At noon, upon a clear 
fine day, pass either a very thin knife or fine wire 
between the hive and the glass intended to be taken: 
if this precaution be neglected, a piece of comb is fre¬ 
quently left projecting from the top of the one left, or 
the bottom of that taken, which will cause much 
trouble to the operator. Two adapting boards (see 
page 305, vol. i.) placed between the hive and the 
glass, will be found very convenient, for the knife or 
wire will then only have to be passed between them, 
and the danger of breaking the combs thus be obvi¬ 
ated. 
To Expel the Bees from the Glass. —The glass 
must be lifted very gently, kept in the same position, 
and placed upon three inverted flower pots, or some¬ 
thing of the kind, in a shaded place, about thirty or 
forty yards from the hive, and the bees will make 
their escape in about ten or fifteen minutes. Gentle¬ 
ness, as I have before said, is very necessary in this, 
as in all other operations with bees; indeed, it is the 
only means of accomplishing the end desired; there¬ 
fore, remove the glass very gently, and place it about 
six inches from the ground, on bricks or flower pots, 
as above: shaking, beating, or burning paper under 
it, have all a contrary effect than that desired upon 
the bees; they are alarmed by this, and will not 
leave the glass for hours, and perhaps days, when 
those means are resorted to. The glass being thus 
placed, a loud humming noise is first heard, and the 
bees are then seen to leave it, and in five or six 
minutes (all except a few stragglers, that may be 
brushed out with a feather) will have left it; hut 
should the queen be in the glass, (which very rarely 
happens,) quite a different appearance presents itself; 
no noise will be heard, nor a bee scarcely seen to 
leave it, but the hive from which it has been taken 
will, in a very short time, appear in great confusion. 
Whenever this occurs the glass must be returned im¬ 
mediately, and taken oft’ again the next day. When 
a glass or box of honey is taken, it must not be left 
till the bees are all out of it, for it is very likely to be 
attacked by robbers, and a great part of it carried 
away in a short time. Robbers may be known by 
their endeavouring to enter the glass or box, while 
the bees belonging to it, being separated from their 
queen, fly home immediately upon leaving it. I have 
frequently found it necessary, in order to prevent 
robbers from attacking the glass, to remove it from 
place to place every four or five minutes, or to take 
the glass into a darkened room, so that a small por¬ 
tion of light is admitted through a hole which com¬ 
municates with the open air. 
I have for a long time been wishing to see some 
bee glasses of a different shape to those in general 
use; they are much too high, and so narrow that it is 
difficult to induce the bees to ascend them. I have, 
therefore, within the last few days, given a design to 
Messrs. Neighbour and Son, 127, High Holborn, 
through whose kindness 1 hope very shortly to be in 
possession of some, and where I shall be able to refer 
inquirers, who, like myself, are anxious to procure a 
good shaped glass. They are 8£ inches wide, 6 inches 
deep, straight at the sides, and flat at the top, with a 
3-incli hole in the centre. I feel persuaded that the 
advantages of this shaped glass will be very great. 
The bees will have but little way to rise in the glass, 
and will generally commence working immediately 
on its being placed upon the hive; and, again, when 
the first glass is partially tilled, another may be 
placed beneath it, and so on, which will prevent any 
delay in the working, which is otherwise almost 
sure to happen when a full glass is taken off and an 
empty one put in its place. 
PLUMBAGO LARPEN'HE. 
In your account about riumbago larpentie, p. 81 
of vol. ii., you should have given the following as the 
reason why this new plant looks brown and sickly in 
many hands. I have it as fine as any plant I ever 
saw, and also as sickly as can be. Having had two 
plants of it early last autumn, I wintered one in a 
very cold house and never offered to propagate from 
it since, and it would do you good to come to see it; 
it is such a beauty now that I am sure no one has 
yet overrated it. The second plant I cut down early 
in September, and made 11 cuttings from it, which 
rooted as fast as a fuchsia: these, and the mother 
plant, I kept in a hothouse all the winter, intending 
that they should grow on and produce me plenty of 
cuttings early in the spring; but soon after Christ¬ 
mas they looked sickly, and as soon as the spring 
advanced the same rusty brown colour complained 
of by your correspondent made its appearance, and 
grow they would not, by hook or by crook, so that I 
had to take a few cuttings from my beautiful plant to 
get a stock from, and these soon rooted; and as fast 
as 1 could get other cuttings from then- tops I did so, 
and now I have a large stock of them. Therefore, I 
can easily see how discredit has been brought on this 
fine new plant. The nurserymen, in their hurry to 
catch the market, treated all their plants as your 
humble servant did bis second one, and between you 
and I and the public we can make out this—that 
everything that is requisite to know about this plant 
is now fully ascertained, except the actuality of its 
bedding-out qualities, but of that I have no kind of 
doubt. Turn out all sickly plants of it directly into 
a cool frame, and allow them plenty of air, but not 
much sun until they are in good growth, and if they 
don’t soon recover, my name is not Senilis. 
[We are glad that our answer to “ A Somersetshire 
Curate,” at p. 81, was on the safe side, for we needed 
further information before we could venture to say 
that the sickliness of his jilant, one only out of many 
similar complaints, is the result of wrong treatment. 
We can now confidently say that it is, and that his 
jilant has been too tenderly nursed, and recommend 
him to adopt the mode practised by “ Senilis,” who is 
one of the best gardeners in England.—E d. C. G.\ 
