358 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 12, 1861. 
mission, learned Sir, come to the rescue. Wo will catch the I 
juice, and no wind shall blow in the pie. 
Look at this little cup. 
All that needs to bo done is 
to soo that the hole in the top 
be clear of the piecrust, by 
which moans the hot air will 
rush out into the oven, and 
the juice takes its place When 
the pie cools, down comes the 
juice, and disperses all among 
the fruit. The principle can 
bo tried with a small flower¬ 
pot, in which caso I would 
recommend that tho hole be 
stopped by a cork, through 
which should bo pushed a 
piece of tobacco-pipe, taking 
care that the pipe goes be¬ 
low and above the cork. 
Now, having settled one sweet, I will pass onto the next—the 
bees. We had the blues again on those worm days when the 
snow was on the ground, but the rat-traps “cotched ’un.” You 
have been on the milk-pan and hackle dispute, which, like the 
ancient quarrel, has much to be said on both sides for and against. 
Tho pans must get very hot in summer, and give a chill in 
winter. The hackles are ugly, and in the end cost more than 
the pans. Why not cover up with turves, as was mentioned 
last year? My hives are 14 inches in diameter inside, about 
4 feet 2 inches round on the outside. I cut four turves about 
1 foot 3 inches wide and 9 inches high ; tho bottom of each 
turf is 2 inches or more thick, and the mould is cut off, so as to 
slope to the top that it can bend and be laid flat on tho top of 
the hive. The hive-board is square, and stands about 2 inches 
in the narrowest part beyond the outside of the hive; at each 
corner I put a turf sod, and turn it down at the thin end on to 
tho top of tho hive. Thus are all tho sides protected. Even 
the air between tho sods and tho hive is a good non-conductor 
of heat. Then for tho top I cut a round turf that will come an 
inch beyond the sides, like a small oavo to a cottage. This is 
bevelled off in tho same manner, so that the crown or centro is 
much higher, and, consequently, when placed on tho top of the 
hive tho rain cannot rest on it, and, therefore, falls off imme¬ 
diately. Those turves will last a year ; but I change mine twice 
a-year. Ono thing bear in mind—tho grass goes next to the 
hive, and the roots and mould aro outside. Give the mould a 
pat with the spade so as to make it smooth, and you have a fine 
mud wall. 
My hives wero exposed all last summer with only turf for a 
shelter, and on looking at them a few days ago I found them as 
dry as tinder. They are covered thus all through the year, so 
they are never damp nor baked by tho summer sun. Of course 
the turves aro so cut that tho hole for the entrance to the hive 
is quite clear. Nevertheless I could not make a honey year out 
of last summer, and when I weighed my bees in October they had 
not half a dozen pounds of food : so I gavo them the bottlo as you I 
recommended, which they certainly took to like real drunkards. | 
Then when the frost and snow came, off went the bottle, and in 
went tho cork into tho bottle’s place. Still they were very light ; 
so now I feed them, as Mr. Payne recommended, with barley- j 
sugar. I shall not say how I made it, only just as he tells us at 
page 15 in your excellent little Manual; and if there be any of 
your readers who have not this little book they had better send 
six stamps to 162, Fleet Street, and get it at once. I thought 
the sugar might waste in the manufacture, but after many trials | 
the some weight of sugar givos the same weight of barleysugar; 
and as this becomes moist on exposure to the air inside the hive 
I fancy a pound of sugar will thus give nearly a pound and n ! 
half of food.—X. 
THE RABBIT (Lepus cuniculus): ITS HISTORY, VARIETIES, AND MANAGEMENT. 
(Continuedfrom page 342.) 
This variety of the Lop-eared Rabbit derives its name from 
the position in which the ears are carried, drooping forward and 
° Trv- °T er e J eB > resembling the horns of a cow. 
lhis Rabbit, like the Oar-lop, may be produced by the most 
highly-bred specimens of the Double-lop variety, and, by 
judicious mating, may bo tho parent of first-class stock, if it is f 
not the result of a cross with the common Rabbit, which in this ' 
variety is more often the case, and will show itself through , . 
many generations. 
The Horn-lop is not so often to be met with, but is not to r ; 
