THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 10, 1857. 160 
from which you might hope to derive benefit. Perhaps you 
had better take possession, in the autumn, of its contents, 
which will probably be valuable, and by means of fumigation 
unite the bees to some other weaker family.] 
T. 
PORTABLE DARK CHAMBER FOR 
PHOTOGRAPHING. 
Y. k: 
will feel obliged by your informing him 
how to construct a portable dark place for pliotoqraplnj, in 
order that he may take it with him when he goes from 
home." 
[Construct a tripod stand similar to that described in The 
Cottage Gardener for April 26th, but with stouter legs, 
and for the top a rectangular piece of wood 2’*2" x 1*8. 
Then procure two pieces of f-inch rod r —- 
iron, and bend them into the shape here 
shown. Pierce two holes in each end of 
the before-mentioned rectangular piece of 
wood to receive the feet (/) of the iron 
• frames, which, being placed in position, 
are covered with a casing composed of 
three thicknesses of yellow calico. An 
opening is left at each side for the hands, 
hi 
(/) 
l'-6' 
(/) 
and at one end for the head of the manipulator. A sleeve 
fitted to each opening is encircled with a piece of elastic. 
the hive will be hardly tenantable by next season, and is 
now, I am afraid, infested with vermin ? It is protected 
from the weather on all sides but the front. I find that I can 
have a hive made here to answer the same purpose, ami 
similar in all important respects to Neighbour’s improved 
cottage hive, price fl 15s., for about 10s., or less than that, 
and with only one window for about 5s. to Os., including 
bottom board. Why will these makers drive all apiarians 
wishing to keep any number of bees, and with fathomable 
pockets, to the old system ? Is it necessary to Nutt’s system 
that there should be two side boxes, as I think that by 
simplifying, the present price, TO to T7, might be greatly 
reduced ?”— Apiarian. 
[As regards temperature in your newly-hived colony, that, 
of course, is much influenced by the weather. As the 
summer and population advance it will probably range 
somewhat higher than your present figures indicate. If 
your common straw hive is really in the decayed condition 
you state it may be hardly worth preserving to another 
season; but we have often had occasion to protest against 
the removal of old combs into new hives. It is better to 
fumigate the bees in September, and add them to some 
stock requiring to be strengthened by additional numbers, 
appropriating the store of honey, which appears to be a pretty 
good one. We cannot undertake to criticise the prices 
charged for bee-hives ; that is an affair between the buyer 
and seller. Expensive hives with elaborate appendages 
must be paid for, and you have adopted Nutt's, the most 
costly of any. Your suggestion as to reducing the number 
of boxes would amount to an abandonment of the theory on 
which these hives profess to be founded. We are not partial 
to collateral hives generally; but they may be made with 
two boxes only, in which case they folloiv the plan laid down 
by White. As you have ordered a copy of “ The Bee-keeper's 
Manual ” you will therein find a description of this and various 
other kinds of hives, with some further information respect¬ 
ing glasses, &c., of which you are in need,] 
GROWING riNE APPLES WITHOUT 
HOT-WATER PIPES. 
TAN OR 
The whole apparatus is here represented.—E. A. Cop¬ 
land.] 
BEES IN A NUTT’S HIVE, 
“ 0n Thursday last, following your kind directions, in 
answer to my inquiries appearing in No. 450, I safely hived 
a large swarm of bees in Nutt’s centre box, and, although 
the weather since lias been partially unfavourable, all 
seems to be going on favourably. Can you inform me what 
is about the proper temperature for comb building? The 
thermometer therein has since ranged from 70° to 85° 
averaging about 75° to 78°. The situation is completely 
shaded alter about twelve o’clock by a young Elm tree. I 
have one of the common cottage hives, bought the spring 
bet ore last lor stock, and have had early swarms last 
year and this therefrom. On examining it last night I found 
it very heavy, say 40 lbs. to 50 lbs., and the straw very rotten, 
the hive being old when I bought it. Would you advise the 
fumigation of the bees, and their removal to another worker’s 
bellglasses (I have had a 10 lb. bellglass this season filled 
in twenty-four days from May 9th: is not that pretty 
good?); or what course would bo best, as I am afraid that 
“ Will yon inform me whether I can grow Pine Apples to 
perfection without the use of tan for bottom heat.? I am 
told I could do so provided I had hot-water pipes; but as I 
cannot go to that expense I wish to know whether or not the 
same object.can be attained by the use of a common brick 
flue. If both bottom and top heat can be obtained by the use 
of a flue I shall feel extremely obliged for a few remarks 
on the subject. Also, will a fire be continually wanted 
through the summer to keep up the bottom heat, or only at 
certain times ? ”— An Anxious Inquirer. 
[There can be no doubt that “An Anxious Inquirer” 
may do so, without either resorting to the dreaded hot water 
or the carting of tan for the purpose, though, before com¬ 
mencing operations, we would advise his getting a rough 
estimate of what the various modes would cost him, con¬ 
fident that for a pit of any size hot-v'ater pipes, or a hot,- 
w r ater tank on the principles described near the end of 
Yol. II., would ere long, if not at first, be the most economical. 
Suppose, for instance, his house or pit w'as seven or eight 
feet wide, and a portion of it under the ground level, and 
some forty or sixty feet in length, then a boiler for about 
T5, and four times the length of the house of four-inch 
piping, say about Is. 2d. per foot, would do the thing most 
effectually ; two of these pipes being for top heat and two for 
bottom heat, and either used independently of each other, or 
the tivo tops made flow-pipes, and the tw T o lower ones under 
the bed made return-pipes, as practised so successfully by 
Mr. Fleming at Trentham. The two lower pipes, if rough- 
chambered over with stones, bricks, and clinkers, would 
diffuse the heat equally, and pouring water amongst them 
would give moist heat as desirable, and over these stones 
there might be sand for plunging in, or, better still, soil in 
which the plants should be inserted and grown. We have said 
sand for plunging in; but, whatever the mode of heating, if 
the plants are to be grown in pots some fermenting material, 
such as tan or tree leaves, will beat anything else in the 
way of gravel or earthy matter, as the Pines relish the 
