' THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 23, 1857. 191 
Bees flying to a Neighbour’s Garden (S. C.).—It is quite as 
impossible to account for the bad taste shown by bees as it is for the 
bad taste evinced by human beings. Some men seem to prefer women 
whom all the rest of the world consider very disagreeable; so your 
bees leave the flowers of your beautiful garden for another place where 
you “could see nothing very tempting about the premises.” Every 
bee-keeper meets with similar occurrences, and we do not think your 
neighbour does anything to entice the bees. 
Work about Bees (J. Brown). —You say you have “Bee-keeping 
for the Many,” and need a larger work on the subject. Buy Mr. 
Taylor’s “ Bee-keeper’s Manual.” It is the best book on the subject. 
It is published by Groombridge and Sons. 
Peach Trees under Glass (IF. Gribble ).—Six inches from the 
glass will not be too far from it; we should prefer nine inches. 
Heating a Propagating House (A Constant Reader ).— See an 
article lately by Mr. Fish on growing Pines by a flue alone. There is 
nothing to prevent your plan answering if rightly managed. If the 
house is used for the purposes contemplated, of course the plants on 
your stands must be chiefly tropical ones. We presume you mean to 
confine your propagating and Melon growing to the front of the house, 
for Melons must have unobstructed sunshine, though in sudden changes 
from shady weather to sunshine they may require a little shade at 
times. A large iron cistern placed on the top of the flue as you 
mention would give out a great amount of vapour. If a small boiler 
was placed not on the flue, but over the fireplace, and the flue other¬ 
wise left as it is, and a pipe of some feet in length from the boiler with 
an open end for diffusing the steam and heated vapour into your 
double chamber, you could command moist bottom heat at will, and 
by means of plugs let it into the atmosphere when you like. Such a 
boiler would require to be furnished with a cistern and ball tap to keep 
it always supplied. The cistern would be simpler ; a smooth, concrete 
bottom for your chamber, so as to be pretty well waterproof; and 
pouring water among the rubble simpler still. For a largish house so 
to be managed by a flue we should, however, prefer a small common 
boiler over the fireplace for generating steam; and, provided the 
chamber is any size at all, there will be no danger of the steam being 
over hot. 
Mealy Bug and Thrips (31. J.). —The very best advice we could 
give you would be to clear the place of the infected plants. Thoroughly 
scrub every place with soap and water; remove every living thing out 
of the place, and, lest an insect should escape in a cranny, shut the place 
up, and burn in it flowers of sulphur, letting it remain shut a couple of 
days; then open for as much more, and commence afresh. “ M. J.” 
could never have read attentively the advice so often given, or he would 
have known that when plants are completely infested with such vermin 
their constitutional vigour has become so impaired that attempts to 
remedy the evil are in general so much time, labour, and money lost. If 
any one wishes to succeed in plant culture he must destroy insects when¬ 
ever the first one is seen—not after they have had time to colonise and 
take possession. “ M. J.” will find information in No. 374 , and fuller 
details in previous volumes. Meanwhile, if he wishes to experimentalise, 
and even succeed, if the plants are not quite so far gone as he says, col¬ 
lect a quantity of young Laurel shoots, bruise them between a mallet and 
a stone, and put a bushel of them into a four-light pit; shut close for 
several hours, and then give a little air. Or smoke with tobacco several 
nights running when the leaves are dry, and next morning syringe over 
and under the leaves with soot water, holding a pound of size in solution 
in four gallons of water. If thoroughly resolved have a size solution, 
with a pound to the gallon, and daub the bug with a brush wherever he 
shows himself. Unless the plants are vigorous, very vigorous, the clear¬ 
ing-out system, and beginning afresh with clean plants, will be the best. 
When a plant easily raised becomes so infested we consider that the fur¬ 
nace is by far the best remedy and cure ; and yet young gardeners will 
pass such plants day after day, resolving that they will have them cleaned 
some time, but not yet. Ay, that is the cause of failure. 
Calceolaria Seedlings (31. H.). —Your four seedlings are most 
beautiful, and 3 and 4 are newly marked. 3 is the best for a lady’s eye, 
and the finest we ever saw', but we are no florists; the novelty is in 
having oculata- like spots on the field of spotted Calceolarias, as in 
Stanhopea tigrina and oculata. I is a brown with a yellow ring round 
the breast, and over the edges of the hood ; the field of purplish brown 
is marked with yellow streaks as lightning is represented in drawings. 
2 is richer in the same style. 3 is equally rich, hrown, with more yellow, 
and the eye spots brown. 4 is yellow, with oculata large spots, besides 
the dotting. Surely these flowers are not from half-shrubby plants. They 
look like the most delicate and most useless herbaceous Calceolarias of 
florists, which are not nearly so useful as the common border annuals. 
GeBaniums (M. de R ,).— Nos. 1 and 4 are very old Cape species. 
1 is pic turn, and 4 rudula. No one can tell the names of 2 and 3. They 
are of the old, forgotten race of seedlings from the original species, a 
tenth part of which had only local names. No. 1 is the next best kind to 
cross from, after echinatum and crassicaule, to get genteel white bedders. 
4 has always been a pet for the smell. 
Gift of Flowers (T. H. />.).—The Citriodorum pulchellum will be 
proved in the Experimental; but from a flower or two on the cuttings 
we did not think highly of it. The Pansy bloom was a very beautiful 
thing. Many thanks for the Saxifrage, and many more for the Fancy 
Pansies when they come. We are collecting them from every corner of 
the kingdom for spring flowers. The address is Surbiton, Kingston-on- 
Thames, Surrey. J > f t ' r 
Culture of Pelargoniums (Excelsior).—' To grow and bloom 
Geraniums like Mr. Turner would be worth ^f2000 a year to some 
nurserymen, and he must clear j 6'500 a year as long as he keeps his 
secret to himself. You have seen his plants, his pots, and his compost, 
and as to the “other items of management” you may rest assured that 
no tradesman would tell the world a secret by which he earns his fame 
and his daily bread, and which would next to ruin his prospects were it 
discovered by a thankless generation. Mr. Kidd is the only one we 
know who is likely to make out the reason of the Cucumbers going so ; 
but such gardeners are so ploughed and harrowed on their backs during 
i the London season that we must wait till that is over, when they will 
have a respite to report their progress, and tell others everything they 
are asked as far as they know or can guess. All we can say is that this 
is a good time to make cuttings of Cucumbers from the best bearing 
plants, and of Melons to get rid of the red spiders of earlier forcing. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
June 26 th. Exeter. Sec., T. W. Gray, Esq., Queen Street, Exeter. 
July 8 th, 9 th, and 10 th, 1857- Leamington. Sec., Thomas Grove. 
July 9 th. Prescot. Sec., J. F. Ollard. 
July 2 Sth, 29 th, and 30th. Sheffield, Soutii Yorkshire, and 
North Derbyshire. Sec., William Henry Dawson, Fig Tree 
Lane, Sheffield. 
August 8 th, 10 th, 11 th, and 12 th. Crystal Palace. Sec., W. 
Houghton. 
August 19 . Bridlington. Sec., Mr. Thomas Cape. 
Aug. 29 th. Caldkr Vale. Sec. W. Irvine, Esq., Holmefield, Halifax. 
September 2 nd. Dewsbury. Sec., Harrison Brooke, Esq. 
September 7 th, 8 th, pth, 10 th. Gloucester. Sec., Mr. H. Churchill, 
King’s Head Hotel. 
October 1 st and 2 nd. Worcester. Sec., Mr. G. Griffiths, 7> St. 
Swithen Street, Worcester. Entries close Sept. 19th. 
November 30th, and December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Birmingham. 
Sec., John Morgan. Entries close the 2 nd of November. 
December 16 th and 17 th. Nottinghamshire. Entries close No¬ 
vember 18th. Hon. Sec., Mr. R. Hawksley, jun., Southwell. 
December 30th and 31st. Burnley and East Lancashire. 
Entries close December 1 st. Secs., Angus Sutherland and Ralph 
Landless. 
January 9 th, 11 th, 12 th, and 13th, 185S. Crystal Palace. 
January 19 th, 20 th, 21 st, and 22 nd, 1858. Nottingham Central. 
Sec., Mr. Etherington, jun., Notintone Place, Sneinton, near Notting¬ 
ham. 
N .B.—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
REMINISCENCES OF A POULTRY JUDGE. 
The sole object of the Avriter in bringing these recollec¬ 
tions before the public is to induce an increased amount of 
attention to one or two of the most prominent and decidedly 
important features connected with poultry meetings, and 
which have evidently on many occasions not received the 
regard they deserved. The exposition is not brought fonvard 
as remedial of the past, but in the anxious hope that short¬ 
comings of a similar character will not be permitted to spread 
their baneful influences on the prospects of societies Avhich, 
from being, perchance, at the outset of their “ first attempt,” 
might otherwise, at least in some cases, fall into like errors, 
and consequently be subjected to similar after-annoyances. 
They are, therefore, offered with the firm impression that 
naught tends so greatly to the avoidance of evil as to receive 
the friendly admonition of coming danger. 
There cannot be a second opinion that the majority of 
mishaps connected with Poultry Exhibitions arise exclu¬ 
sively from the very general failing of leaving the several 
arrangements in the hands of a body of amateurs unaccus¬ 
tomed to the fulfilment of these untried duties, and who are 
likewise too prone to shift the responsibility of the different 
items so much upon each other that not unfrequently the 
sequel proves they are neglected by one and all, when in¬ 
dividually presumption alone favoured the supposition that 
every possible contingency Avas amply provided for. In the j 
formation of any Poultry Society, therefore, experience 
proves the advisability of appointing individual superin¬ 
tendence to each particular item, and holding that Commit¬ 
tee-man alone responsible to his colleagues for the efficient 
completion of whatever duties his department involves. It 
has ever been the case that so constituted, Avith occasional 
meetings to consider general features, no considerable in¬ 
stance of neglect has occurred, and it is equally acknowledged 
that, where the duties were generally supposed as appertaining 
to the Committee as a body, irremediable errors have been 
the order of the day. One source of mishap not unfre¬ 
quently arises from the aptitude of some members of such 
officials to embrace with extreme enthusiasm at the onset 
the scheme for holding their local Poultry Exhibition, but, as 
unforeseen anxieties arise, gradually lapsing into a course of 
inanition, and either leaving the project entirely to the 
greatly increased care of a very few, or so indolently carrying 
out the general plans that their actual resignation altogether 
from the Committee Avould have been suggestive of the least 
troublesome consequences. If every official thus connected 
with the approaching meeting felt his personal responsi- 
