280 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 4, 1857. 
the disposition to flower all the summer and to force for 
winter. Dr. Andre and Sanspareil make grand seedlings, 
as we have se en in Mr. Gain’s plants, exhibited before the 
last meeting of the Horticultural Society. The Doctor 
and Madame Lamoriciere would make hybrid Bourbons 
sure enough. Scaramouche should be paired with the 
Diadematums, but all of them are shy to breed. I saw 
some most beautiful seedlings this year between James 
Odier and some of our own summer Geraniums. Vir - 
gineum is a treasure for forcers of hybrid perpetuals; 
but it seeds very sparingly, and will unite with but few 
kinds. Blancliefleur is from it to a certainty. I have 
seen a splendid self, or all but one uniform rich tint, 
between Rising Sun and one of the oldest and most 
radical-looking Geraniums in Covent Garden, Blooms¬ 
bury, to wit; and, after seeing such a cross by the first 
breeder of the age, is it likely that I should allow myself 
to be yoked to a beam, and walk round and round 
the cider-mill, grinding Barland Pears and Downton 
Pippins to make champagne for the florists? I would 
sooner kick the beam right through the roof of the 
building. The dear little Countess , with the pollen of 
Virgineum , has produced with me the exact counterpart 
of Sheppard’s Queen Victoria, with a better constitution 
and a disposition for perpetual blooming, and Bridal 
Ring has moved a step or two in the direction of 
white edging plants. There is not a single cross 
seedling in cultivation from the Ivy - leaf Gera¬ 
niums, all the kinds being natural species and natural 
sports. I had one once, a pretty little lilac thing ; but 
I gave it away, and I fear I shall never see it again. 
The true Nosegays are a most difficult race to improve 
on. Nature makes no leaps or jumps with them most 
certainly. Baron Hugel, which never produces a grain 
of pollen, is now seeding like a weed in a bed by itself 
in the Experimental. Who, then, can doubt the influence 
of humble bees on the art of the cross-breeder ? 
D. Beaton. 
BEE-KEEPING IN FORMER TIMES. 
As I find many of your readers take great interest in 
bees, and some novel contrivances for sheltering these 
industrious little objects having been from time to 
time offered to the public, I am induced to describe to 
you the practice which an eminent bee-keeper in the 
north of England used to adopt some fifty years or 
more ago, with, perhaps, as much success as has ever 
attended that of any of the more fashionable apiarians 
of more recent times; and as I had, when a boy, 
every opportunity of witnessing his mode of dealing 
with them, and frequently assisted in the operations 
connected with Them, I have often thought his plan 
deserved more attention than it was likely to receive in 
the rural, or rather, outlandish district he lived in; but 
as that had much to do with the success of his plan I 
will at once describe it. 
The place my worthy old friend lived at was tolerably 
sheltered by trees, and the neighbourhood presented the 
ordinary farming crops common everywhere ; but at the 
distance of about three miles there was an extensive 
tract of waste land several miles wide, the hilly 
portions being mostly covered with Heath, and the 
valleys with the coarsest grasses and bog plants in 
variety ; in fact, it was one of the “ moors” so common in 
the north. Well, my friend’s residence being so near this 
moor gave him a sort of right to depasture his flock 
thereon, despite what lords of the manor and other 
functionaries might say in the matter; and though he 
was told that his bees could easily find out where their 
food was to be had in the greatest abundance, he con¬ 
siderately thought the journey there and back might be 
spared these useful workers, and consequently removed 
his colony there. The mode was simple; but, before 
explaining how that was done, I will describe the 
position they occupied at home. 
I have often wondered whether boxes or straw hives 
have the most claim to antiquity, for my old friend told 
me his ancestors had used wooden boxes for some two or 
more generations back, and those he then used differed 
but little from those he said had been used long before. 
They were, as near as I can remember, perfect cubes, 
the inside dimensions of which were eleven inches and a 
half or a foot, and being made of the best Norway white 
deal, an inch thick, or nearly so, they did not warp or 
split with the sun, to which they were fully exposed; 
for be it remembered the maxim in those days was to 
place them in the full noonday sun, though they were 
often placed where they had sunshine only for about 
eight hours per day even in the longest days. These 
capacious boxes had each a small pane of glass at the 
back side, and the entrance hole at the bottom was very 
small. On the top, which was quite flat, were some holes, 
usually kept corked up, and on the top of these boxes 
smaller ones of the same width, but only about six 
inches deep, were placed, a sort of hasp fastening 
uniting them together; then, presuming the main box 
to be full of bees and likely to swarm, the second one, 
called “ the eke,” was set on the top of the other, the 
corks being withdrawn from the latter at the time. 
Generally bees will not swarm when they have access 
to such a capacious upper chamber; but this is not 
always the case, and when a swarm would come off 
we used to hive them in an ordinary straw hive, and 
carry them back to the mouth of the parent hive, tumble 
them out there, and, searching for the queen bee, secure 
her, when the rest always went home again, and would 
generally occupy the upper story of the home. Some¬ 
times we have put them into that, and set it in its 
place again, there being a thin bottom board to it, with 
holes in it corresponding to those in the top board of 
the bottom box, for be it remembered there was only 
one outer door or opening, so that the family occupying 
the upper compartments of the mansion had all to 
ascend and descend through the workings of the other 
bees. The top box having also a little glass at the back 
of it, their progress was easy to see, and if the season 
was favourable it was speedily filled with comb, aud 
indicative of swarming again. If this appeared likely it 
was only necessary to repeat the former practice, and add 
another eke; but this time the eke was not put at the 
top nor at the bottom, but in the middle, and the boxes 
being all made square, and of one size laterally, they 
fitted together any way; and there being a thin bottom 
board with the top box that was filled, that, together 
with the full box, was elevated some quiet evening, and 
an empty one of similar size, &c., slipped in between 
the top and bottom one, still confining all ingress and 
egress by the bottom, and consequently the dwellers 
in the garret would be obliged to pass through an 
empty room. If all went on well this was speedily filled, 
there being less inclination to swarm now than before; 
but if they did they were put back home again minus 
their queen, or it might be two or three queens, as the 
second and after-swarm often have a plurality of these 
essential rulers. This mode of adding story upon story 
gave great space to the bees, so that when the bottom 
and two top ones were filled the weight of the whole 
was rather ponderous, and they were often served this 
way if kept at home; but if transported to the moors 
another course was taken, which it is well here to 
describe. 
Presuming a good swarm came off tolerably early in 
the season, and that it was hived in one of those 
square boxes described above, the box being placed 
near to where the swarm alighted for the day, the bottom 
board was put on at night, and the hole by which the 
