THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 8 , 1857. 3G7 
an ounce or two of 3 lbs., and contained a queen of 
185G. It was placed on the floor board of the old hive 
(which was removed to a new situation), so as to receive 
the outlying bees. On May 28th the bees were carrying 
pollen. In the middle of June they were not working well, 
so I took away the bottom box, and on the 21st of June I 
weighed the hive, and found the contents were only 5 lbs. 
In the same evening I therefore added to it the bees from 
a cast or second swarm, which, in consequence of coming 
off during my absence from home, had been hived for a 
fortnight in a common skep. The junction was made as 
follows:—The bees were driven out of the skep into an 
empty hive (by the by, some persons state that bees cannot 
be driven well unless the hive is full), jerked down between 
two parallel sticks placed on a cloth on the ground, and the 
Stewarton lifted off its stand and placed over them; one 
puff of tobacco smoke confounds the scent of the two com¬ 
munities, and they join without the loss of a single life. 
The honey in the skep I retained as my perquisite. The 
brood comb was put into a small glass, and put over the 
Stewarton, a communication being made by partly with¬ 
drawing two slides. The conjoined families immediately 
began working well. Two days after I returned the bottom 
box, and on July 20th removed the glass, which had been 
filled with 5£ lbs. of honey. On the last day of August I 
weighed the hive, consisting of the two boxes, and found its 
contents to be 26 lbs., and numerous drones were coming 
in and out, which was not the case with any of my other 
stocks. 
The second Stewarton, No. 2, was tenanted on June 13th 
with a swarm from a common skep or straw hive. I am 
unable to state the weight of the swarm, but it was not 
heavy, or the age of the queen, except that she must have 
been born in 1855 or before. On the 21st of June, the 
first time I had an opportunity of weighing, the net 
contents amounted to 4 lbs., and on the last day of August 
to 19 lbs. 
Now comes the question, Have the Stewarton hives 
answered, or have they not ? Let us first compare their 
produce with that of the ordinary hives in this neighbour¬ 
hood. If we do so, and take into consideration the period 
of swarming and the size of the swarms, we must allow 
they have done fairly, having 50 lbs. of contents in the two 
hives; but compared with what they ought to have done, 
and with what Stewartons are doing in the north, as Mr. 
Wilson’s interesting letters testify, they are certainly very 
backward. Mr. Eaglesham writes to me thus on June 
19th:—“Your Stewarton (No. 1) is backward; I expected 
to hear both boxes were filled. Our success is certainly 
owing to the strength of our swarms. We consider 5 lbs. an 
average swarm, our common straw hives being fifteen inches 
wide by twelve high. We have had no swarms yet, but a 
friend fourteen miles off informs me that he had a swarm 
on Saturday, which was accidentally joined by another on 
Sunday, and the combined force filled the top box by 
Wednesday night. We never had four more favourable 
days.” 
On July 31st—“We should consider the results you 
mention as failures. On Monday I saw a stock consisting 
of a swarm and cast in a neighbour’s garden; they had 
nearly completed a 20 lb. honey box, and their owner 
intended removing it and the top body box, containing 
about 30 lbs. of comb, and then sending it to the moors; 
and we have many similar results. I should mention that 
the hive consists of three body boxes and one honey box, 
capable of containing altogether 80 lbs. to 90 lbs. of honey.” 
Now, how are these different results to be accounted for ? 
Simply by the fact that in the north they tenant their hives 
with swarms of 5 lbs. weight, and then add a cast or second 
swarm, whereas the custom in this locality is to begin with 
a 3 lb. swarm, and hive the casts separately. I was desirous 
of seeing how the Stewarton boxes would work if thus treated, 
and find, as I expected, that they do not yield the same 
results as when properly filled to begin with. I wrote to Mr. 
Eaglesham, stating that to work well they should have two 
swarms from our small southern hives; and in reply he 
states, “Your advice as to the printed directions is good; 
indeed, from what I know of the size of the common hives, 
I would say that two or three swarms should be put into 
the boxes.” 
Having deposed thus much as to facts, let me now give 
my opinion as to the value and convenience of the 
Stewarton hives. I see no reason to alter the opinion I 
formerly gave regarding them, that in a good bee country, and 
when tenanted by a strong swarm, certainly not of less weight 
than 5 lbs., or by two swarms from common-sized hives, or, 
still better, two and a cast, they answer well, and yield a very 
large return. They are most convenient in working, the 
slides being readily moved in or out so as to separate or 
connect the different boxes. Feeding is readily accom¬ 
plished when required; in short, that I am pleased with 
them may be inferred from the fact that I have made 
arrangements to increase my number next spring, when I 
hope to tenant them with very strong colonies, and have no 
doubt but that, if the season be a good one, I shall have 
satisfactory results. 
It cannot be too often or too strongly impressed upon all bee 
keepers (bee masters know it right well) that weak swarms 
and stocks are worthless, and should always be joined. 
For instance, I had this season two stocks in hives of my own 
pattern, which are capable of being storified to any extent. 
During the whole of June they were scarcely working at 
all, one having been shifted after having given out a first 
swarm, and then having given out a second or cast, and the 
other having been tenanted with a weak swarm of the 
present season. As they were going on neither would have 
collected sufficient honey to have lived through the winter. 
I therefore joined them on July 10th, by placing the old 
stock under the box which contained the swarm of the 
current year, preventing fighting by a puff of tobacco smoke. 
The next morning a dead queen was thrown out, and the 
conjoined families were actively at work. I had shortly to 
add a third box below, and on July 31st I removed the top j 
box, containing 18 lbs. of honey, which was so pure that it j 
readily found a buyer at two shillings per pound; in fact, 
by far the greater part was in virgin comb, a small portion 
of the two central combs only having been bred in. 
I mention this not only to show the utility of joining 
weak stocks, but to correct an erroneous statement I saw 
lately made in The Cottage Gardener that stocks cannot 
be advantageously joined in the summer. I have certainly J 
joined weak stocks in eight months out of the twelve, and j 
never did so without benefit.—W. B. Tegetmeier. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDEN ON A ROCKY SUBSOIL. —DELPHINIUM 
FORMOSUM.—TACSONIA MOLLISSIMA. j 
“ My flower garden is on the bank of a small river, and on J 
rock, with only about three feet of soil. The side next the 
water goes down perpendicularly about ten or twelve feet, 
the soil being kept up by a wall built on the rock. The 
consequence is, this year and last my garden has been burnt j 
up, and, instead of being a pleasure, is a constant mortifica- I 
tion. The soil, also, sets as hard as a brick; my Verbenas, ! 
Petunias, and Calceolarias look wretched when everybody’s 
are in full beauty. Will you kindly tell me what will be the 
best way of managing my beds, and what the best compost 
for retaining moisture ? My garden is only small, at least 
the part devoted to bedding-out plants, so I do not mind 
the trouble, and am determined, if possible, to succeed better 
next year. Also be good enough to tell me how Delphinium 
formosum and Linum verum kermesimim should be treated 
in winter. I have a plant of Tacsonia mollissima, a year old, 
which has borne one flower only. Should I cut it back 
now ?”—W. 
[You have one of the very best situations for flower-beds 
unless your garden is on ground very high, or very low, or 
much exposed. All you want is proper soil and good 
management. The whole of the present soil, from the wall 
to the walk or front of the beds, should be entirely removed 
next winter down to the rock, and the place filled with any 
fresh soil you can get, such as would grow wheat, or barley, 
or beans, but not turnips or carrots—that is, not a light soil. 
The change of soil should be done in dry weather, and the 
soil should be trod down gently as you fill it in. Get it to 
an even, smooth surface; then trace out the shape of the 
beds on the bare ground, and turf the spaces between; or, if 
