382 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 15, 1857. 
till they look clear, and the syrup rich and thick,' which may 
be in about an hour. Take off the scum as it rises. When 
to be eaten pick out the whole ginger. 
To Preserve Apples. — Another Way. —Weigh equal quan¬ 
tities of good brown sugar and of apples. Peel, core, and 
mince them small. Boil the sugar, allowing to every three 
pounds a pint of water. Skim it well, and boil it pretty 
thick; then add the apples, the grated peel of one or two 
lemons, and two or three pieces of white ginger. Boil till 
the apples fall, and look clear and yellow. Apples pre¬ 
served in this way will keep for years. 
To Preserve Pears. —Pare the fruit, and put it into a 
kettle with a little water, and boil. When quite soft take the 
same quantity of loaf sugar and melt it into a syrup, taking 
care not to have it boil. Put the fruit into the syrup, and 
set away in jars. When preserved in this way they retain 
their natural flavour and colour. 
ON BEES IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER. 
Some bee-keepers consider August and September the 
best honey months, but, except in heath districts, we have 
always found bees collect most store in June and July. At 
that time in general flowers are fresh, and produce purer 
honey than afterwards. It is of little use to give bees more 
room in August with a view to excite them to make fresh 
combs to be stored with honey, especially after the drones 
are destroyed and the number of workers thinned by the 
aged ones dying off. Such often happened to colonies that 
were swarms of the current season, which contained old bees 
from the parent stocks. At one time we thought with others 
that bees might be united, and kept strong enough even to 
fill a hogshead, and continue so for years ; but after-experi¬ 
ence taught us the reverse. Our giant stocks weakened 
down to the common standard. 
We should here note that, however great powers queen 
bees have to lay eggs and workers to rear brood, yet such 
cannot be excited, even by most skilful art, much beyond the 
nature and habits of the bees. 
All spare honey should be taken from the hives in August, 
except it be very hot like to-day (August 24—83°), in a 
north aspect, in order that the bees may have time to make 
good the loss, or at least repair any little damage in their 
combs. As the season advances they seal or stop up with 
propolis little crevices to exclude air. In fact, bees always 
do so in summer, and carry it home on their thighs as they 
do pollen. 
In heath districts bees gather much honey in August and 
September; but it is worthy of remark that they suffer more 
from cold springs than those do in more genial districts. 
This reminds us of Mr. Robson’s remarks on this subject at 
page 281. He says that “ the outlandish bee-keeper cares 
very little for bad weather, provided the month of August be 
fine, as tho little industrious workers lay up sufficient that 
month for all the rest of the year.” This is not only con¬ 
trary to what we have just stated, but also to the real con¬ 
dition of bees in some heath districts. A friend who wrote 
to us this season from “ among the Heather,” observed that 
if the long and cold springs continued much longer there 
would hardly be a live colony of bees in the south of Scot¬ 
land. 
We should here state that honey is not their sole support. 
If the bees cannot gather fresh pollen in spring how can 
they rear their brood ? And in bad weather fresh swarms 
! cannot exist without food, or begin their combs without the 
means to secrete wax or gather propolis. Moreover, Mr. R. 
states, “ I have never known so much honey in a straw hive 
as I have seen in a box, for the simple reason that straw 
I hives are seldom or never so large.” The boxes he speaks 
of are about one foot square, “ perfect cribs in the inside 
dimensionsand from one of them “ he thinks that upwards 
of 150 lbs. of strained honey have been taken.” But lie 
should think again, for how can a box of that size hold so 
great a quantity of honey ? Supposing there were eight 
divisions of combs in it at a foot square, each of these must 
i have contained about 18 lbs. or 19 lbs. of honey, without 
| allovviug room for pollen and young bees. Indeed, the 
quantity of honey must have been equal to eight or nine 
gallons of water. Saying more is needless, except that such 
false statements are nothing new; for Warder, who wrote on 
bees about a century and a half ago, speaks of “ transparent 
boxes, so that with laying out four or five pounds in three 
or four years, if the summers are kind, you might get thirty 
or forty pounds per annum.” The boxes he alludes to seem 
to have been collateral ones, which were in use as far back 
as the time of King Charles II. Warder was a physician, 
and, like most others of his day, had strange notions con¬ 
cerning bees. He even professed to bring dead ones to life 
again by keeping them warm in his breeches’ pockets, the 
same way as old gardeners did Melon seeds to make them 
fruitful. 
This brings to mind a curious story respecting a member 
of the medical profession who lived a few years back in 
Suffolk, who, on a bright wintry day when bees were in¬ 
duced to be out, collected several that were on the ground 
perishing from cold, intending to hold them in his hands 
until the warmth restored them, was suddenly summoned 
away, and, being a very forgetful person, slipped them into 
his pocket. He laid his clothes on his bed at night, and the 
warmth restored them, which he found out to the grief of 
his wife and himself.—J. Wighion. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
ROSES FOR A CALCAREOUS SOIL. 
“ I do not feel quite sure whether Mr. Beaton supplies 
dwarf Roses on their own roots for sale in small quantities; 
but I am just about this autumn to make a new Rose bed, 
east by south, in North Wiltshire, on a natural kind of 
calcareous soil. It is a very sunny spot, and I should re¬ 
quire about two dozen. If you would undertake this com¬ 
mission might I trouble you to let me have a list with 
those marked which you most recommend for that aspect?” 
—H. S. 
[Mr. Beaton has only about four or five dozen of Roses 
which he can call his own, and he would not part with them 
for three times their value. He never sold a Rose or took 
a commission to procure one for others. You are quite 
fight to plant the Roses on their own roots, especially in 
your calcareous soil. Eight or ten kinds would be better in 
a bed of two dozen plants than twenty-four distinct kinds ; 
indeed, in a regular bed there should be only three kinds of 
Roses, and the Malmaison Rose should be one of them 
north of London, and the same or Devoniensis to the south¬ 
west ; Baronne Prevost, Duchess of Sutherland, Coupe de Hebe, 
Geant des Batailles , General Jacqueminot, Baronne Hallez, 
Madame Laffay, Dr. Marx, and Robin Hood, are among the 
best hybrid perpetuals for your situation; and of the 
Bourbons say the Malmaison (Souvenirs de Malmaison) as 
the best white; Dupetit Thouars, Souchet, and Charles 
Souchet as the highest coloured; also George Cuvier, Queen 
of Bourbons, and Paul Joseph; but none of these, after 
Dupetit Thouars, will do any or much good unless they are 
purely and simply on their own roots and in the very richest 
Rose compost that can be made. The Manetti stock for 
dwarf Roses has been proved in the Experimental Garden 
to be either a genteel way of killing Roses in two years, or 
to have them attended to like Docks, Thistles, and Bindweeds 
to keep down the suckers. The Dog Rose is bad enough 
where the soil is not good for it; but the better the soil is 
the more trouble with this Manetti, though it might be 
made a most useful stock, nevertheless, if they had the 
gumption to make the cuttings of it anti-sucker fashion in 
the first instance.] 
LACHENALIA TRICOLOR MACULATA. 
“I send a few bulbs of the Lachenalia tricolor maculata , 
which I hope you may be successful in flowering. It is, 
perhaps, out of place for me to mention to you my treatment 
of this flower; but I find that old bulbs packed as closely 
together as possible in the pot flourish and flower profusely.” 
—E. B. J 
[Many thanks for the bulbs of this plant. Your experience 
