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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— October 21,1850. 
tilings so much better than the generality of mankind. In 
short, my organ of self-esteem has gained such a powerful 
ascendency over every other in my head, that I am com¬ 
pelled to write as a sort of “ safety-valve,” in order, as soon 
as possible, to become “myself again.” 
1 have often heard that it is much easier to find fault with 
the doings of another than to do anything well one’s self; 
so I will take the easiest plan, and just have a “tilt” at 
your correspondent, D. G. M’Lellan (who writes on the 
23rd of September), under a hope that he, or some other, 
may strike back, and help to bring me down a few pegs. 
By way of a beginning, will you allow me to express how 
deeply I sympathise with D. G. M’Lellan in his lament 
that the Scotch bees did not fill their glasses this year? Full 
glasses and joy, and, as a matter of course, empty glasses 
must bo akin to grief; and I must not fail to note how much 
I admire the Christian spirit manifested by Mr. M'Lellan, 
who finds a “cheering balm for his grief” in the better 
luck of Mr. Tegetmeier. I wot I am so much less a 
Christian, that, under similar circumstances, there would 
be no such “balm in Gilead” for me. 
Mr. M‘Lellan is correct in reference to the late dismal 
season ; but management is all-important in bee-keeping, 
and I beg to offer a few remarks on what I consider Mr. 
M‘Lellan’s mis- management, and consequent want of 
success in his apiary. He says, “ Number one is a Taylor’s 
single-bar hive, peopled, &c. The bees were chloroformed 
with complete success.” Chloroform and the dividing of 
bone and muscle—chloroform and all that is horrible—may 
be all very well; but chloroform and the sweets of the 
honeycomb have no affinity, and should never be brought 
into contact. Chloro—Oh! let me draw breath, and, at the 
same time, draw myself to my full height, so that I may 
the more energetically protest against the use of any and 
all such drugs. A skilful apiarian knows how to take bees 
from one hive and join them to another without having 
recourse to chloroform, fungus, puff-ball, brimstone, and all 
such abominations; and he who has this to learn has not 
yet crossed the threshold of bee-management. Now, then, 
that affords a person a little relief, so we will return to 
Taylor’s single-bar hive. By allowing the bees to commence 
in the top, or honey-box, Mr. M‘Lellan acted “ according 
to Cocker;” but he went wrong when, at the end of three 
weeks, lie saw his top box combed and partially honeyed, to 
put a box between the top and stock. He should have 
made sure of getting the top one filled before he added 
another next to it; and if he saw signs of swarming, or of 
too much crowding, he should have given them room below 
the stock , by which arrangement the little workers would 
have remained in the top box, which they would, in all 
likelihood, have finished. The triplet-box being filled with 
brood must have resulted from the body of the hive being 
too small, or the opening which led to it too large. 
Mr. M'Lellan believes the storifyirig system will always 
be more or less subject to brood. This I do not deny, but 
should like to know a system better adapted to this locality, 
which is near Glasgow. The collateral system will, I 
imagine, work very well in the south of England, where 
they have better seasons ; but the storifying system is, when 
property managed , infinitely superior to any other for us. 
1 confess myself very sceptical as to the good results 
following Mr. M‘Lellan’s plan of putting on glasses as soon 
as the swarm is hived; indeed, if he has always been 
successful in getting his glasses filled without brood, I 
would call it a miracle in bee-keeping. 
Having made pretty free with Mr. M’Lellan, I will now 
say a word about my own success with young hives this 
bleak season. I will be brief, as I fear I have already 
encroached too far on your space. 
By uniting two swarms, which were no better than a top 
and second, I took off, on the 15th of August, 21 lbs. of fine- 
finished comb, and last week the hive from which this was 
taken weighed -10 lbs. This is a peep at a portion of my 
doings, and I hope, at some future period, to have the 
pleasure of saying something more about bees.— Robt. 
Wilson, Stcwarton. 
[The oftener you write the more we shall be obliged.— 
Ei>. C. G.] 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
WINTERING PLANTED-OUT GERANIUMS. 
“A friend of mine has some six dozen of very fine Gera¬ 
niums—different sorts—planted without pots in a bed. The 
climate in the Frith of Clyde is so mild, that even the 
Myrtle, in certain situations, stands out all the winter. Now, 
he is puzzled what to do with the Geraniums. Do you think ; 
them safe left in the ground and covered with Fir bushes or ! 
straw? or could he lift them and stuff them into a box with \ 
sand, leaving them, for the three or four winter months, in j 
a shut-up dwelling-house?—W. R. W. S.” 
[The safer plan of the two is to leave out the Geraniums, j 
and to cover them in severe weather with dried fern, or 
hay, or straw. The leaves, and most of the green wood 
which was made this season, should be cut off now, and the 
first inch of soil on the surface of the bed ought to be 
scraped off, and two inches of very fine, dry,sifted ashes laid 
all over the bed, drawing it into little cones round the bot¬ 
tom of the plants; then to cover the whole with six inches 
deep of moss, working the moss well in among the bare 
branches, the dry fern to be put over them only during hard 
frost. If this plan was well looked after it would be more 
safe in most places than damp cellars and cold rooms.] 
WINTERING POTTED GERANIUMS IN AN OUT¬ 
HOUSE. 
“ I have a good many Scarlet Geraniums and other plants, 
and have only a small out-house, with a window facing the 
south, to keep them in in the winter. It is built of boards, 
very thick ones, viz., two inches at the sides, and the roof 
nearly three; the floor is made of Dutch tiles, well .laid 
down, and the window admits plenty of light. Now,I should 
like to know if I stand any chance of keeping them through¬ 
out the winter, as I shall not be able to have a greenhouse 
built till the spring ?—C. L.” 
[Scarlet Geraniums will keep very well in the house you 
sent us the plan of, if you merely keep damp and severe 
frost from them. This class is all the better for a long, 
dry rest, if not too dry; therefore, unleaf every one of them 
at once, and have some warm covering to throw over them 
during severe frost. That is just how Harry Mooi’e kept 
his boxes of them these dozen years in a much worse place 
than yours. Always bear in mind that damp is worse for 
them than a little frost. The “ other plants” will do if the 
winter is not loo hard. Keep them rather dry during frosts.] 
PEAT FOR DRAINAGE TO CUTTINGS.—MOVING 
CARNATIONS, Ac. 
“I do not know how far you may be aware of the love 
cuttings, Ac., have for peat (sold here in small oblong 
pieces for burning). Last May I had some cultirigs given 
me of Verbenas. I put them into a box, with drainage at the 
bottom, and, for want of anything better, put a layer of the 
peat over it; then some light soil. The cuttings began to 
grow quickly, and in planting them out I found the roots 
had so matted themselves all through the peat that, for fear 
of killing them by separating it, I planted peat and all. In J 
taking up the plants this week (which have been very nice I 
all the summer, green in foliage and bright in flower), I 
find the roots have confined themselves to the peat. I think \ 
this knowledge, if new, might be turned to advantage in ; 
many bedding-plants. I shall try it largely next spring. 
“May I remove Cloves into a border now? They are | 
large plants, and were forgotten to be layered at the proper 
time. I have several Carnations and Picotees in pots that 
have not been under cover : should I protect them ? 1 intend 
planting them out in the said border this next week. 
“ I find a layer of powdered charcoal on the top of Ihe 
soil in pots of Verbena a good remedy against mildew. I 
have cut in all my Verbenas, and placed them under the . 
stand in the centre of a small greenhouse. How often ought 
they to be watered ? It will be a dry place, as the fire-place is 
under.— Kate.” 
[We had just such another instance this season. For a 
temporary shift last May we used one-third dry packing moss 
in each of sixty-three pots of bedding Geraniums without 
