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T1IE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 28, 1858. 
and I do not know whether to prune them now, or not. Our 
difficulty consists in not knowing whether such trees should bo 
cut down a little (in this month for planting such trees), or 
whether the frost will kill them.”—F. J. Williams. 
[Your neighbour is wrong, and you are not right, in the cutting 
of your newly-planted Roses. All standard, and hall-standard 
Roses, all bush Roses and Briars (stocks to work on), and all 
kinds of running and climbing Roses whatsoever, are, and ought 
to be, cut close in, when they are planted from a nursery, or sale¬ 
room. But old-established Roses, of all these sections, in one’s 
own garden, may be moved without being close pruned, although 
close pruning does not hurt any Rose in the world, except very 
strong climbers. The next step leaves you in the dark, and we 
cannot see whether the Sempervirens was a newly-planted 
Rose: but the pruning depends on that. Many old Sempervirens 
would bo ruined by being cut so low, and any young ones, which 
were newly bought and plantod, would be half ruined for life, by 
being cut so high ; as, ten to one, in both cases, that the shoots, 
which you left will only push two or three ey is at the top, and 
that then- bottom part will get hide-bound and hard, and such 
wood is the worst of channels for the rising sap. 
Currants and Gooseberries ought to be pruned and thinned 
when newly planted, or just before planting. Frost docs them 
no harm.] 
PERMANENT OBSERVATORY HIVE. 
In an article, published some short time since, “ The Devon¬ 
shire Bee-keeper ” requested an account of some new observa¬ 
tory hives, to which I had previously alluded. The pressure of 
numerous engagements must plead my excuse for not forwarding 
this article before, as it has been for some time in hand. 
The greatest objection to observatory hives, as ordinarily con¬ 
structed, is, that they must either be kept covered up, in which 
case the sudden stimulus of light on opening them deranges all 
the actions of the bees, and renders them merely amusing toys, 
instead of means of scientific observation; or if, on the con¬ 
trary, the hives arc permanently open, the escape of heat through 
the glass causes the death of the bees in winter. 
My experiments have been made with a view of rendering an 
observatory hive permanent, by causing the sides, though trans¬ 
parent, to be non-conductors of heat. This has been accomplished 
by forming them of four plates of glass, with thin spaces between. 
The glass plates are cemented to the frames in an air-tight 
manner, so that change of air between the plates is prevented. 
Hence, the sides, though transferred, are very warm—being ex¬ 
ceedingly bad conductors of heat. Many persons are aware of 
the greatly increased warmth of a room caused by double 
windows, such as are extensively used in Russia. Here the 
principle is carried out to its full extent, by the glass being 
hermetically sealed, and by there being, not merely one layer of 
non-conducting air, but two or three. Supposing, for the sake 
of illustration, that one-fourth of the heat of the hive would, in 
a given time, escape through the first layer of air,—the second 
would only allow one-fourth of that to escape, and the third 
one-fourth of the remainder ; so that the loss would bo almost 
inappreciable. I may mention, that these - quadruple thicknesses 
of glass do not in the least obstruct the sight. 
1 have had some of my own bar and slide hives fitted up in 
this manner; but, of course, the plan is applicable to almost any 
hives. 
The direct light of the sun must not be permitted to fall on 
glass hives, as the heat in the sun’s rays, being accompanied by 
its light, has the peculiar property of passing through transparent 
substances. In fact, glass is (if I may use the word in this 
sense) transparent to the heat of the sun, although not to warmth 
from other sources. Hence, it follows, that a transparent hive, 
placed in the sun’s rays, would become over-heated—even, pos¬ 
sibly, to such an extent as to endanger the melting of the combs. 
I had some of theso hives in operation in the windows of my 
own house for some time, and they have afforded me opportu¬ 
nities for observation such as have certainly never been before 
enjoyed; as, without the slightest disturbance, the bees are 
always, open to inspection, and the influences of frost or warmth, 
dryness or dampness in the atmosphere, or any other change, is 
readily seen. One of these hives is situated in the window of 
my staircase, and rarely do I pass by without looking at the 
state of my favourites. In frost, I see them clustered together 
in a solid mass; on warmer days, spreading over the combs, 
sometimes cleaning the hives, or carrying out the dead (burying 
them, as old Warder called it). 
One particularly interesting circumstance I noticed in the 
autumn, which was, that when a wasp managed to escape the 
sentinels at the entrance, and gained admission into a partially- 
filled hire, he was secure from injury, and plunged fearlessly into 
the clustered mass of bees amongst the combs. From the hive 
being transparent the wasp did rot readily know the way 
out again; and 1 have had repeatedly to draw back a slide, and 
introduce a honey-knife to kill the intruder, when his dead body 
was carried out by the workers. 
My hive-maker is now busily engaged in making me a number 
of these hives, and I shall have much pleasure in supplying any 
person who may wish to test the principle ; but it will be abso¬ 
lutely necessary that timely application bo made, as they re¬ 
quire to be very carefully constructed, and cannot be done in a 
hurry.—W. B. Tegetmeiek, Muswell Hill , N, 
THE UTILITY OF COVERING VINE BORDERS. 
One of your correspondents (“ A. A.”) asks, “ What benefit is 
derived from covering Vine borders with hot dung?” Now, it is 
an ascertained fact, that roots must be in action before the 
branches ; and if Vine borders in early forcing are but thinly 
covered, the roots cannot properly fulfil their functions. The 
border, perhaps, is frozen some inches deep; consequently, the 
roots cannot supply the demand of the leaves—in fact, they 
cannot act. 
It is altogether unnatural to maintain a high temperature for 
the leaves, when the borders are unprotected. Leaves will ex¬ 
pand, certainly; fruit will also swell, but that is partly at¬ 
tributable to the humid state of tiie atmosphere. Those leaves, 
by absorption, supply, in a great measure, the demands of the 
Vine; but growth, under such circumstances, is only an elonga¬ 
tion, without strength; whereas, if Vine borders, which have 
become heated during the summer months, are covered early in 
October with some fermenting material, radiation is prevented, 
and heat, to a certain extent, generated. Thus, the roots are in 
a suitable temperature, and when that is the case new ones will 
be formed, when the other parts are dormant. Borders unpro¬ 
tected are liable to be at one period a frozen mass ; at another, 
deluged with cold rain ; and your correspondent “ A. A.,” I 
apprehend, would not like to water the plants in his vinery, in 
active growth, with water at the temperature of 32°. Still ho 
advocates cold borders. 
One great cause of mildew is, an unhealthy root action ; and 
forcing early with unprotected borders is calculated to produce 
unhealthy action, by forcing the roots into the subsoil to supply 
the demand of the leaves. This is the cause of shanking and 
premature decay. “A. A.” says, heat ascends, cold descends, 
and borders covered with hot dung prevents it. 
I have four vineries, 148 feet long by 18. My predecessor 
never protected his borders during his stay here; the conse¬ 
quence was, that he forced until he could not get any Grapes, 
and was discharged. I was engaged in January, and the early 
house had but a dozen bunches of Grapes in it; the second, 
eighteen bunches ; the third, a sprinkling; and the fourth, a good 
crop that year. Here was the effect of some cause. The cause 
of failure in the early houses was the destruction of surface roots 
when leaves were developed. The cause ot success in the late 
house was by allowing it to break naturally; thus leaves and 
roots were in action together. I removed the soil of the early 
borders to the depth of two feet, without finding a living root, 
and put on a surface-dressing of six inches; covered the whole 
w jth fermenting materials near three feet deep ; removed it in 
May; surface-dressed in September; covered and thatched in 
October; and the year following I had a beautiful crop—some 
bunches weighing 21 lbs. I should just as soon expect a com¬ 
fortable night’s rest with my feet wrapped in ice, as a crop of 
Grapes with unprotected borders.—T ottng Blood. 
EXFOSURE OF MANURE. 
Is it from reason, or experience, that so many of our best agri¬ 
culturists have such a fear of leaving their manure exposed after 
it has been spread on the field without ploughing in P I fancy 
reason has but little to do with it, and my own practice has been 
convincing to me, that the injury is imaginary. Arc we wrong 
