THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 18, 1859. 
251 
September, or the beginning of October, so as to establish them¬ 
selves in the bed of soil, it would have been different. As fruit 
tills season is the principal object, it will be best to keep the 
plants in the pots, merely enlarging the hole at the bottom, and 
surface dressing the pot with rich compost. 
In a new house, it matters but little when new Vines are planted. 
If it had been suitable, wo would have preferred the permanent 
Vines to have been planted and protected, before starting those 
in pots. Those out of doors, over them, would come away con¬ 
siderably later than those in pots inside; but they would not 
suffer afterwards in the same temperature. Now, supposing that 
you commenced your pots in January and February, and planted 
your permanent Vines in March or April, without any previous 
excitement, then the temperature inside would be too high for 
them at first; and if the Vines had previously been started in 
another place, or even in the same house, then the coldness of 
the soil in the outside border would check growth by its coldness. 
In your circumstances, we think it would be best to start your 
permanent Vines in your house a few weeks after the pot ones ; 
but giving them little or no bottom heat. Pay them every neces¬ 
sary attention, and plant them carefully out at the end of June, 
or the beginning of July, when the ground, by frequent turning, 
exposing, and protecting,—such as placing a glass sash over the 
space, — had been well warmed; what little water that was 
used being also warm. By shading the tops of the plants a little 
at first, they would receive little or no check, and there would be 
plenty of time for the roots to establish themselves in the border, 
and for the wood to be strong and matured before the end of 
autumn. By different peculiar modes, you might grow Vines in pots 
for early produce, and keep these planted-out Vines for the main 
later crop in the same house. Those thus planted must have the 
roots disentangled out of the ball, and spread out nicely ; and if 
watered with warm water, and covered with aired warm soil, 
and that kept warm, if the weather should be cold, no check worth 
speaking about will be noticed.] 
CULTURE OF CLEMATIS LANUGINOSA. 
“ Clematis lanuginosa, just brought in, is in a 48-pot, shooting 
a little : it comes from a greenhouse ; its stem is single, and about 
two feet long. When should I turn it out, against a south-east 
wall, little north of London ? When planted, and the shoots a 
little more forward, should I cut it right down to the crown, to 
within an eye or two, or shorten it only, or leave it as it is for 
length ? ”— Gheenhand. 
[The way to manage Clematis lanuginosa, and all other pot 
Clematises, at this season, is to keep them just as they are, till 
about the middle of March ; then to give them a shift into a pot 
one size larger, and to keep them so till the second week in May, \ 
when they are to be planted out with the balls entire. But just | 
three weeks before planting-out time, the whole head of each 1 
plant is to be cut back to three or four eyes, and sometimes to two 
eyes, if the plant is weak. That rule holds good with nineteen 
climbers out of twenty, that are planted out of pots, and to pot 
Clematises more than any others, and to coerulea and Sieboldi 
more still, and to lanuginosa in the same degree. Meantime, 
find out how your plant has been propagated. No doubt, a bud, 
or joint, of it was grafted on something in the Clematis way ; and 
if it was grafted on the roots of any of the common kinds, you ! 
might as well throw it to the dogs at once, for it will never do 
good that way; and you will be pestered with suckers from the 
Btock as long as you live. Although Clematis lanuginosa is one 
of our very favourite climbers, we would not take it ns a gift, 
unless it was on its own roots, or grafted on the roots of ccerulea, 
which never makes suckers, as was said in noticing this plant 
lately, at the Clapton Nursery, where it is all grafted that way. 
All kinds of climbing Roses, and Brambles, Glycines, Jasmines, 
Passion-Flowers, and, indeed, all pot climbers, would do a 
thousand times better that same way, than one out of a thousand 
of them ever does in the common way, of planting them out from 
the middle of March to the end of April, and of leaving long 
pieces of the old shoots. Ten thousand Glycines have gone 
wrong, or never did much good, from the simple fact of one yard 
of shoot being left, at planting time, instead of one eye at the very 
bottom. And no climber, that is to be planted out next May, 
ought to receive one degree of additional heat more than the 
usual course, during the whole of that spring. Also, the one, 
two, or three eyes which are left, should start before the plant is 
turned out of the pot.] 
BEE-KEEPING IN DEVON.—No. VIII. 
DIMINUTION OF NUMBERS IN WINTER — DEEDING DEPRIVED 
BEES—EABRICATION OP COMB — DISCREPANCY BETWEEN 
QUANTITY OF FOOD GIVEN AND THAT ACTUALLY STORED— 
RETURN FROM THE HEATH—TABLE OF WEIGHTS—RESULTS. 
The box of deprived bees, of which such frequent mention has 
been already made, and which now contained the inhabitants of 
four stocks, was brought from the heath on the 20th of September, 
and placed under the south-east verandah referred to in my first 
communication. The net weight of the entire contents of the 
box being only 5|lbs. (not greater than that of a large swarm), 
affords a striking illustration of the extraordinary diminution 
which takes place in the population of bee-hives as the working 
season draws to a close. 
Not doubting, therefore, that these unfortunates were really 
on the brink of starvation, I lost no time in administering such 
a supply of food as might enable them to store up sufficient for 
the winter’s consumption. Referring to that excellent little 
manual, “ Bee-keeping for the Many,” I manufactured a quantity 
of bee-food after the manner therein prescribed—viz., “ three 
pounds of (lump) sugar to a pint of water, boiled for two or 
three minutes ; ” flavoured, however, with rather a less quantity 
of honey than is directed by Mr. Payne. Presenting this food 
to the bees —on the top of the hive—in a feeding-pan, which 
was duly filled every night, and as regularly emptied by them 
before morning,—none, however, being given in the daytime,— 
it was interesting to watch the ardour evinced by the industrious 
insects, in extending and storing their scanty combs ; nor can I 
doubt, that had the supply continued, the box would speedily 
have been completely furnished. At the expiration of a week, I 
found the hive about two-thirds filled with comb, mostly sealed, 
and perfectly white, and the net weight increased to 16 lbs. 
Deeming this sufficient to last till spring, I discontinued the 
supply, upon which the festoons of wax-workers speedily dis¬ 
united, and, the previous excitement having rapidly subsided, 
the colony assumed the quiescent appearanoe natural to this 
advanced period of the year. 
11 will be perceived that the actual increase was about 10 lbs.; 
but, to effect this, from 17 lbs. to 18 lbs. was given, of which 
12 lbs. was lump sugar. Docs not this discrepancy, between the 
weight of food administered and that actually stored, speak 
strongly in favour of the correctness of the conclusion arrived at 
by Huber, that from a pound of refined sugar only about one- 
twelfth its weight of wax can be produced ? I may add, that I 
had the curiosity to weigh the bees, both morning and evening, 
during three days whilst feeding was going on, and found them, 
invariably, half a pound lighter every evening than they were in 
the morning. 
The return of the seven hives, originally conveyed to the heath 
by myself and friend, took place on the 2nd of October, without 
accident or incident worth relating ; the shaking experienced on 
descending being nothing in comparison with that sustained in 
ascending the high ground to which our hives had been so long 
banished. 
Subjoined is a table of the weights of my four hives up to this 
time, repeating that of the 31st of August, when three of them 
had been twenty days on the heath, and when, also, they appear 
to have reached the culminating point:— 
Date. 
No. 
1. 
No. 
2. 
No. 
3. 
No. 
4. 
lbs. 
ozs. 
lbs. 
OZS. 
lbs. 
OZS. 
lbs. ozs. 
August 31. 
.. 20 
s ... 
... 21 
4 ... 
... 22 
1 ... 
... 0 
0 
Suptember 13*.... 
.. 21 
0 ... 
. 20 
8 ... 
... 22 
0 ... 
0 
4 
„ 2U .... 
.. 20 
12 ... 
... 20 
0 ... 
... 21 
12 ... 
5 
12 
October 2 . 
.. 10 
12 ... 
... 18 
8 ... 
... 21 
0 ... 
... 10 
0 
November 13 .... 
.. 17 
4 .... 
... 10 
0 .... 
... 13 
8 ... 
... 13 
8 
December 23 .... 
.. 16 
4 ... 
... 14 
12 .... 
... 17 
0 ... 
... 11 
14 
„ 29 .... 
.. 16 
0 .... 
... 14 
8 .... 
... 16 
12 ... 
... 11 
10 
January 7 . 
.. 15 
10 ... 
... 14 
2 .... 
... 10 
6 ... 
... 10 
14 
With regard to the results of my experiments, so far as they 
are apparent, there oan bo no doubt that the journey to the 
heath has resulted in my stocks being much heavier than if they 
had remained at home. On the other hand, I am of opinion, 
that their removal each way was too long deferred. The popu¬ 
lation in every hive has diminished far below anything 1 have 
before experienced, and this evil has only been partially miti¬ 
gated by doubling two of them. Taking this fact in conjunction 
with the paucity of bees already mentioned as being observed in 
six different stocks driven by me in the neighbourhood, I am 
*Tlie apparent increase in No. 1, and trifling diminution in No. 3, at this 
date, is owing, probably, to the population ol these stocks having been 
doubled since the former weighing. 
