THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Aran, 6, 1858. 
10 
not runners from your own stock, for that would only bother 
you ten times worse. Make it generous, such as would give a 
cood crop of Cauliflowers; then mulch the surface with any 
very rotten refuse about the garden, and water well mthe 
summer. If you tell any garden workman to make up a 
piece of border that would grow Cauliflowers, ho will under¬ 
stand you, and when it is ready change your mind, and plan 
Yiolets • but first tell him you want a Yiolet bed, and he will 
be either puzzled how to do it, or think you daft for supposing 
that Yiolets require any fuss about them.] 
YARIE GATED GERANIUM FOR BEDDING. 
“ Can you recommend a good variegated Geranium for 
bedding? Flower of the Fay is too stunted in its growth to 
be planted with almost anything else, except as a bordering.’ 
—R. E. S, 
[Where the Flower of the Fay is too slow of growth, 
Jackson's J&riegated Nosegay will just be in its right place, 
and Floiver of the Fay would make a good edging to it, if an 
edging is necessary. Therefore, it stands to reason, that wheie 
the Flower of the Fay grows vigorously, as it does in most 
gardens, the bed for Jackson's Nosegay should be made on 
purpose to check luxuriant growth, and encourage an abun¬ 
dant bloom. It is by far the best grower of all the variegated 
Geraniums, and it is as cheap, we believe, as Flower of the 
_ 
THE COTTAGE BEE-KEEPER, 
' A Letter 
To ALL SIMPLE FOLK WHO KEEP, OR INTEND TO KEEP, BEES. 
By P. Y. M. E. 
Section 1, 
The Proeit op keeping Bees.— My good friend, you 
keep, or you intend to keep, bees : it is well; for, it you 
manage them properly, they ought to pay your rent, if you 
are a day-labourer. 1 don’t mean to say they will pay your 
rent every year, but, taking one year with another, they 
' ought, at the very least, to bring in from £5 to £7 a year; 
and they may be made, with attention, much more profitable. 
Do not think I speak without reason, for I can tell you that 
not a few cottagers in England do pay their rent aye, and 
in some places, but not often in England, I have heard of 
persons who live comfortably on nothing else but what they 
get for their honey. You have heard talk of Poland, I dare 
say ; well, there it is quite a common thing to see a hundred, 
or two hundred hives, and even a great many more, kept by 
one person. But, in England too, I have heard of as many 
as sixty, or more, hives being kept by one man. I have my¬ 
self seen as many as twenty hives in a garden. Perhaps you 
may think twenty hives a large number: if you were a neigh¬ 
bour of mine I should not wonder at it; for, where I have 
lived, for many miles on either side, the poor people every¬ 
where destroy so many of their hives every year, that I never 
knew above four kept in one garden over any one winter. 
It does not matter how many swarms there may have been 
from these four stocks in any summer, as soon as autumn 
comes all but the old number are taken up and plundered. 
Now, of course, I do not mean to say that a cottager, who 
keeps only four hives, will be able to pay his rent generally. 
To do this a good many more should be kept. Fvery cottager 
should keep at least ten stock hives over every winter. And 
whv should he not? Perhaps you will say, “I must have 
money; I can’t wait so many years as it would take to get 
up my number to ten, without some profit out of my bees.” 
Well, as it would take three or four years for you to get any 
profit, if you began with only one hive, I do not ask you to 
wait so long before you begin to take up some of your hives. 
All I want of you is to let them gradually increase from year 
to year ; and to be content, for a few years, with a part only 
of the plunder you might have. Add only one to your num¬ 
ber every year, and you will still get a fair share of honey, 
a share that will increase every year, until you have got as 
many as you can look after. 
IIow to begin Bee-keeping. —It is very well to begin 
with a swarm : if you can begin with more than one, so much 
the better. Only let every swarm you begin with be early and 
strong. It ought, if possible, to be a May swarm, and cer¬ 
tainly not later than the 10th of June, to do any good the 
first year. If you can , ichen you buy, try to get a swarm from 
a hive which sent out a swarm the year before . This is very 
good advice, because such a swarm always has a young and 
good queen, or mother-bee. Let it also be a first or prime 
swarm It is of little use to buy a cast, or second swarm, 
much less to buy a colt, or third swarm, which generally 
come too late in the season, and are too weak in bees to 
promise much. If the swarm comes early say in May put 
it into a large hive, that will hold a bushel of wheat. If it 
comes in June, put it into a smaller hive. “Early swarms 
IN LARGE HIVES : LATE SWARMS IN SMALL HIVES. ’ Mind 
you attend to this rule. 
Op Improved Bee-hives, and their Use. —The success¬ 
ful management of bees may be carried on in hives of any 
shape, either of wood or straw. For myself, I prefer straw 
for hives which are to stand in the open air; they are warmer 
in winter, and cooler in summer, and they aie also cheaper 
than any others. The common bell-shaped hive, well made, 
is a very good bee-hive. At the same time, for those who like 
something better than the common hive, and can afford to 
pay a little more for it, I recommend a straw hive, straight 
at the sides, and open at both ends, but an inch or so wider 
at the top than at the bottom. This hive will thus resemble 
a common bucket, with its bottom knocked out. In fact, a 
small bucket would make a very good bee-hive; but, being 
of wood, it would not stand well in the sun, unless a coil of 
rope, or straw, were tightly twisted round it from top to 
bottom. It would then make the best and most lasting bee¬ 
hive in the world. A small barrel sawn in two, with its 
ends open, would answer the same purpose. The rope should 
be well painted, to preserve it. This hive is to be set on the 
hive-stand with its broadest end uppermost , and it must be 
covered at top with a stout, flat board, projecting a little all 
round the hive, and resting upon it in such a manner that the 
bees cannot find a crevice by which to escape. At the same 
time I do not fasten this top to the hive, as the bees very soon 
fasten it down themselves. It is well, however, to place a flat 
stone, or thick slate, upon it, or a few bricks, to prevent it 
from curling or warping, and the whole should be covered 
over with a large earthenware pan. The top board must 
have a large three-inch hole in the centre, which is ordinarily 
to be stopped up with a bung or cork. If this hive is made 
of straw, it is a good plan to work it on a hoop of stout wood 
at both ends, which will preserve the straw much longer, and 
make the hive sit well on the stand, and the wooden board on 
its top. . . 
The use of this hive is great; for, in the first place, it is 
very convenient for putting small hives on in the honey 
season. But its advantage will chiefly appear in the end of 
summer, at the time of the honey harvest. One of the 
greatest objections to the common hive is the absolute impossi¬ 
bility of taking away the honey, without destroying a quantity 
of comb, that would be of value to the bees another year; 
much more valuable than the wax, to be got from them, would 
be to the bee-master. Not only so, there is often an immense 
quantity of brood , or young unhatched bees, destroyed, which, 
if preserved, and added to one of the keeping hives, would 
add greatly to its prosperity another year, as these young bees 
will live till spring. Now, my hive is intended to remedy 
both these evils, for (after getting rid of the old bees) you 
may remove the top brood by passing a knife completely 
under it all round, so as to separate the combs from it; then 
the comb which contains the honey can be easily cut out, 
without injuring the lower part of the combs at all , especially 
if there arc sticks in the middle of the hive to support tin 
combs. Therefore, be sure to put sticks in these hives. Every 
one knows that the best honey is always stored by the bees ir 
the upper part of the hive; while the queen lays her eggs 
in the middle and lower part of the combs. A good bee 
keeper, therefore, will carefully preserve these combs, and th 
young bees in them ; and this is easy enough with these hives 
for after the best part of tire honey has been taken out, all tha 
is to be done is to set the hive bottom upivards under any of th 
hives that are to stand the winter. The bees of this hive wil 
go down and hatch out the young bees, and carry up int: 
their own hive any honey that may be left. They will thu 
