THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 13, 1858. 
tions from others, I venture to hand you my opinion of the 
general features of this vast place, which may, perhaps, be 
the means of inducing some distant gardener to visit it, and 
to judge for himself. At the same time I must admit, that 
though everything I saw outside showed as if under the 
management of skilful hands, inside the building the plants 
looked only indifferent. The Creepers were certainly well 
trimmed, and the basket plants looked well: hut the former 
were very common, and the latter, hung in large baskets and 
removed a long way from the eye, looked by their very posi¬ 
tion well, whether in flower or not; and they have a good 
chance to do well in such a position. But the plants, which 
are placed to form important features to that part of the 
Exhibition which illustrates the customs and habits of the 
barbarous tribes, certainly show but very indifferent cultiva¬ 
tion. Even the class of plants which are of easy culture in 
a usual way, seem not at home where they are; and it is to 
be hoped that this popular portion of the building will be 
better represented "in the rural or forest scenery there 
attempted to be given, which, with plants from the temperate 
regions, ought certainly to be accomplished. A better excuse 
exists for Orchids, and other tropical plants, not looking well 
when subjected to the draughts so unavoidable in a large 
open building.—A Gardener. 
THE COTTAGE BEE-KEEPER. 
A Letter 
To ALL SIMPLE FOLK WHO KEEP, OR INTEND TO KEEP, BEES. 
By P. Y. M. F. 
(Continued from page 11.) 
Saving and Uniting oe Bees. — 1 have supposed that 
the cottager would take up his hives in the old way—I mean 
with the pit and the sulphur match. This, after all, is the 
quickest and least troublesome method of obtaining the riches 
of a hive, and it is often the most merciful way too. More¬ 
over, the practice will be done for ages to come, whatever may 
be said in favour of any other mode of depriving bees. I 
must add, moi'eoA r er, that I very much question the advantage 
to the bee-keeper of saving the lives of th q full-grown bees of 
his plundered hives, by joining them to his other stocks. By 
all means save the young brood in hives plundered after the 
end of July; for most of these, Avhen hatched, will survive 
the winter; but if it be true that bees live only six or seven 
months, as seems to be the case, then the only use which 
J saving the hives of old bees can serve is to assist in hatching 
out the young brood. As, however, every humane mind 
shrinks from destroying life in any form, I proceed to give 
two methods of saving the lives of bees, to the first of Avliich, 
in my own practice, I give the preference. These are by 
driving and fumigating. 
Driving bees is to expel or drive them forcibly out of their 
habitation, by acting upon their fears. The operation is ex¬ 
tremely simple when once mastered. It is best done early in 
the day, when most of the bees are at home, as the fuller the 
hive the better. Take an empty hive the same size as the full 
one which is to be plundered, turn the full hive bottom up¬ 
wards on a stool or in a pail, and fix the empty hive firmly 
upon it as one would put a cover on a dish ; then tap the 
sides of the lower or full hive with the knuckles or a couple 
of sticks. Do this smartly, yet not so as to shake the hives. 
Presently, sometimes almost immediately, a great humming 
noise is heard, lollowed by the ascent of the bees, queen and 
all, into the upper hive. Wait a minute or two till the bees 
have grown quiet again, and then lift off the uppermost hfve 
as gently as possible. Peep under it without moving its 
| position for fear of disturbing the bees, whom an awkward 
shake would cause to fall down on the ground. If you see a 
large mass of bees collected at the top and sides of the hive, 
you may bo pretty sure the queen is with them. Set the 
hive, therefore, in the place of the old stock, and move the 
latter away to some shady place, taking care to leave the 
entrance open. The bees capable of flying which AA'ere not 
di iyen out of it will quickly leave it one by one, and join 
their companions in the empty hive. A on must now care- 
lully watch both hives for some lime, to be sure that the 
queen is \Aith the driven bees. Of this you may be certain 
if you see the bees leave the old hive without returning to it, 
or if the driven bees are pretty quiet, and collect together in 
the empty hive. Sometimes, however, the bees will not 
ascend into the empty hive for a good many minutes, in which 
case there is no remedy but patience, or the brimstone pit, if 
the} 7 refuse to ascend at all. A bee-dress must, of course, be 
used in performing this operation, although it is surprising 
Iioav quiet the bees generally are when under the influence 
of fear. The bee-dress I use is made of green lenos , with j 
sleeves of chintz of the same colour. It goes loosely over the 
head and shoulders, and ties round the waist and at the 
wrists. A stout pair of long leather or Avoollen gloves, 
fastened under the sleeves of the bee-dress, effectually protect 
the hands from injury. 
The simplest mode of fumigating bees is that given by 
John Keys, whose very words I shall transcribe. The pvff, 
of which lie speaks, is the common punk or puff-ball of the 
fields, which, when dry, holds fire like tinder. The mouse- 
skin byssus found in Avine vaults answers just as Avell. 
“ Make a hole in the ground,” says Keys, “ something less 
than the circumference of the hive, and eight inches deep : 
spread a cloth to cover the bottom and sides. In the even¬ 
ing take a stick seven inches long, having a slip (or slit) in its 
end to receive a piece of puff about the size of an egg ; light it, 
stick the other end in a clod of clay, and instantly place the 
hive of bees over it; and they will become as easily stupified 
as when suffocated by brimstone. If one piece of puff is not 
sufficient, put in tw r o or three upon sticks.” 
The bees that haA r e been saved, by either of these processes, 
must be joined to one of the hives next to the place where 
the plundered hive stood in the summer; otherwise, the bees 
saved would soon perish of hunger. A good w ay to unite 
these bees to their neighbours i3 as follows :—At night, when 
the bees are quiet, take the stock to which they are to be 
joined, and set it gently on the ground upon a couple of 
sticks. In a quarter of an hour or so bring the hive with the 
saved bees, and dash them out of it suddenly upon the ground, 
just in front of the stock. They will speedily crawl up into 
it, especially if they are pushed gently with a feather, so as to 
quicken their movements in the direction of the stock. This 
latter must be put in its proper place before morning. 
(To be continued.) 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
CUTTING DOWN AND PRUNING THE PASSION 
FLOWER. 
“ A Reader oe the Cottage Gardener wishes for further 
information respecting the treatment of a young Passion 
Flower. She adopted the plan laid down in your number for 
March 10th, 1857, and cut down a young plant in the foliow- 
ing April. This has grown most vigorously in a small green¬ 
house, and runs all across the glass, but she is now at a loss 
to know how it is to be treated this year.” 
[The common Passion Flower ought to he cut down very 
clos efour years running, in April , even if it w T ore seven years 
old at the time of planting it, but not quite so close in a 
greenhouse as when trained out of doors. The reason is, that 
the more it is cut down the stronger will be its growth, be¬ 
cause ten very strong leaves will digest more food than fifty 
ordinary leaves, from the common way of pruning. Also, the 
closer it is pruned the more floAvers it will give, for the same 
reason, and they will come a year or two sooner from close 
pruning. Supposing your plant to he against the front of the 
greenhouse, avc would cut it down to one-half of the height of 
the front this season, and next year we would cut it just under 
the angle of the roof and the front. After that Ave would take 
one shoot to the right and one to the left, horizontally along 
the top of the front glass, and cut each of them to four feet 
trom the last pruning, and so on till they met on the same 
level all round the house, supposing that to be practicable. 
r ihe shoots from these horizontal arms we would train auy- 
Avhere during the summer, and cut them back to two eyes 
every April tor the next 150 years, or make a provision to 
that effect in the chronicles of the said greenhouse. Our oaati 
Passion Flower out of doors is the best in t lie country : avc 
