THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 4, 1858. 
SALINE COMPOST EOR PEACH TREES. 
I can corroborate your remarks on the suitableness of 
saline matter for the growth of Peach trees. Many of your 
readers will be aware, that the flat land around Buenos 
Ayres is strongly impregnated with saline deposit, so much 
so that, after heavy rains have evaporated, the ground is often 
white with a salt crust. Well, there the Peach tree flourishes 
amazingly. It is planted in large groves, and cut down like 
coppices for fire*wood, and is found to flourish there more 
vigorously than any other tree. I remember seeing shoots 
eight feet high, and with fruit on, which had grown from 
stumps cut down eleven months before that time—a rate ot 
growth which may appear fabulous to many of your readers 
who have not visited the tropics.—W. X. W. 
THE COTTAGE BEE-KEEPER. 
A Letter 
To ALL SIMPLE FOLK WHO KEEP, OR INTEND TO KEEP, BEES. 
By P. Y. M. E. 
(Continued from page 61.) 
Of Hiyes. —You will remember what I said about hives. 
All early, or May, swarms should be put into hives of large 
size; such hives as will hold a bushel of wheat. June 
swarms , which come after the first week, should go into hives 
which hold two or three pecks, according to the size of the 
swarms. Have, therefore, a good stock of new hives of both 
sizes ready. I think any shaped hive will do ; but I hke them 
best as flat-topped as possible ; and there ought to be a good- 
sized hole at the top, with a cork or bung in it. Let the hole 
be two or three inches across. 
Of Dressing Hiyes, &c. —You may dress your hives 
with sugar and herbs, if you like, but it is not at all necessary. 
And you may also beat pots and pans to make a noise, if you 
please; it may serve to tell your neighbours that a swarm is 
in the air, so that they may come and help you to save it. 
Swarms not to be Eorced. —Some people try to force 
their bees to swarm early, by uncovering the hives when the 
sun shines warmly. Nothing can be worse. The swarm 
cannot come forth with safety to the hive till the queen is 
ready ; and when the queen is ready, she will generally come 
out of herself quickly enough in line 'weather, without any 
help of yours. Not only does a hot sun distress the bees, but 
it will often kill many of the young bees inside, and even 
melt the combs. Remember, it is not heat and fine weather 
only which makes bees swarm. There must be young queens 
: coming on in the hive, or else, when the old queen goes off 
with the swarm, there would be no mother-bee left in the 
hive, which would soon die away. " For the old queen always 
goes of with the first swarm. This is a secret worth knowing. 
Jf you want early swarms, put your hives in a snug situation, 
sheltered from the wind, under a wall or hedge, lhey should 
not be too close to the wall—say two or three feet from it. 
There should always be room to walk comfortably behind the 
hives. If you put them in a snug place, like this, you may 
reasonably expect early swarms. 
Of the Hiving of Swarms.— Well, let us suppose your 
first swarm settled on a bush in your garden. What is to be 
done ? If you are afraid, put on a veil and a pair of gloves, 
as thick as you can find them. Then go at once to the place 
where your swarm is settled, and sweep or shake them into 
the hive which you have got ready for them. Next, turn the 
hive up on a board or chair, near the spot where the swarm 
settled, and protect it from the sun for ten minutes or a quarter 
of an hour, till all the bees have collected within it. 
How TO MANAGE SWARMS "WITH THE GREATEST PROFIT. 
—And now what is to be done with the swarm ? Your 
neighbours will tell you to let it remain where it is till the 
evening, and then to remove it to the place where it is to 
remain, in some other part of your garden. My advice, how ¬ 
ever, is this : as soon as the hees are pretty well settled, go and 
put the sic arm in the place of the old hive, and remove the old 
hive to a new stand, at some distance off. This is a strange 
plan you will say, but it is a good plan, believe me, for all that 
it is new. And I will explain why. First of all, by putting 
the swarm in the place of the old hive, you will find that the 
71 
swarm tvill be sure to be a large one , even though it w'as very 
small, perhaps, when you hived it. Eor most of the full- 
grown bees of the old hive, when they go out into the fields, 
not knowing that you have changed their hive, will return 
straight to the old place , where they have been accustomed to 
go. They may be a little puzzled at first not to find then* 
ancient abode there, but they will soon be content with 
their new home, which contains their old queen and com¬ 
panions. The old hive will become very empty of bees for 
a day or two; but in a short time it will seem as full as ever, 
when the young bees, left by the old queen, are hatched out 
of the cells. 
How TO PREVENT SECOND AND THIRD SWARMS, OR CASTS. 
— The second reason why my plan is a good one is, because 
you will seldom have any other swarms, which generally 
weaken the parent hive so much that it rarely does well, or 
gives any honey worth taking. Besides, if second swarms 
sometimes do well, third swarms, or casts, as they are some¬ 
times called, are hardly ever worth anything. I say, there¬ 
fore, prevent your hives from swarming more than once a 
year. One good swarm, and a strong and populous old hive, 
will yield more profit by a great deal than two or three iveak 
sioarms, and a thinly-peopled parent stock. Every good bee¬ 
keeper will tell you that, if you can prevent casts from rising, 
the old hive will collect twice as much honey by itself alone, 
than if its population was divided into two families. And what 
is more, if you prevent a second swarm from rising, in the 
way I point out, and at the same time give the old hive plenty 
of additional room (as I shall show how presently), you will 
get a still larger quantity of honey. And the way to prevent 
second and third swarms is, as 1 have already told you, to 
put your first swarm in the place of the old hive, and to shift 
the old hive to some other place. Do this as soon as the bees 
are hived. Don’t wait till evening : do it at once. I tried 
this plan, for the first time, in the year 1851. I had a very 
poor swarm, which rose on the 15th of May. If I had put 
it on a new stand, it would have given me but little honey. 
However, I made it change places with the old hive, and it 
became very strong at once, and in two months the hive had 
increased in weight as much as fifty-four pounds; and this 
was by no means a good year. I know that a new thing finds 
no favour with you cottagers ; you are so fond of going on in 
the ways of your forefathers. But only trust me, and give 
my plan a fair trial, in a fair season, and you will find my 
advice worth listening to. There is no harm in trying. 
{To be continued.) 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S MEETING. 
The April Meeting of the Entomological Society was 
held on the 5th ult., the chair being occupied by I. O. West- 
wood, Esq., E.L.S., Yice-President. Amongst the donations 
was the first part of a catalogue of British Coleoptera, edited 
by P. R. Waterhouse, Esq.; also, two specimens of the rare 
and beautiful Carabus intricatus , from Devonshire, presented 
by Mr. Reading. 
The Chairman announced that, in pursuance of resolutions 
which had been adopted at the last anniversary M’eeting, the 
sale of the Exotic portion of the collection of the Society 
w T ould take place during the ensuing week at the auction 
rooms of Mr. J. C. Stevens; it having been found impractica¬ 
ble, with the limited means of the Society, to keep a general 
collection properly arranged and preserved, and having been 
considered more advisable to expend the produce to arise from 
the sale in the completion, as far as possible, of the British 
collection, and to increase the library. It was proper, how¬ 
ever, to notice that the Society had reserved all those specimens 
of exotic insects which had served as types for the descriptions 
published by Mr. Kirby, or other more recent writers. 
A new part of the Transactions was announced as ready for 
distribution. 
Mr. Samuel Stevens exhibited two specimens of the splendid 
and extremely rare Fapilio Ulysses, recently captured in the 
Aru Islands, near New Guinea, by Mr. S. Wallace. They 
are exceedingly rapid in their mode of flight, and, consequently, 
very difficult to capture. 
Mr. Douglas exhibited a variety of rare British beetles, 
captured in ants’ nests. Mr. Squire exhibited the rare JTar- 
