THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 18, 1858. 
104 
Miss Foster (Turner), a liighly-colourcd variety. Fine 
form and constant. 
Standard (Hoyle), general colour a clear rich rose, with 
dark blotch on the upper petals. Large and fine. 
Una (Hocken), a free-blooming white flower, with carmine 
spot on the upper petals. Very showy. 
Wonderful (Hoyle), deep rose lower petals, shaded with 
orange; velvety-maroon blotch on the upper petals, margined 
with rose. Free and constant.—Average price 2s. 6d. each. 
Six New Fancy Varieties. 
Acme (Turner), deep purple maroon ; white throat and 
margin ; good form and habit. Has received many certi¬ 
ficates. A constant fine variety. 
Mrs. Turner (Turner), vivid-carmine rose; clear white 
centre and margin. Distinct, and decidedly new. Has ob¬ 
tained many certificates. 
Princess Royal (Turner), silvery white; deep lilac blotch 
on the upper petals. A great improvement on its class. 
Adeta (Turner), rosy iilac, with white centre and margin. 
Good form and habit. 
Claudiana (Turner), crimson upper petals; lower petals 
mottled with purplish crimson on a white ground. A pleasing 
variety. 
Rosabella (Turner), upper petals bright carmine, edged 
with white ; lower petals white. Good form and constant. 
Twelye Older Vaeieties. 
Bridesmaid (Turner), light. 
Carminatum (Turner), dark. 
Crimson King (Turner), crimson. 
Cloth of Silver (Henderson), light. 
Celestial (Ayres), light rose. 
Kinder or (Turner), dark. 
Evening Star (Henderson), light. 
Helen Faucit (Turner), dark. 
Madame Rougiere (Turner), dark. 
Mrs. Colmar (Turner), dark. 
Purpureum album (Turner), dark. 
Queen of Roses (Turner), rose. 
A few select French Vaeieties worth growing for their 
' bizzare curious markings and colourings. 
Chauviere , white, blotched and spotted with deep purple. 
Eugene Duval , light purple, shaded with blood colour. 
Emperor Napoleon , deep crimson shaded. 
Godefroid , crimson, shaded with white. 
Madame Pescatore , salmon, shaded with maroon. 
Napoleon III., upper petals black, lower petals rosy orange, 
both shaded with red. 
Pescatore , salmon carmine, shaded and spotted with dark 
crimson. 
Perrugino , rose, shaded and blotched with dark maroon. 
Roi de Feu , upper petals scarlet, lower petals Vermillion, 
shaded with dark maroon. 
Verschaffeltii, salmon, spotted and veined with rosy crimson. 
| —T. Atpleby. 
THE COTTAGE HEE-KEEPEIl. 
A Letter 
To ALL SIMPLE FOLK WHO KEEP, OE INTEND TO KEEP, BeES. 
By P. V. M. F. 
(Continued from page 85.) 
Section 4.—Autumn Management, Honey Harvest, &c. 
Which Hives to Plunder and which to Keep. —Let 
I us now suppose that you are going to begin taking up your 
hives, as you have got your full number, and some to spare. 
Op the Best Time to take the Honey in Autumn.— 
The best time to plunder hives, in most places, is towards the 
| end of July, or the first week in August; that is, as soon as 
the bees relax , or cease their grand collecting of honey. Very 
little honey, and that, generally, of very inferior quality, is 
added to the bees’ stores after the third week in July. it is 
better to wait, however, till the activity of the bees sensibly 
relaxes ; this generally takes place Simultaneously with the 
massacre of the drones. Another reason for plundering to¬ 
wards the end ol July is, that at this time there is usually a 
large quantity of brood, or young bees, unhatched in the hives. 
Many of these, if the lioney-harvest be delayed, will have left 
then’ cells, when the general destruction of the bees takes 
place, in winch case they will be involved hi the general ruin; 
but by burning the hives in July, or very early in August, 
most of these, 1 if carefully preserved, will live till the follow¬ 
ing spring, and greatly strengthen the stocks to which they 
are joined. Even where hives are sent off to the moors for 
the late honey of autumn, it is well to plunder them oipart , 
at least, of their stores before they go; first, because the hives 
will thus travel easier; and secondly, because the best honey 
is always that collected in June and the earlier part of July. 
In hives ’with moveable tops, like those recommended at 
page 10, it is an easy matter to deprive the bees in this way 
of a part of their stores. Which are you to plunder, and 
which to keep ? Your neighbours, you will find, generally 
take up theh old hives, and keep their swarms; chiefly be¬ 
cause their old hives are so weakened by swarming, that they 
are often too light in weight to live through the wmter. They 
also take up the colts, and often the second swarms, or casts, 
for the same reason. But this is very poor work, and, there¬ 
fore, I am against them again. As for second and third 
swarms, if you have followed my plan, there will be none of 
them in your garden. But as both your old hives and swarms 
will be heavy, and both might be kept through the whiter, 
you may be puzzled to know which to keep, and which to 
burn. Now, the question is, which are best worth taking, 
and which best worth keeping. I will tell you. Take and 
plunder your swarms , and keep your old hives ; for the swarms 
will give you most profit, as they contain whiter combs, and 
purer honey, and more of it; while the old hives have black 
combs, a great deal more dirt and waste, not so much honey, 
nor so fine in quality. Besides, remember the swarms con¬ 
tain the old queens, and the parent stocks contain the young 
and healthy queens, can there be a doubt, then, as to what 
should be done ? Do you ask how do I know that the old 
hives contain the young queens ? . I answer, because the old 
queens always go oJ) ? with the swarms. I never knew it other¬ 
wise. This is worth knowing, because you may always keep 
up a stock of young queens, who are generally the best 
breeders, by destroying your swarms every autumn, and 
keeping your old hives. 
Young Queens generally the Best Breeders. —I have 
said that young queens are generally the best breeders. As 
this implies that 1 do not believe it to be always the case, 
1 advise the reader to destroy the old hive, rather than the 
swarm, hi any case where lie has reason to believe that the 
stock he intended to keep has a defective queen. This may 
always be known by the weakness of the stock. Or, perhaps, 
it is better to destroy all the bees of the stock together with 
tlieh* queen, and then to drive the population of the swarm 
that stands nearest into the now deserted stock. Care must I 
be taken that their queen be with them ; therefore, it is well j 
to drive them first into an empty hive, and then into the j 
stock. Before putting the bees into the stock it should be j 
carefully examined, and a part of the empty combs cut away, ! 
if they are black or old. Then the bees may be suffered to 
hatch out the brood of one of the plundered hives; which j 
will be all the more acceptable to them, if a little of the in¬ 
ferior honey in it be left for them to carry up into their hive. 
If this operation be done towards the end of J uly, they will 
often begin at once to make new comb in the place of the old j 
that was cut away. Thus, besides the advantage of greater | 
profit in honey, which you will have over your neighbours, 
by managing your hives in this way, you will have this other 
advantage, that your queens will never die in the winter of 
old age ; and, therefore, your keeping hives will never perish, 
as other people’s do, for that reason. Accidents will, of 
course, sometimes happen, by which hives will die without 
our knowing the cause; but it is in our power to avoid causes 
which we know may be fatal to them. It may also happen 
that, from some unknown cause, a good hive with a young 
queen, as well as with an old one, will give no swarm at all 
tbe next year. If so, then I would advise you to keep a good 
swarm in place of this stock the next autumn. But though, 
as a general rule , I say take up your swarms, and keep your 
old laves, it will be proper every five years to destroy the old 
hives, and keep swarms in their place : this is when the comb 
gets black and dirty with age. No hive should be kept as a 
breeding stock more than five years. 
