185 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 1 , 1858. 
BEE-KEEPING BY COTTAGERS. 
Mr. Wighton need be under no apprehension of my 
taking offence at any amount of courteous criticism. He is 
right in saying that I invited it; and most glad shall I be if 
any of your readers take sufficient interest in the publication 
of my “ letter” as to think it worth correction. Whatever 
suggestions I may receive, which in my judgment appear 
valuable, shall be duly embodied in a note, supplementary to 
the letter, when the whole of it has appeared in your columns. 
In general, I may remark on Mr. Wight-on’s objections as 
follows:— 
First, with regard to the number of hives to be kept by 
cottagers, I quite agree with Mr. Wighton, that, “ in some 
localities, there is not sufficient food for the offspring, or 
swarms, of so many stocksthat is to say, if any great 
number of cottagers were to keep bees ; and yet I see no 
reason to alter my words. My experience is certainly in 
favour of a large addition to the number of stock hives in 
most parts of Great Britain; believing that an immense 
quantity of honey is annually wasted, so far as man is con¬ 
cerned, for lack of collectors at those favourable moments 
when our fitful climate permits it to be accumulated and 
gathered. I say, then, unhesitatingly, to such cottagers as 
care to keep bees (always a comparatively small number), 
keep a good stock of hives; but so manage them that they 
shall always be strong enough to survive bad seasons , and 
make the most of the few weeks of fine weather, which very 
few seasons are without. 
Secondly. As to Mr. Wighton’s objection to my use of the 
word “ old,” as applied to the bees got rid of in the plundered 
hives, this criticism, I think, might have been spared ; as it is 
plain that I did not compare those bees with their like in the 
old hives, but with the young, unhatched brood in their own 
hives, of which I was speaking. 
Thirdly. A cottager, who wished to save the brood in liis 
hives, would hardly use too much sulphur a second time, if 
he found the brood injured by an over-dose the first time. 
I shall, however,* “ make a note of this,” and refer to it 
again. Whether Mr. Wighton is correct in his surmise, that 
“ larva are bred with their mouths downward,” and, there¬ 
fore, might not cc come to maturity in a reversed position,” I 
cannot tell. My notion is, that the larvae would soon change 
their position in search of food. But, be this as it may, the 
young bees, ceiled over in the cells (of which there is usually 
a large proportion, in hives plundered at the tune I mention), 
would escape all danger on this score. 
I see no reason to change my remarks about cutting out 
honey. A little judgment in so doing is all that is necessary. 
But 1 stoutly maintain, that in no hives, but those accessible 
at the top, can the honey, which is worth taking, be cut out 
without destroying all the combs ; whereas in such hives a 
judicious, and not too greedy, spoliation will suffer most of 
the combs to remain secure and uninjured. Again, Mr. 
Wighton will see that there is no “ must ” in the case, with 
regard to the brood growing “ cold,” when he observes that I 
recommend the swarms to be plundered not later than the 
beginning of August. At that season there is usually no great 
frequency of cold nights, or such a scarcity of bees in the 
hives, to fear much for the brood. Lastly, on my plan , there 
will seldom be an insufficiencv of “ stocks to nurse the brood 
V 
hi the new hives for those will be equal to, or certainly not 
“ double the number of the old ones.”—B. and Yv r . 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
VINES WHICH HAVE BEEN LIFTED. 
■ 
“ I have a house filled with Vines, the roots of which 1 had 
occasion to lift last autumn, as they had got too deep into a 
badly-drained border. While the operation was going on, I was 
obliged to be absent. Bright weather setting in, shading was 
neglected, the Vines flagging in consequence, preventing that 
i thorough maturing of the wood, and that root-action, which 
otherwise would have taken place. I might here state, that, 
returning home before they were all lifted, and shading being 
applied, a few were kept from flagging, which are now doing 
well. The others, I regret to say, have broke very weakly, 
and are growing only a very little. As the season advances, 
will they improve much F Or would you advise me to plant 
young ones in their stead ? The border is new.”—A Con¬ 
stant Reader. 
[We should expect the Vines, if kept rather cool, to im¬ 
prove with the season; but, to be doubly sure, we would 
have young Vines, and grow them on in pots, and, if the Vines 
did not improve greatly by July, we would plant out the 
young ones. If you lift early in the autumn, you must shade. 
In your circumstances, you should have deferred until towards 
the end of October.] 
GROWING MELONS IN A PLANT PIT. 
“ Will you give me your opinion respecting growing Melons 
in a pit built for protecting bedding plants. The pit is forty 
feet in length, divided into four, of ten feet each, and provided 
with flues. The stokehole is at one end, and the chimney at 
the other. ■ The flues run one along the front, and the other 
along the back of the pit; they diverge from the fireplace, 
which is in the centre of one end, run the whole length of the 
pit, and then converge, and enter the shaft, which is inside a 
building, so as not to be seen. The pit is not deep enough to 
hold sufficient heating materials to grow Melons, being only 
two feet six inches high at front, and not quite four feet high 
at back, with no means of lining outside. 1 thought of | 
placing large evaporating pans all along the flues, and a 
draining-pipe, two feet long, or more, upright, in each pan, 
and then covering the pans with the tiles, to keep the leaves, or 
dung, out of the water. The pans could be filled by pouring 
water down the pipes, and then, when the flues were heated, 
steam and heat would ascend through the pipes, which would 
be in two rows back and front, ten pipes in each row. I 
thought of placing some small wood over the bottom of the 
pit, and upon that eight or ten inches of leaves, or dung, 
leaving room for a foot of soil; the latter to be a foot from 
the glass, and the pipes to stand with their ends an inch or 
two above the surface of the bed.”—A Beginner. 
[The whole minutiae of Melon culture were given in late 
volumes. We do not see anything to prevent your plan 
acting well, so far as we understand it; only the pans 
must have little water in them as the Melons approach ma¬ 
turity. There is a want of clearness, however, in your de¬ 
scription, which it may be to your advantage to point out, 
and which would have been at once removed, if, by a few 
strokes of your pen, you had given an end section of the pit, 
with the position of the flue. Much of the practicability and 
success of your proposed mode, will depend on the position 
of the flues, of which we know nothing further, than that 
they go, one at the front and the other at the back; but 
whether they stand above the floor of your pit, or are partly 
or wholly sunk beneath it, w'e know nothing. Thus, suppos¬ 
ing that your flue in front is above the level of the floor, and 
that is only two feet six inches from the glass in front; and ; 
supposing, in addition, that the flue is one foot or nearly so 
in height; how are you to place pans for water on that flue; 
and in these pans fix draining-pipes upright, that are two feet 
or more in length; and, above that height, have eleven inches 
more for soil; and then another foot, as you ought to have, 
to the glass ; and all this in a space of two feet six inches, 
even if we come to the conclusion that that is the height from 
the top of the flue, and not from the flooring of the pit ? 
Neither is there any width given : though if that was afforded, 
and w 7 e were shown the position of the flue, we could speak 
more certainly as to general results, and, also, as to your par¬ 
ticular mode of placing small wood over the bottom of the 
pit, with eight or ten inches of leaves or dung above them. 
Bottom heat is less necessary after the month of June for 
Melons, but still it is always desirable, when it can be ob¬ 
tained at pleasure and regulated at will. It the heat from 
your flue cannot circulate among the small wood, then what 
use can it be. The space would be better filled with nice, 
sweet dung, to give the plants a start by bottom heat. J f the 
heat does act on that wood, then, instead of small, I would 
have large blocks of wood and stone, raised to the necessary 
height, and on that a covering of long straw, or turf, for the 
soil to rest upon. The stones, &c., once heated w r ould retain 
it a long time. Sometime ago a similar pit came under my 
* 
