208 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 6, 1858. 
| RESULTS OF TEN YEARS’ BEE-KEEPING. 
As a pendant to seven years’ bee-keeping, let me give you 
the results of ten years with a single stock. The bees are in a 
little room, or dressing-closet, adjoining a study on the chamber 
iloor, and about twelve feet from the ground. The stock is in 
a large straw hive, on a table the height of the window-sill. In 
front of the hive is placed a box. The bees light on the 
window-sill, pass through a passage under the window-frame, 
through the box, into the hive. Very early in the summer, 
they begin to make honey in the box, the stock being never 
touched. When sufficient honey is made in the box, it is 
removed, and another put in its place; this is left until the 
following summer. The bees have never swarmed these eight 
years. The stock has always had food enough, and the yield 
of honey has been about as follows :— 
Weight of comb. 
1847 ...... 28 lbs. 
1848 . 30 
1849 . 32 
1850 . 14 
1851 . S2i 
1852 no entry, and, I think, no honey. 
1853 
1854 
1855 
1856 
1857 
Supposing no comb to have been taken in 
1852, the ten years .... 
This year they seem to 
6 
none. 
28 
231 
22f 
216| of comb. 
„ seem to be making an unusually large 
quantity in the box. Doubtless, other plans may give more 
honey, but this is perfectly simple. Nothing to be done but 
to replace one box by another once a year, and to pay a little 
attention to the ventilation. 
As before stated, they have never been seen to swarm, have 
never been fed, and the straw hive has never been touched.— 
Tyro. 
[ These results are exceedingly interesting and satisfactory. 
The average produce is good in a stock of ten years standing, 
and the plan is simple, but, in careless hands, would not be 
always successful. We wish our correspondent had stated the 
dates, yearly, when the empty box was substituted for the full 
box, for such dates are very desirable to be known, We 
should like to be informed, also, as to the exact size and form 
of the box ; the height and diameter of the straw hive ; and 
whether any, and if any, how much brood comb occurs in the 
box. We presume the locahty is good for bees, and where 
few are kept. We hope others will try the plan, and inform us 
of the results. Good ventilation must be needed, in winter 
especially, or dysentery would occur among the Bees. We 
have known this disease prevail, where hives were thus placed 
at a distance from the outer entrance.] 
THE FRESH WATER AQUARIUM. 
(Continued from 'page 193.) 
ROCKWORK. 
Objections have been raised to the introduction of stone¬ 
work, in a fresh-water collection, on account of its unnatural¬ 
ness. But, at the bottom of both river and pond, we find 
arches and caves, produced by intersecting stems of the larger 
w r ater plants, gnarled and crooked Willow - tree roots, &c 
forming grottoes, and twisting passages, amid which the fish 
delight to gambol; and, as such matters would decay, and 
thus pollute the water of our tank, we advise a judicious 
arrangement of rockwork, which adds much to the general 
effect of the aquarium. 
Fig. 1 
l epi esents a cromlech , formed of rugged pieces of 
some unmetallic rock, carefully cleaned, and firmly placed. 
Figs. 2 and 3 are arches, whose construction is as follows :— 
Take a sheet of clean paper, and on it sketch the proposed 
rockwork, full size, as seen from the front. Place the drawing, 
Fig. 2. 
face upwards, on a flat table, and cover it with a piece of glass. 
Procure from a brickfield some blocks of “ run bricks,” other¬ 
wise “clinkers,” or “burrs,” being careful that they contain 
no metal of any sort. Break up the clinker into jagged pieces 
with a strong hammer, and arrange on your glass, in ac¬ 
cordance with the outlines of the drawing underneath. Then 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 4< is made by arranging intersecting semi-circles of 
cardboard, by which the cross arches are kept in position. It 
is built up with Portland cement and clinker work, as in the 
previous case. When the cement has hardened, the card¬ 
board can be removed with ease, the bower being perfectlv 
solid throughout. The fish seem particularly to enjoy darting 
in and out, and chasing one another through the openings. 
Indeed, this arrangement answers a similar purpose to the 
hoop in the cage of a parrot, or the revolving wdieel of the 
domestic squirrel. 
Fig. 8. 
mix up a saucer of good Portland cement, and fill in between 
the joints of the rockw r ork. Leave it four days, at the end of 
which time the construction should be capable of removal in 
one solid piece. Now sprinkle the whole of the arch with 
water, and place in a vertical position, the lower part only 
resting on the glass, the back being supported. Then, with a 
little stiff cement, form spreading bases for the feet of the 
arch, and add pinnacles, &c., to fancy, on the abutments. 
When set, the arch shoidcl stand compact and firm, and after 
three days soaking in clean water, is fit for placing in the tank. 
