354 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 31, 1858. 
[You must not layer one of these shoots this autumn, nor 
next spring, nor cut an inch from one of them till the top 
bud is in leaf next April. To layer Roses is a nursery process, 
with which we should like to inoculate the proposals of all 
our readers and their friends. But they must not layer them 
in the dower garden, for it does not look well. Your Roses 
on their own roots have done well, and something more,— 
they have done most excellently for one growth ; otherwise 
you w r ould not have shoots to puzzle you at the end of the 
first growing season, and such a season for Roses as the last 
has been. You must have neither cutting nor pruning till 
the last moment to which it is safe to defer that work, and for 
this reason, that the shoots are too strong yet to flower as 
freely as they ought. By leaving them unpruned till the 
latter part of April, you take the easiest means, both for them 
and for yourself, to reduce their strength; as all the extra 
work of the roots from November to April, and part of the 
sap now in draught, will he taken from them by one cut to 
each. But cut no more than six inches from the top of the 
longest, and train the rest of the shoot and shoots just like 
other bedding plants, that are too big or too high for the bed, 
when every bud, except a few at the bottom, will make a 
flower-shoot next year. A great number of fresh shoots will 
spring from the bottoms, and you must go over them at the 
end of May to thin ; then cut the weak ones right out, and 
the very strong ones quite out, and leave the middling ones 
to flower that same autumn. If they do not do so when stand¬ 
ing, you must train in July ; but do not cut out the first-trained 
shoots till the winter. Then in November—that is, next 
November twelve months—take every one of them up, prune 
away the trainers, and cut back the upright shoots to different 
lengths, the strongest being cut to just one-half its length. 
But recollect that none of this will suit worked Roses.] 
“ I wish to have a bed of Carnations and Picotees next 
year. Would you recommend the layers to be put out, 
when rooted, in the bed this autumn , or not till spring ?” 
[Plant them out the moment they are ready ; but, in the 
hands of the more skilled, they are best in pots till March.] 
<c I have rather a large extent of lawn to keep in order, 
and use one of the mowing machines, which cuts a breadth of 
twenty-two inches ; but I find that it takes three men to work 
it, thus interfering a good deal with the other operations of 
the garden. Is there no machine capable of cutting this 
width, well and quickly, when drawn by one man and pushed 
by another ?” 
[The mowing is entirely a question of “ bottom.” We had 
just such a machine as yours drawn by one of the lads, and 
held, not “ pushed,”—the cutter must not push under any 
pretence whatever,—by a tall, long-legged man. The length 
of the piece was 360 yards; there w r as a heap of cut grass at 
both ends, and one in the middle, so that one ordinary box 
held the grass of 180 yards. How many yards will fill your 
box ? and what kind of bottom ? Last week, we saw 
Budding’s original machine at the Crystal Palace, and much 
of the grass there, we will vouch for it, will need two, and 
sometimes three men to draw, and one to guide and cut, but 
never to push.] 
THE EFFECTS OF CHLOROFORM OH BEES. 
As the season has arrived at which many of your readers 
will be thinking of, or are engaged in, the deprivation of their 
hives, a word of warning may be useful to some who might 
otherwise be induced, by the remarks made by a writer in 
'Iiie Cottage Gardener of last year, to contemplate using 
chloroform as a stupifying agent. 
Although long ago recommended to me, yet it was chiefly 
in consequence of those remarks that I was led to try chloro- 
form for the purpose of more easily stocking a very difficult, 
single-combed, observatory hive. The result was pitiable and 
disastrous. A great number of the bees left their stings in 
the bodies of the others, causing much loss of life. The rest 
were in a miserable state,— apparently drowned, and exhibiting 
little prospect of ever coming to life again. Although the 
pi escribed quantity of chloroform was not exceeded, nor the 
bees shut up so long as was named (ten minutes), yet the bees 
were wet, as if drenched with honey, and looked black and 
shrivelled. In about half an hour they began to revive, ! 
though in such a state as to give but small hopes of their 
ultimate recovery. I was then obliged to leave, after adopt¬ 
ing every precaution to promote their resuscitation, and was 
agreeably surprised the following morning to find them pretty 
well got up into the hive,—not, however, without great sacri¬ 
fice of life. 
But, bad as this affair proved, I thought I would give 
chloroform one more trial before passing judgment on it; and 
I had not long to wait for an opportunity. Towards the 
end of the same month (June) I placed a second swarm in a 
Stewarton hive, having waited for some time in vain for a 
first swarm. In about a week; they had made a considerable 
quantity of comb, when a very large first swarm was brought 
in from the country, which I joined to it in the usual way. 
The following day the whole population suddenly left the hive, 
and were (in my absence) secured in a straw skep. As I 
was very desirous of stocking this Stewarton hive, and thought 
that probably the queens were all dead, and I should only 
have the trouble of reliiving if I placed the swarm again 
in the boxes, with the view of ascertaining whether there was 
a queen or not, I resolved once more to try chloroform. The 
straw skep was literally full of bees, and a more magnificent 
swarm I never saw. I placed the hive over a box made for 
fumigation; the sponge containing the chloroform being fixed 
on an upright stick in the centre. On first removing the 
hive, I found that, owing to the large number of bees, only 
about half were stupified. I added a little more fluid, and 
replaced the hive. In a few minutes all were safely down. 
I soon found the queen, but apparently dead, though she 
revived a little in my hand, and I then placed her with those 
of her subjects who seemed to be most active. The appear¬ 
ance of these bees was worse than in the first case; and thou¬ 
sands were again stung, the stings being stuck in all parts of 
their bodies. The effect on the drones was in each case most 
singular, and I believe that not one of them could survive 
the application. The end of this affair was, that, with the 
exception of a very small cluster, all the bees were irretrievably 
injured, and I thus lost a swarm of not less than 7lbs. weight. 
I, therefore, fearlessly pronounce chloroform a most cruel 
and painful agent in the stupefaction of bees, and in every 
way most unsuited to the purpose. I would ten times rather 
apply the brimstone-match at once. There is nothing superior 
to the common mouse-skin byssus found in wine-cellars, or 
the common puff-ball, for all purposes connected with fumi¬ 
gation. 
I shall be very glad to hear the past experience of any 
others on this subject. If it confirm my own, which is 
certainly somewhat dearly bought, I trust this warning will ba 
the means of preventing any one from subjecting these little 
favourites to such cruelty.— S. Beyan Fox, 7, Southernhay , 
Exeter. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Moving Grafted Cherries (J. T. /S'.). —Cherries grafted this j’ear 
may be moved as soon as the leaves have fallen. 
Red Spider [A Constant Subscriber, M. S. 7F.).—The leaves you 
sent were sadly injured by the red spider, which is so small that one 
can scarcely see it, even where thousands may be at work. The 
thnps is a worse enemy than the red spider, because it is more difficult 
to get rid of. Both do the mischief on the underside of the leaves, 
-—the led spider because the leaf screens it from its natural enemy, 
the damp. A night or two of heavy dew would kill them out of the 
country; but, unfortunately, the dew, or rain, cannot reach them. 
1 here lore, when the red spider is dreaded, at the beginning of growth, 
ai l mutation of dew, or Scotch mist, to the underpart of the leaves, 
v ill most completely keep it at bay. But let the red spider once 
get a head, and it is up-hill work to dislodge him, except by poisoning 
the an loi him with the smell of burnt sulphur. He can neither stand 
on w et ground, nor snifi the smell of sulphur. The danger is, to ama¬ 
teurs, that the smell of sulphur may be too strong for the plants, for 
they too must breathe the same air as their enemy. All such remedies 
J!!™ “ e applied, like liquid manure, in very small continuous doses, 
till the work is done imperceptibly as it were. 
Bouquets and Cut Flowers ( T V.). — Mrs. Johnson, of Covenl 
Garden, London, will make you exactly what you want, in the way o] 
bouquets, to open the eyes of any Judges in the provinces. Mrs. 
Jolmson, and two other good women, her next-door neighbours, whose 
names we regret, at this moment, to have forgotten, will be most 
happy to send you cut blooms of the finest Asters in the kingdom, and 
tlie finest ol any other thing in the cut-flower way, either in loose 
bunches, or made into nosegays of any size, shape, dr make, that vou 
may point out. If any one, no matter how far off in Ireland, or Scot¬ 
land, wishes to see a living flower, of any plant that is on sale in 
Europe, let him, or her, send to Covent Garden for it j and if expense 
I 
