48 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juzy, 1899. 
week, and for about 5 weeks I regularly found just one royal cell with larvain 
it, which I always cut out. I missed one week’s overhauling, and then found a 
single cell, which a queen had just left. The following week I found her 
laying, and, to my surprise, the old queen was on the same frame, and laying 
also. This went on for some weeks, and the old queen died during winter. 
Grading and Ripening Honey.—This, in my opinion, is the all-important 
question to be considered if Queensland honey is to get hold of the home 
market. If anything but the best, ripe, thoroughly-matured honey is sent to 
England, the returns will be disappointing, and Queensland honey will be 
generally shunned. ; 
The sooner Queensland beekeepers take this matter in hand, and face this 
question of marketing their honey, the better for us all. 
This can best be done by forming associations and discussing matters 
appertaining to bee culture. Steps can then be taken unitedly to ship tons of 
honey to England after it has been graded by experts. 
You say, “ Let our producers study the style of get-up, and not send honey 
home in kerosene tins.” ‘This looks and sounds very well, and is very true also, 
as there is no better way of selling good honey readily than to pack it in glass 
and in other attractive packages. 
But the price of these articles prohibits us from using them, to say nothing 
of the extrafreight ; therefore, the only course I can see open to Queensland bee- 
men is td combine, spun’ a board of experts, and send a thoroughly trustworthy 
and competent man home to procure these attractive glass vessels, where they 
are so cheap, and to ship the honey to him in bulk, and allow him to do the rest, 
The extra freight and breakages saved would go a long way towards paying 
expenses, to say nothing of the better price which would be obtained. 
It would bea great help to beekeepers if the Postal Department would 
allow samples of honey to go through the post if properly packed. In writing 
the above notes, my object is to set the ball rolling, in the hope that others will 
take it up also. 
Horticulture. 
PANSIES. 
Panstes, or as they used to be called “ Heartsease,’ may be seen in most tidy 
gardens in Southern Queensland, and one reason for this is that the pretty little 
flower is so easily grown, and that it produces such a number of blooms at SO 
little expenditure of labour or care. The best way to raise pansies is to sow the 
seed in shallow boxes in the same manner as most seeds are raised in the 
Brisbane Botanic Gardens, where galvanised iron cases (that is, the wooden cases 
in which the iron has been packed) are employed for the purpose. The 
amateur’s box need, of course, not be so large. The box must be filled with a 
light sandy, loamy soil—a good light garden soil will do very well. Make the 
surface perfectly smooth, and scatter the seeds evenly on it. They must not 
be either raked in or covered deeply. The best plan is to sift some light soil 
over them, covering them to the depth of less than a quarter of an inch. This 
done, give a very gentle sprinkling of water, andsetthe boxin a sheltered situation. 
Tn about a week or ten days the little shoots will appear above ground. When 
watering is required, it must be done very gently from a fine-holed watering 
pot. When the plants are from 2 to 8 inches itll they may be set out. 
Always, if possible, choose a dull, cloudy day for setting out any plants. The 
permanent bed must be deeply dug, and the soil renderedmellow. Set the plants 
out about 8 inches apart both ways. In less than a couple of months they will 
be in flower, and will continue in bloom until the next autumn. The soil must 
