as they will those over the hives that cannot hold more than ten or eleven frames. Next to securing a crowded brood nest, we must have warmth maintained in the super as it arises from below. Over the super place quilts and chaff cushions; in fact, too much woollen covering cannot well be given to the supers first given, because they are put upon the hives just when we are liable to have changes of temperature and cold nights.

As an inducement to the bees to enter the supers, place in the sectional super any partly-combed sections left from the previous year, and in the frame super use combs that are kept solely for extracting purposes. Here we find a contrast; for while bees take to foundation in the brood chamber most readily in preference to combs, in the super they enter and commence work upon combs rather than upon foundation. The reason for this is, no doubt, the fact that the very high temperature that is needed for the proper working of foundation into comb cannot be obtained and maintained early in the season, while the temperature is alternating between hot and cold, and while cool, if not cold, nights predominate.

BEEKEEPING IN QUEENSLAND.

BY F. W. SMITH,

Lemon Grove Apiary.

BEEKEEPING is one of the most interesting industries which engages the

attention of man.

In America, beekeeping is being carried on very extensively, both for pleasure and for profit.

It is due to the researches made by the late Rev. L. L. Langstroth, of Philadelphia, U.S.A., that beekeeping has been brought to its present state of efficiency, and the beehive used by him has been accepted as the standard beehive all over the world, where beekeeping is carried on according to the scientific principles connected with it.

I will now say a few words about the methods adopted by the Queensland beekeepers.

A very large proportion of the bees in Queensland is kept in common boxes, generally gin or kerosene cases. When the owner feels inclined to have Some of Nature's sweet, he turns the box, bees, and honey upside down; then he cuts the honey out in the best way that he can. If the person is careful the insects do not suffer so much, but still the bees' brood-nest is spoilt, and it takes some time before they recover from the shock. In some cases, the bees abscond. The above method I strongly condemn, considering the numerous appliances there are to assist man to manage bees more successfully.

But this primitive plan is fast being replaced by the more up-to-date method, as practised by few beekeepers in Queensland at present. The beehive most commonly used is the 10-framed dovetailed Langstroth hive. In America and most other places, the Langstroth hive is used with the flat cover, but after using the ventilated gable cover, patented by A. J. Root, of America, I find that it is the best cover to use in this climate. This cover keeps the inside of the hive at an even temperature throughout the hot summer months. The bees enter the supers and top stories better, and are not hunted down to the bottom of the hive, as is the case when the flat covers are used. The gable cover also prevents the sagging of combs in the frames (a serious trouble to contend with), and sheds the water better than the flat cover.

The management of bees in the 10-frame Langstroth hive is greatly assisted by using the following articles :-Honey-extractor, uncapping can and knife, comb foundation for the frames, foundation fasteners, wire for the frames, wire imbedders, bee-smokers, bee-veils, &c.

Bees.-There are two kinds of bees used in Queensland: the black, commonly called the English bee; and the Italian bee.

The Italian bee is reckoned by all the prominent beekeepers of America and Europe as the most useful one, the queen being very prolific, and the workers unsurpassable as honey-gatherers. They are easier managed, and less liable to diseases than other bees. They think nothing of killing the bee-moth, the only pest that Queensland beekeepers have to guard against. The diseases known as foulbrood and dysentery, which played such havoc in some American apiaries some years ago, are not found here.

Although Queensland is so well adapted to the honey bee, the people, up to the present, have not given apiculture the attention it deserves. The honey produced is second to none.

FIRST STEPS IN BEE-KEEPING

No. 1.

BY H. R. STEPHENS,

Busy Bee Apiary, Toowoomba.

As a new season will soon be here, it behoves bee-men to be ready with sufficient hives, frames, &c., to provide for the increase of colonies which, where the bees have wintered well and have a prolific queen, soon results in early swarms. It is best to unite colonies that are weak at the end of the winter, keeping the better queen of the two-as bees should enter spring as strong as possible, to reap the advantages of early swarms and surplus honey. Those who contemplate becoming bee-men, or women either, by keeping one or two hives for supplying their own households with honey, or as a business, should certainly make an early start in the spring. September is a good month to get a strong colony of bees in. A Langstroth hive, which has either 8 or 10 frames-usually 10-and a complete hive for extracted honey, consists of two exactly similar pine boxes, without either top or bottom, with a rebate at either end to hang the frames in. As some of my readers may wish to make the boxes for themselves; I will give the dimensions, which are-20 inches long, 16 inches wide, and 9 inches deep, outside measurement; and the boards are 3-inch thick, or 1 inch will do for making a hive or two, as the bees have no time to spend criticising the house they occupy, and only require a simple construction for their welfare. flat or gable cover and a bottom board, raised on cleats -inch thick, to form an entrance, are also required.

Between the two boxes, when in position, is placed a zinc honey-board or queen excluder, the object of which is to prevent the queen going into the super and laying there, as also to keep the drones in the bottom hive, which is termed the brood nest, the upper one being the super or box in which surplus honey is stored. The operation of examining bees in a frame hive with a super on is conducted as follows:-Lay the cover on the ground; then lift the super and place on the cover, and, as the mat is on the top of the frames, the bees are kept from troubling the operator whilst the lower hive is being examined. The next thing is to take off the excluder and put on one side; then lift out one of the centre frames, if it will come out easily. If not, a side frame, which usually contains honey, will have to be removed to make room. When you have a good frame of brood, look particularly for worker eggs, and generally note whether there is much drone brood, or at the proper time look for queen cells, as these imply swarms or loss of queen. It is not necessary to see the queen each time the hive is opened, as, if worker eggs are seen, a queen must have been present within the previous three days, as it takes that time for the egg to hatch. When examining your bees, it will save much trouble in lifting out the frames if the propolis and wax are cleaned off each time, and for this purpose a squaremouthed trowel, with about 2-inch sides, is very handy.

Tropical Industries.

MANURING OF TROPICAL PLANTS-COTTON.

The cotton plant requires, in the first place, a deep. permeable soil, preferably a sandy loam. The tap root of this plant often descends more than 3 feet into the ground, and, during the four and a-half to five and a-half months of vegetation, it is compelled to draw its supply of moisture from the deeper layers of the soil. Heavy clay and sour humus soils are not suitable for the proper cultivation of this plant, and shade should be avoided, as the cotton plant requires light. Arrangements should be made for artificial irrigation in all localities where the amount of rain that falls between the beginning of the vegetation and harvest time is an uncertain factor.

Investigations in America have established the following figures for the amounts of various substances removed from 1 acre by an average crop of 300 lb. of fibre and 654 lb. of seed :

...

6.84

9.85

0.20

Lime
Magnesia
Sulphuric acid
Insoluble

...

1.68

...

*

Dr. Wohltmann gives the following figures for the average analysis of American Sea-Island Cotton :

STEMS. LEAVES.

Per cent. Per cent.

The application of nitrogen to cotton is absolutely indispensable, on account of the short growing season of this plant. The plant-food contained in the stems and leaves is, as rule, returned to the soil by ploughing them under. However, if the stems and leaves, instead of being ploughed under, are burned on the fields a custom that is still prevalent in many sections-the nitrogen contained in them will be lost.

The fibres and seed are removed from the field, and used in industrial manufactures; the plant-food ingredients contained in the fibres and seed will, therefore, be lost, if the residue obtained in preparing oil from the seed--viz.,

*

Dr. Wohltmann, die natürlichen Factoren der tropischen Kultur, 1892.

oil-cakes-is not returned to the soil in the form of a fertiliser. These oil-cakes were formerly almost exclusively employed as fertilisers, but, as they have proved to be more economical when used for feeding cattle, they are now being replaced by the more valuable commercial fertilisers.

Very detailed fertiliser experiments on cotton have been conducted at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Auburn, Alabama, U.S. The following table represents the results of a series of single trials, arranged according to the nature of the soil. The soils are intended to represent the various grades of the several kinds selected :

* Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn, Ala., U.S.A., Bulletin No. 34, January, 1892, and Bulletin No. 12, January, 1893.

The great difference between these results and those obtained in Mississippi is undoubtedly due to the small quantities of fertilisers used in the former trial.

As regards the fertilisation with single plant-food ingredients (Plots 1, 2, and 3), phosphoric acid not only gave the largest yield, but the cost of producing the increase was lowest for this material. The much smaller increases on the unfertilised plots, obtained by potash or nitrogen alone, are almost the same, but potash is the cheaper. These yields are, however, considerably smaller than those obtained from phosphoric acid. On the plots (5, 6, and 7), to which two of the plant-food ingredients were applied, the largest increase was produced by the combination of phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and the cost for each 100 lb. of this increase was lower than in the case of the other two combinations. The mixture of phosphoric acid and potash comes next, both as regards the increase, in yield and the lessened cost, while nitrogen and potash, in comparison. with the two other combinations, produced the smallest increase at the highest cost. The combination of all three ingredients (Plot 9) yielded the largest increase, and, although the cost of the mixture per acre was highest in this

instance, the cost for each 100 lb. of increase compared favourably with that of the other applications. The second largest yield was produced by a mixture of acid phosphate and cotton-seed meal (Plot 16), of which the cost was somewhat smaller, and next in amount of yield comes the plot that received stablemanure (Plot 15). Floats alone, and especially in combination with nitrate of soda (Plots 10 and 11), produce an excellent and comparatively cheap increase, while the mixture of floats and green cotton-seed (Plot 14) yields a considerable increase, though at a higher cost.

The effect of various fertilisers upon the time of maturity of cotton was also tested in these trials. This is a question of supreme importance, because prices are generally better at the beginning of the season. Moreover, the time of picking depends upon the weather, soil, and maturity of the plant, and these factors may also necessitate a second or third picking. According to the reports of the Auburn Station, the picking of the cotton on the various experimental fields extends from the last week of August to the beginning and sometimes even to the end of December. In the following table, the averages of the results obtained are given. For the sake of easier comparison, the first and second pickings are entered in the columns headed "First Picking," and the third and fourth in the columns headed "Second Picking." The results have been arranged according to the various fertilising materials, and not according to the numerical order of the plots. The quantities of fertilisers applied to the various plots are the same as those applied to the corresponding plots in the table above.

RESULTS OF FERTILISATION UPON COTTON. AUBURN STATION.

H.-NITROGEN, POTASH, AND PHOSPHORIC ACID.

71.07 1 28.93 1 67.75 32.25 | 40·00 | 60.00