EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS 117 



sheets of any length by being passed between cylinders. The immediate 

 object of the present experiment was to test the quality of foundation 

 made by this new process. 



As a basis for comparison I made some foundation on the Given Press 

 out of wax carefully selected for its purity, color and favorable texture, 

 the effort being directed to the selection of wax known to be most accept- 

 able and most readily worked by the bees. The samples compared were 

 three, one from the largest manufacturer in this State, M. H. Hunt, 

 Bell Branch, Mich., which was made by the method heretofore in vogue, 

 and the other two respectively from the two leading manufacturers of 

 this country if not of the world, the A. I. Root Co. of Medina, Ohio, and 

 Chas. Dadant & Son, of Hamilton, 111., made by the new process. One 

 case was devoted to the three kinds, that is each case of a size to con- 

 tain 36 sections nine to the foot was filled with sections one-half of 

 which contained one of the above three kinds and the other half the 

 Given foundation. The two kinds were placed in the case alternately 

 without separators, the presumption being that those containing founda- 

 tion worked soonest and most readily by the bees would at the finish 

 contain more honey than the others. 



For the benefit of those who have not perused the reports of former 

 experiments it should be said that it is deemed very material to the 

 success of an experiment of this nature that the sections employed be 

 about nine to-the-foot or one and a third inches wide, for the reason 

 that this width approximates very nearly the space which the bees like 

 best to allow each comb. To be exact, this space is somewhat less than 

 the bees use on an average, but a departure on that side is desirable, as 

 appears if the difficulty encountered by the use of sections that are 

 too wide is considered. I found by actual trial if two kinds of foundation 

 for one of which the bees have a decided preference are disposed in a 

 case in alternate sections, having each a width of nearly one and three- 

 fourths inches, or seven-to-the-foot, that at first the bees work out the 

 preferred foundation much more rapidly than they do the other and 

 continue to do so until the resulting comb is of the thickness which the 

 bees prefer and must have for use in the production of brood, and that 

 when this point is reached their work on it is, to some extent, suspended 

 and an effort made to bring up the thinner comb from the poorer founda- 

 tion, so that, with such sections, the preferences of the bees defeat the 

 object of the experiment which is to have them deposit honey in the 

 two classes of sections in proportion to the estimation in which they 

 hold the two kinds of foundation, uninfluenced by their ideas of pro- 

 priety on other points. But the use of sections nine-to-the-foot meets 

 the required condition, for, unless one of the foundations is execrable 

 indeed, the comb from the better one is not likely to reach the desired 

 thickness before the available space is all occupied. 



The results of the experiment appear in detail in the following table. 



In each case the Given foundation, as generally heretofore, shows a 

 superiority, but in a greatly reduced degree. 



The sample from Hunt, whose foundation has heretofore, in this kind 

 of experiment, stood at or near the head, loses its place, though on the 

 whole it compares more favorably with the Given than in the test of a 

 year ago. 



