272 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



extent at the cost of the honey consumed by the insect. Wax, is, therefore, in a sense,, 

 a physiological concomitant of honey, and consequently it is improbable that all the 

 wax necessary for the construction of the comb can be furnished the bees ; indeed, our 

 past results all point in this direction. It is, however, at the same time true that a 

 portion of this wax can be economically supplied in the foundation, and within certain 

 limits it would appear that the wax added by the bees is inversely proportionate to that 

 furnished as foundation. I am further inclined to the belief that the weight of the 

 comb varies somewhat with the season ; the reason for this may be accounted for by 

 Mr. Holtermann's theory already referred to. 



For the details of the method of procedure, the reader is referred to page 171, 

 Report of the Experimental Farms for 1895. An additional experiment has, however, 

 been made this year, namely, that of ascertaining directly the weight of foundation 

 after it had been drawn out by the bees. This was done by carefully shaving away the 

 empty cells on both sides till the foundation was left. The great difficulty experienced 

 in doing this with any degree of accuracy, owing to inequalities and to the fact that 

 the foundation is not always in one plane, renders the results but approximate. Indeed, 

 it will only be from oft-repeated experiments in this matter that safe conclusions can be 

 drawn. 



In Table I, we present in detail the data showing the weight and percentage of 

 wax added by the bees in building the comb : — 



Table I. 



Experiments with various Brands of " Foundation," 1896. 



Although in some instances there would appear, comparing the above results with 

 those of last year, to have been less wax added than in 1895, there are so many excep- 

 tions that no conclusions can be safely drawn, either as regards variation in weight of 



