60 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 28, 1904. 



side, but not one in 50 will leak, and there is no possible 

 means of the hot fruit creeping. 



Mr. Abbott — Mr. Clarke seems to ignore one fact. You 

 create a vacuum and you get the weight of external air equal 

 to tons. It is hot, and when it cools it leaves a vacuum as 

 they bear down on that lid with force. When you put the 

 honey in there is no air pressure at all. 



Mr. Clarke — You are mistaken entirely about that. In 

 screwing down it makes the vacuum on top of the liquid, 

 you turn it upside down and the liquid goes to the bottom, 

 therefore the pressure must be on the liquid underneath and 

 therefore it would come out from underneath the stopper. 



Mrs. Stow — I think Mr. Abbott is correct. 



Mr. Abbott — The idea of the vaccuum is correct. Turn- 

 ing the can upside down doesn't make any difference. 



Dr. Miller — I would like to ask a practical question as to 

 what Mr. France said — whether that piece of manilla paper 

 put on the top is to go down inside of the jar or over the 

 top of the glass? 



Mr. France — The way I have done, it sets down in, and 

 the edges turn up a little. 



Dr. Miller — That's coming right back to the milk-bottle 

 arrangement again. 



Mr. Kanenburg — The Mason jars are not made like the 

 milk-bottles, they are wider down below than on the top. 

 How can you put a piece of paper in there to make it f^ush 

 with the jar? You cannot get it tight enough then. 



Mr. France — I said there was a portion of them that 

 leaked. I condemn the package, but it is a great help to use 

 the paper flange, and then when we let go, the expansion 

 brings it back. 



Mr. Whitney — If a piece of paper thick enough is put 

 under the cover of the jar. and pressed down onto it, and 

 that piece of paper fits on the top of the jar. and you screw 

 your cap down, it won't leak. It won't leak even with the 

 piece of paper right on top of the jar. 



Mr, Meredith — I think that the expansion of honey, or any 

 Other liquid that is contained in a jar, if put _ up under 

 ordinary temperature, will have a tendency to raise the top 

 of the jar as a safety-valve might. 



Mr. Wilcox — I would like to know if it is really admitted 

 here that a Mason jar will leak honey with a cap put on 

 between the jar and the top. I have not had as much ex- 

 perience as some, but I never had any leakage until I opened 

 it the second time. When I screw it back I suck that out, 

 and I have always taken it for granted that I took the honey 

 out, and not that it leaked out if I left it sealed. 



Mr. Johnson — I have had experience with Mason jars 

 and others. I concluded that the Mason fruit-jar is my 

 future package for extracted honey, I always use a new 

 rubber and screw it down real tight, and they never leak. 

 I suppose a Mason jar wouldn't be used for shipping very 

 much anyway, but for a package to sell around home. I be- 

 lieve it is the best package that you can get, and you can 

 get it cheap. Of course, the smaller the package the smaller 

 the margin for selling them, because after you pay for the 

 package you haven't much left. I sell my honey for a dollar 

 a gallon, and ten cents for the package, or they can bring 

 the package back and the money will be returned. 



Pres. York — It seems to me a dollar a gallon is pretty 

 cheap for retailing honey. 



Mr. Chase — I asked that question, and I feel qnite sat- 

 isfied with what has been said on the matter, especially what 

 Mr. Abbott said in regard to the pressure caused by heat. I 

 put my honey up exclusively in Mason jars, and when placed 

 upon the market I find considerable trouble. It seems to 

 creep out over the top and spoils the labels. I didn't know 

 but what it would be possible that something could be aoplied 

 to keep it from creeping over. I think it is the space between 

 the cf)ver and the jar that allows the honey to come through. 

 Mr. Thompson — I agree with Mr. Wilcox on that sub- 

 iect, if put up rightly in the Mason jar it won't leak, and I 

 have that confidence in the Mason jar that I would replace 

 all packages that leak free of charge. 



THE HONEY CROP OF I9O3. 



Pres. York — How many had an unusually good crop the 

 past season? Raise your hands. Fifteen. 



Pres. York— How many about an average crop? Raise 

 your hands. Thirteen. 



Pres. York— How many less than an average crop? 

 Raise vour hands. Five. 



Mr. Hogge— There is a gentleman sitting next to me— 

 a new man in the business. He says he started out with 



two colonies, and had 500 pounds of honey and 8 colonies in- 

 crease. He didn't hold up his hand. 



Rev. McCain — This is my first season, so I cannot say 

 whether it was comparatively good or not. 



Mr. Whitney^Pres. York asked for an average crop. 

 Now perhaps an average crop for some people would be bet- 

 ter than an extra good crop for somebody else. 



Pres. York — I had to ask the questions as they were 

 written, you see. 



Dr. Miller — I think that has nothing really to do with 

 the case. The question is, What has been the season, no mat- 

 ter whether I am in a good or bad locality? Has it been un- 

 usually good, or bad, or has it been an average season? I 

 think there has been quite a little light thrown on the sub- 

 ject by these answers. I think it is a remarkably good year 

 everywhere. The fact is that one man will have a good crop 

 and do such a lot of crowing over it that everybody thinks 

 they have it. It is nothing more than an ordinary year, tak- 

 ing all the answers that are given — fifteen, thirteen and five. 

 The fact comes out that there are quite a number here who 

 have not had as good a year as usual. 



Pres. York — I will ask Secretary Moore to bring forward 

 Mr. Huber H. Root, who is to speak to us on Wax-Presses 

 this afternoon. He is the youngest son of A. I. Root, whom 

 we all know so well. Last year we had Mr. Root on the 

 program and I promised him if we lived we would hear from 

 him this year, as last year in some way his address was over- 

 looked. I was very sorry indeed, and so offer this apology. 



Dr. Miller — Before you give him another chance, and be- 

 fore we are through with this Root business. I want to say 

 that there is another member of the family, Mr. Ernest Root, 

 who was scheduled to be here, and I know that he expected 

 and desired very much to be here, but he felt it his duty to 

 attend the Ohio State meeting. They are trying to get a 

 foul brood law there. He is very soon thereafter to attend a 

 meeting in Washington, making it really impracticable for 

 him to be here. As his name was publicly mentioned, I 

 thought it best to make this explanation. I beg pardon for 

 taking your time. 



WAX PRESSES AND WAX-RENDERING. 



I will tell you how that was last year at the convention. 

 Mr. York was so interested and delighted, and I was so in- 

 terested that I forgot all about it until I got home and the 

 first thing I remembered about it was his writing a letter to 

 me which made me feel badly. I felt badly because he seemed 

 to feel so badly. I hadn't felt badly, because I was so de- 

 lighted with what I had heard. 



As I look around here to-day, there is Mr. Hutchinson 

 and Dr. Miller, and others that I am aching to hear from, 

 that can speak from years of experience, and it occurred to 

 me that this subject of wax was rather common-place, that 

 it didn't amount to very much, but I believe it does amount 

 to more than we would ordinarily think. 



Down in Cuba there are a lot of men keeping bees for 

 the wax only. They spill the honey — use it to wash with, I 

 suppose — but here a good many don't care anything about 

 the wax we get ; we are all after the honey. Some of us go 

 after the wax, but we don't get it all. I don't know that it 

 would be very hard to give an estimate as to how much wax 

 is wasted in a sun wax-extractor. There is so much left in 

 the old combs that cannot be gotten out. I am very well 

 aware of the fact that many don't use the sun extractor, but 

 most people use the method that I will designate as the cold- 

 pressure method. I mean they heat the old comb in some 

 other place and then press it in a press, and they don't sur- 

 round that mass of wax and old comb with any heat during 

 the time of the pressing. 



About a year ago I spent considerable time working on 

 this very question. My brother was anxious to see, if he 

 could, which was the best method to use, steam, hot water, 

 or this cold-pressure method, and also to determine which 

 was better, a lever or a screw, and I was very much interested 

 in these experiments that I conducted myself at that time. 

 I don't intend to make this an advertisement for the 

 German wax-press. In fact, I shall not speak of that. I will 

 describe the method that I used, in which I got more wax 

 by considerable extent than I did by pressing under a screw 

 and applying no heat at the time of the pressure. I found 

 that I couldn't get anywhere near as mucli wax by pressing 

 on wax without the heat at the time, and it seemed to me 

 that this was the reason: The wax as it is being pressed. 

 oozes out. It oozes out and comes in contact with a little 

 cocoon, little piece of the debris. It is chilled. I reason in 



