Jan. 28, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



63 



Mr. Root— I can't give the exact percentage more, but 

 probably one-fourth. 



Mr. Abbott — One-fourth of a pound would be 25 per- 

 cent of wax. What does a German wax-extractor cost? 

 Mr. Root— $14. 



Mr. Abbott — 25 pounds of wax at 20 cents a pound — 

 what I am trying to get at is an opinion as to how much in- 

 terest there is in this convention investing $14 in a machine. 

 Not all these theories will work, but they must ultimately 

 work out in dollars and cents or else they are of no use. 

 Just trying to see how much it would amount to, to this con- 

 vention, provided they save what he says they can save. You 

 have six people saving 2$ pounds of wax in a year, and what 

 I want to see is if it would pay you to invest $14 in any 

 kind -of a machine. 



Mr. Root- — I don't think it would pay the small bee- 

 keeper to get a German wax-press. I don't know what my 

 brother would say, but I believe that. 



Pres. York — You can tell the truth here! [Laughter.] 

 Mr. Root — I believe my brother tries to tell the truth. I 

 would try hot-water pressure. 



Mr. Baldridge — Especially on cappings. 

 Mr. Root — You can get almost all the wax out of the 

 cappings. 



Mr. Baldridge — By setting in water it will all rise. 

 Mr. Root — This I am speaking of is only in reference 

 to combs. 



Mr. Abbott — May I tell a small bee-keeper how I do? 

 It seems like a simple, small way. If you have 50 or 60 

 pounds of combs, pour warm water on it and let it soak 

 thoroughly. My wife does that; I don't suppose I would 

 bother with it. Then she has a large pan that fits inside of 

 the oven. She puts in the wax that would weigh four or five 

 pounds on top of a large sieve, and shuts the oven door and 

 goes on about her business. In a little while the wax is all 

 down in the water, and then she takes the sieve and puts 

 more in, and if done that way it about all goes to wax. 

 There isn't much left to throw away. 



Mr. Root — Are they old combs or new? 

 Mr. .\bbott — Any kind she wishes; just combs that are 

 thrown in a barrel or box, sometimes sections. Directly she 

 has a cake of wax that weighs eight or ten pounds ; but she 

 always soaks it in warm water and doesn't scald or do any- 

 thing else with it. 



Mr. Root — I have heard of that method before. You 

 put the wax in the receptacle right in the oven. 



Mr. Abbott — Yes, and she keeps it there and shuts up the 

 oven, and in the morning the settlings are all out and she 

 has a cake of pure, clear, yellow wax. She makes it in lit- 

 tle cakes, and we sell it for 60 cents a pound. 



Dr. Miller — I have been figuring that over, and it looks 

 to me a little like this, after raising the question of whether 

 I could afford it or not: The expense of the machine and 

 time will cost me about two dollars a year, perhaps, allow- 

 ing a good interest on it. Now, I must make that two dol- 

 lars every year, and if I get 28 cents a pound for my wax, 

 as I suppose I can, then I must get seven pounds of wax 

 extra in the year to pay expenses, and if there is left any 

 debris in the slumgum as much as one-fourth of the wax, 

 then that seven pounds represents the total of my wax for 

 the year at 28 cents a pound. So if I am getting 28 pounds 

 of wax every year, then I can afford to have the German 

 steam wax-press. 



Pres. York — It is all right outside of Missouri ! 

 Mr. Moore — I think Mr. Abbott had these small bee- 

 keepers scared. You know how much you expect from your 

 bee-hives and wax-press. The cost is $14. If you can make 

 20 per cent, $2.08, that makes nine pounds of wax per year 

 extra ; then you can afford to have a German wax-press. 

 Dr. Miller — I called it 7 pounds. 



Mr Meredith — Cannot a German wax-press be made 

 on a smaller scale, and price in proportion? 



Mr. Root — The way the press is made, the money is in 

 the workmanship more than in the material, and it would be 

 just as hard to make a small one as a larger one. Another 

 thing, the small machine wouldn't begin to be as effective. 

 Mr. Meredith — In what way? 



Mr. Root — You could get about the same amount of wax, 

 but the pressure has to be just about as great for the small 

 machine as for the large, and, if you make a small machine, 

 you have to make it as strong as a big machine, and the 

 workmanship on it requires about as much brains and tools. 

 Mr. Abbott — What would a home-made machine cost? 

 Mr. Root — Not 60 cents. 



Mr. Abbott — How much better would the German wax- 

 press be? Would it get more wax? 



Mr. Root — You wouldn't get any more wax, but you 

 would get it so much quicker. As I said, I can get just about 

 as much wax from the hot-water method as I can with the 

 steam, but it is more mussy, and I have to work harder. 

 Mr. Abbott — My wife attends to the work! 

 Mr. Root — May be the bee-keepers are not all blessed 

 with wives. 



' Mr. France — I was at a local bee-keepers' convention and 

 this subject was brought up. They decided the wax-press 

 was a good thing, but in a small way could they afford It? 

 We, as members of our local association, can afford to own 

 one, and that one press has gone the rounds, and each mem- 

 ber has rendered all the wax he has, and at only a cost of 

 IS cents. 



Dr. Miller — I want to say that of all the mean things 

 Mr. France ever did to me, that was the worst. I was going 

 to tell what they did in Germany. That's what they do there. 

 The local societies own the machine. That's the way to bring 

 the price down. 



Mr. Root — Isn't it a fact that farmers will club together 

 and get a binder or mower, and then they trade around? 



Mr. Smith— They might do that in Ohio, but not in 

 Illinois. 



Mr. Root — I know of several who do. 

 Mr. Wilcox — Partnership ownership of necessary tools 

 is not satisfactory. 



Mr. Root — I won't dispute you about that. 

 Dr. Miller — That's a matter of locality ! 

 Mr. Smith — I was born and raised in Ohio, and I re- 

 member we used to have an apple-butter kettle, and that's 

 the way they boiled their apple butter. In the spring, when 

 it came sugar-making time, we couldn't do that because the 

 sugar had all to be made at the same time, and that spoiled the 

 scheme — it wouldn't work. The Ohio farmers are not as 

 large, and they can work reciprocity more. The great secret 

 to get the wax out is to keep the wax from going into the old 

 brood-comb cells or cocoons that are left by the young bee, 

 and if you water-soak them in warm water — if the wax melts 

 and runs into these cells you have to heat them to get it out. 

 The wax is on the outside between the walls of these cells. 

 Fill the comb thoroughly with warm water, and mash, and 

 then put in the oven wet over a drip-pan, and you will get 

 better results than with an ordinary press, and you can do it 

 at any time. 



Mr. Root— I don't see how that can be done in a whole- 

 sale way. 



Mr. Smith— A man who has 30 or 40 hives— comb that 

 isn't brood-comb — can extract that at any time ; but when you 

 come to an old brood-comb and lay it in the solar extractor 

 dry, the cocoons fill, and the center of gravity will lie in that 

 position so it can't get out. 



Mr. Root — I have the advantage over the wax-press. I 

 picked brood-comb many a time with a knife and have taken 

 a very small handful of it and put it in a little cloth package 

 in boiling water, and but very little wax could I find in there, 

 and that's doing it in a wholesale way. It is all donein bulk. 

 If a man had three or four barrels, I don't see how it would 

 pay him to do it in an oven. 



Mr. Starkey— About how many pounds of wax will 

 ordinarily be taken from one filling of the wax-extractor, of 

 mixed and broken combs? How much wax from one filling 

 of the machine? 



Mr. Root— Do you mean with the German wax-press? 

 Mr. Starkey— Yes, sir. How much will its filling once 

 ordinarilv do? . 



Dr. Miller— Allow me to preface this question with this: 

 How much do you consider desirable to put in at one time? 

 Mr. Root;— 10 Dounds. 



Mr. Starkey— How much wax will you get out of that? 



Mr. Root — It averages a little less than three pounds. 



I remember taking note of the fact that the average was 



not far from the exact proportion that was obtained from 



the hot-water press. 



Mr. Starkey— I would like to relate a little experience 

 that I had. I gathered together a great many old combs of 

 all descriptions and broken, and some that had a great deal 

 of cocoon. I had possibly a barrel full after it was well 

 packed. I had one of these ordinary lo-gallon wash-boilers, 

 and a two-burner gasoline stove. I filled the boiler with 

 four inches of water in the bottom and set the gasoline stove 

 to going with both burners. I nut in this boiler almost two- 

 thirds of this barrel, so as to allow me to stir it as the water 



