416 



December, 1913. 



American "Bee Journal 



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Diagram of Mr. Bonney's Idea of a Wax Press. 



W. tank: ^. cage; t\ shaft; D. pulley; /t. water space; /-'. cover; C. honey wax! gate; 



///i. walls of cage; /. pivot joint; /. base for shaft. 



another with the feeling that the en- 

 tire conception of time was wrong. 

 These were the things of yesterday, of 

 a year or two ago." 



If my memory serves me, there was 

 found while excavating Pompeii, \es- 

 sels containing fruit so well preserved 

 that the flavor of the different kinds 

 could be detected by taste and smell, 

 which renders a little more probable 

 this other story, remembering as we 

 do that cloth, paintings, feathers and 

 mummies have come down to us as 

 fresh as though buried yesterday. 

 When the mummy of Seti was un- 

 wrapped his features were found so 

 well preserved that any one knowing 

 the living king would surely recognize 

 him. He lived nearly 3500 years ago. 



"It is not our knowledge of the past 

 that makes us proud of the present, but 

 our ignorance." 



A CENTRIFUGAL WAX EXTRACTOR. 



For 3 or 4 years the writer has 

 studied over a cheap simple way to 



separate wax from waste, and applying 

 some of his knowledge of mechanics 

 and philosophy found that if a machine 

 is nifiOe a- toUows, from 95 to 08 per- 

 cent of all the wax can be saved. The 

 three factors are time, heat and motion : 



Construct a tank according to your 

 needs, say 36 inches high and 30 inches 

 in diameter. Have the cover fit very 

 tiwhiiy. possibly clamps will be needed. 

 In this can is a perpendicular shaft ex- 

 tending from the bottom of the tank to 

 a foot above, and on this shaft, inside 

 the tank, is a shelf almost as large as 

 the inside of the tank, while outside on 

 the shatt is .i small pulley. 



The table should be of metal with a 

 few corrugations one inch deep at the 

 edge, and none at the hub. Around 

 the edge of the table is a wall of wire 

 mesh, one-sixteenth of an inch mesh 

 or larger, or a double wall, the outer 

 of fine screen, the inner of coarse. 

 These will be about 2 inches apart and 

 a foot high. 



In the bottom of the tank is a space 

 for water, and at a height of 6 inches 

 a honey-gate to draw out the melted 

 wax. A pipe conducts steam into this 

 tank, or arrangements can be made to 

 heat the contained water. I prefer the 

 steam idea, as it can be run in super- 

 heated, and will render the wax as 

 liquid as water. 



It will be seen by the mechanically 

 inclined that if wax of any kind is put 

 into this cage, heated, then the table 

 revolved 2oO to 1000 times to the min- 

 ute, every particle of wax will be 

 thrown off, as the water is thrown 

 from washed clothes in the laundry 

 centrifugal drying machine or the 

 cream from the milk in the separator. 

 Any machinist will plan the thing for 

 you. That the idea is entirely practical 

 I feel very sure. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Honey Production in Michigan 



M 



BY IRA D. B.\RTLETT. 



|Y apiary consists of 160 colonies, 

 and I harvested 17,000 pounds 

 of wild red raspberry and clo- 

 ver extracted honey, and about 

 200 pounds of comb honey in 

 1912. The ground is very level, as you 

 will note, but to the north and west of 

 the apiary there are ranges of hills. It 

 will be many years before they are used 

 for agricultural purposes. At present 

 they are covered with wild red rasp- 

 berry and milkweed plants. In the 

 ravines are little brooklets, and here 

 the willows bloom in the spring, and 

 furnish plenty of pollen and some early 

 honey for brood-rearing. In these 

 wet places the goldenrod thrives also, 

 and blooms later in the fall, and on the 

 hills where there are some scattering 

 plants. 



To the east the Jordan river flows 

 from the north, and along the river 

 bottoms large fields of alsike clover 

 are grown. For some reason alsike 

 clover has not secreted much nectar 

 for several seasons, but years ago we 

 depended almost entirely upon it for 

 our honey crop. 



We have a very diversified soil here, 

 so the source from which we get 

 our honey changes with the season. In 

 Idl'l it was very wet just previous to 

 opening of the red raspberry, and then 

 it was very warm and dry during the 

 flow. The result was a heavy flow 

 from raspberry, but the dry and warm 

 spell during the raspberry and clover 

 came just at a critical time for the 

 milkweed plant, and so we got very 

 little from that source. 



We have a great number of honey 

 plants here in northern Michigan, but 

 as it is usual in any country, there are 

 but few plants that give us any quan- 

 tity of surplus. We have the soft ma- 

 ples, willows, poplars, water maples, 

 dandelion and fruit bloom early ; then 

 raspberry, clover, red and white alsike, 

 willow herb, sumac, basswood and 

 milkweed. The fall honey plants are 

 goldenrod and buckwheat. There are 



Are Built Like Fii^nsture 

 Are Perfect en All Respects 



Send for Annunl Cntnlos "bicli viil! tell 

 you ^'lio is your nearest Distrilisiler. 

 <;. B. I,e>vis Company, Watertown, Wis. 



