1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



337 



made for sections, I believe It will prove to be a 

 decided improvement over the old kind. Of course, 

 the main advantage will be in its use for sections, 

 and for that purpose the sheets of wax must be 

 made so even and thin that, in milling', the raised 

 cell-walls will not be pressed on top. I shall, of 

 course, be very anxious to test it when the honey 

 season comes. K. L. Taylor. 



Lapeer, Mich., Mar. 8. 



I wrote to Mr. Taylor that we would send 

 him some of the Given rolled wax in sufficient 

 quantity for him to test, to see whether it com- 

 pared favorably with that made by the press. 

 In the mean time, doubtless, other bee-keepers 

 would like to try it. I am glad to say that we 

 are now in position to furnish it at the same 

 prices as other foundation, when called for. 

 But you must bear in mind that it does not 

 look like ordinary rolled wax. The walls are 

 very thick, and the sheets of foundation have a 

 rather clumsy appearance as compared with 

 the regular article that we have been selling. 



SIMPLE METHODS OF DETECTING WAX ADUL- 

 TERATIONS. 



In speaking of detecting impurity in bees- 

 wax, the Dadants, in our last issue, refer to the 

 water and alcohol test. It has occurred to me 

 that some of our readers would like to know 

 what it is. On page 596, Vol. 11., of Cheshire, 

 we find the following: 



Fresh wax melts at about 144°, but the melting- 

 point rises 2° or so by a few months' keeping. The 

 specific gravity of wax is nearly equal to that of 

 water, and ranges between .960 and .965, water being 

 1.000. When adulterated with hard fats, its specific 

 gravity is reduced, and on this fact Mr. Hehner has 

 suggested an exceedingly simple test. Take a piece 

 of undoubtedly pure beeswax, and cautiously mix 

 alcohol (methylated spirit) with water until the wax 

 just sinks. A piece of wax so adulterated would, 

 in the same test-fluid, rise to the surface. The test 

 must be applied, however, with great care, as any 

 air-bubbles in or on the piece to be tried might lead 

 to its being condemned unjustly. 



A simple method for the detection of par- 

 affine adulteration, though not entirely relia- 

 ble, Is to take a small piece of the suspected 

 wax and chew it. If it crumbles up within 

 seven or eight minutes in the mouth, it is prob- 

 ably pure wax. If paraffine is mixed with it, 

 you can chew it longer without its crumbling, 

 but it will not crumble quite so much. To suf- 

 ficiently acquaint ourselves with paraffine mix- 

 tures, we took a small quantity of beeswax and 

 melted with it an equal quantity of paraffine, 

 and then tried it by all the various tests; but 

 we were greatly surprised to see how very much 

 like pure wax this half-and-half stuff looked; 

 but according to the chc^wing test it showed the 

 presence of paraffine; but the stuff which we 

 spoke of in our last issue, and which we came 

 very near accepting as pure beeswax, seemed 

 to stand the chew test pretty well. It smelled 

 like real wax; and in breaking a cake of it, it 

 had the regulation granular appearance along 



the line of fracture. But the wily chaps have 

 discovered the process of mixing in paraffine of 

 a higher melting-point, and had been "doctor- 

 ing" it up in other ways so that it seemed to 

 stand ordinary tests. But now since the chem- 

 ist has declared the wax to be adulterated, we 

 find that, according to the chew test, the wax 

 does not crumble quite so promptly as it might. 

 Another method of detecting grease, besides 

 the alcohol and water test, is in the use of 

 chalk. Besides a greasy appearance of the 

 cakes, if a piece of common blackboard chalk 

 be scratched across the smooth surface the 

 chalk will slip along without making any 

 marks. If there is no grease present, a white 

 mark will be made. Grease is also detected by 

 the smell and by the character of the fracture. 

 When a cake of such wax is broken, just how 

 this fracture should look can be determined 

 only by experience. 



THE SUGARS OF COMMERCE PURE, AND WHY. 



Mr. C. Davenport, on page 217, gives it as 

 his opinion that sugars, even the best grades of 

 cane sugars, are largely adulterated. Since his 

 article, with my footnote, was made up, I have 

 found Bulletin No. 13, from the United States 

 Department of Agriculture by the Division of 

 Chemistry. I find that several of the United 

 States chemists analyzed 500 samples of sugars 

 obtained in the open market, and that all were 

 found to be pure, with the exception that a 

 few of the lower grades contained an excess of 

 water, which could hardly be called an adul- 

 terant. The Chief Chemist goes on to tell of 

 the attempts that have been made to adulter- 

 ate or counterfeit cane sugars, but all have 

 ended in failure; and he says further, that the 

 low price of cane sugar renders adulteration 

 practically out of the question, even if it were 

 possible. I think we may set it down as a set- 

 tled fact, then, that granulated sugar — indeed, 

 all of the white sugars— are absolutely pure. 

 We know there are adulterations in other lines 

 of food stuffs; but let us not make the mistake 

 of jumping to the conclusion, without good ev- 

 idence, that all foods are adulterated. 



Perhaps it would be well to state that, in cer- 

 tain grades of powdered sugars, especially con- 

 fectioners', will be found a small percentage of 

 starch. But this is hardly to be regarded as 

 an adulterant, because the sugars in question 

 are designed for making frosting for cake, and 

 the starch is an important element in making 

 good frosting, if I am correct. 



Another interesting fact— one that we have 

 generally accepted as true, however — is, that 

 the chemists say, " In general it maybe said 

 that, for a given sum, a greater quantity of 

 saccharine matter can be purchased by taking 

 the high-grade sugars." 



They admit that maple sugar may be adul- 

 terated with cheaper varieties of sugar, because 

 "at the present time the resources of chemistry 



