914 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1,5. 



that nearly all cyclists adopt, to a greater or 

 less degree— bending forward over the handles 

 of their machines— is undoubtedly unhealthy." 

 The spine and chest-boiie are aftected, circula- 

 tion impaired, and lungs interfered with. 



Adulteration of beeswax, according to a 

 German writer, may be detected by the use of 

 benzine. Pour benzine over beeswax in a test 

 tube ; and if the wax is pure, at the end of an 

 hour or two there will be in the tube two strata, 

 a lower, uniform stratum of wax, and an upper 

 stratum of clear benzine. If impurities are 

 present, the time of separation is longer, tak- 

 ing half a day or several days, and the stratum 

 of wax is not uniform in character. 



THE BASE OF FOUNDATION. 



HOW MUCH THE BKES HAVE TO THIN IT DOWN; 



SOME INTERESTING AND VALUABLE 



EXPERIMENTS BY R. L.. TAYLOR. 



In my experience as a bee-keeper I have made 

 use of a large variety of foundations distin- 

 guished by weight, character of wax, name of 

 the manufacturer, and character of machine 

 used. For some of tiiese, lai'ge (not to say ex- 

 travagant) claims were made. As these claims 

 related to points that went to the relative prof- 

 it of particular kinds, I was naturally curious 

 to observe whether these claims were sustained 

 by the deci-ion of the bees — tlie court of last 

 resort in such matters. My methods of observa- 

 tion, to be sure, were not very scientific or exact, 

 as a general thing, but they were sufficient to 

 produce in my mind a general feeling of incre- 

 dulity touching such claims, since nothing ap- 

 peared to indicate that they were other than 

 theoretical; and I rested in the hope that an 

 opportunity would come to take an ap' eal. 



Tiie opportunity came unexpectedly, and the 

 old questions revived: Is all foundation equally 

 good? Does the character of the machine em- 

 ployed in its manufacture affect its quality ? 

 Is there any preferable method of manipulating 

 wax to be used for foundation ? Is comb made 

 from extra thin foundation lighter in weight 

 than that made from thin? Does age injuri- 

 ously affect it? What is the truth about the 

 "fishbone''? These were some of them. The 

 time at my disposal was short, but I determined 

 to make an effort to let in some pioneer ray of 

 light, upon this matter which seemed to me to 

 lie altogether in darkness. 



For the purpose of the experiment I selected 

 eight sorts of foundation, each of which I desig- 

 nated by a letter of the alphabet. This, to- 

 gether with the description of each, will suffi- 

 ciently appear from the following tabulation of 

 the kinds selected: 



A, Dadant's thin 10 ft. to the lb. 



B, Dadant's extra tliin 12 " " 



C, Viin Deusen's flat-bottom, ob- 



tained of A. 1. Root 13M " 



D, Roofs tliin 10.31 " 



E, Root's extra tliin 13.0:^ " 



F, Given press 10.09 " 



G, " " 9.37 " 



H, " " 3 years old, about 9 " 



The plan included an attempt to determine 

 what foundations the bees worked the soonest 

 and the most rapidly; but we will now consider 

 only the question of the thinness of the septum. 



After maturely considering the matter it ap- 

 peared to me that there were two ways in which 

 this could be determined with a reasonable 

 degree of certainty; viz., by weighing and by 

 measuring. 



By a process which seemed to me to secure 

 substantial accuracy, but which I will not take 

 time to describe now, I cut down a set of sec- 



tion combs made from the foundations already 

 mentioned, from which the honey had been 

 thoroughly washed, to an even thickness of 

 something less than half an inch, leaving the 

 septum undisturbed in each, from each of 

 which, with a sort of cake-cutler, I carefully 

 cut a " cake " something more than two and a 

 half inches in diameter. These were the sam- 

 ples for the weighing test. 



While at Chicago at the convention, in talk- 

 ing with Mr. E. R. Root about the matter of 

 measuring the thickness of the bases of the cells, 

 he informed me that there was a micrometer at 

 his establishment, and that he would be glad to 

 put it at my service. I accordingly gave him a 

 set of the xepta, each labeled with its proper 

 alphabetical designation only, of which he had 

 measurements taken by Mr. C. C. Washburn, 

 the person accustomed to use the instrument. I 

 was also favored with measurements of the 

 bases of the several kinds of foundation made by 

 A. I. Root. These measurements were sent me, 

 and appear further on. 



The two sets mentioned were the only ones 

 finally made use of. They were taken from two 

 separate cases of honey, all of one set, from one 

 case, and all of the other from the other. 



As the natural comb was the only proper 

 standard of comparison, I added a sample of 

 that to each set, and designated it by the letter 

 "I." 



After taking the first set to the Agricultural 

 College, and having it weighed by Mr. Frank S. 

 Kedzie, Adjunct Professor of Chemistry, I 

 divided each sample into two, making two sets. 

 The thickness of the bases of one set I had 

 measured by Dr. Beal, Professor of Botany. 

 etc., and the other set 1 sent to Mr. E. R. Root, 

 so as to secure from two persons measurements 

 of practically the same piece of comb. On ac- 

 count of the illness of Mr. Washburn, the mea- 

 surements of the latter set were taken by a sub- 

 stitute, Mr. H. A. Hubbell. 



As will appear from the tables in the case of 

 Mr. Hubbell, the samples were measured from 

 once to five times; in the other cases, each was 

 measured three times at as many different 

 points. 



The measurements are given in ten-thou- 

 sandths of an inch, and are as follows: 



WASHBURN'S MEASUREMENTS. 



