1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



33 



fully abreast of the times. As Mr. Henton Is a 

 scholar and a thorough student the style of the 

 writing, as well as the subject matter, is of the 

 best. I have read a good many of the pages, 

 and so far have not found any one of whirh I 

 could not say, "'This is about as near right as 

 it could be stated." I should like to give you 

 the list of contents, but our space is too limited. 

 The following are subjects of the chapters as 

 they occur through the book: 



1. Classification of ilie Honey-bee; 2. Kinds of 

 Bees coniposiug' a Colony; 3. (Juieiing' and manipu- 

 lating' Bees; 4. Establisliing Hn Out-apiary ; 5. Hives 

 and Implements: 6. Bee-pHstura?e: 7. Spring- Ma- 

 tt pulation; 8. Securing- surplus Honey and Wax; 

 fl. Rearing- and introducing- Queens; 10. Incrense of 

 Colonies; 11. Wintering Bees; 12. Diseases and Ene- 

 mies of Bees. 



It is needless to say that no one is more com- 

 petent to write on the subjects given in chap- 

 ters 1, 6, and 9, than Mr. Henton. The first, 

 doubtless, gives us the most accurate informa- 

 tion on the subject of the different varieties of 

 bees of any thing there is in print; for Mr. 

 Benton has traveled over the world in search 

 of new races. Chapter 6, bee-pasturage, is very 

 full, and the illustrations are fine. 



Five thousand copies of this work will be 

 "ready for distribution by the Department of 

 Agriculture in a few days. It is, like all other 

 bulletins of the department, for gratuitous dis- 

 tribution to applicants in the order in which 

 the requests are received." 



"WORK AT THE MICHIGAN EXPERIMENT APIARY; 



FOUNDATION, AND WHICH GIVES 



MOST HONEY TO THE CASE. 



In the Bee heeperx' Review for November, 

 Mr. R. L. Taylor tells of a second series of ex- 

 periments in testing the relative values of the 

 different foundations— that is, the different 

 makes. The experiments of last year seemed 

 to show, if I remember correctly, that the 

 Given had a little the lead; that is, the bees 

 built out the Given more rapidly, and filled it 

 plumper with honey than the other sorts of 

 foundation alternated with it. 



This year Mr. Taylor took a series of cases, 

 each of a capacity of 24 lbs.— as many cases as 

 there were samples of foundation to be tested. 

 "To make the test a fair one, each case was 

 filled with one of the sorts of foundation select- 

 ed for the trial, and the other half with an- 

 other sort, the two sorts being made to alter- 

 nate throughout." For instance: One case 

 contained 12 sections filled with Dadant founda- 

 tion, and 12 sections with the Given. Each 

 row of foundation alternated, as I under- 

 stand it, with another row of the other kind. 

 Another case was prepared in a similar way 

 with Root foundation and Given, and so on 

 through the list. It will be noticed from this 

 that the Given was used as a standard of com- 

 parison in each case; and this particular Given 

 was made from wax of a " hard brittle charac- 

 ter" — the object of selecting the hard wax be- 



ing, I suppose, to get a foundation which 

 would yield results rather under the others to 

 be compared. 



The foundations tested were o'tained in such 

 away that the makers would not be prepared 

 to send something special. The different sorts 

 tested were the Dadant. Root, Hunt, Given 

 (made of hard wax), .the Root-Given (Given 

 foundation with heavy side walls, made on 

 Root rolls), and old Given, that which had been 

 used in the tests of last year. 



Well, after all the cases above mentioned 

 containing Root. Root-Given. Hunt, and old 

 Given, were drawn out and filled with honey, 

 the cases were weighed, and the relative 

 amounts to the credit of each foundation are 

 set forth in a table. With one single exception 

 there was less honey built from the (Hven 

 foundation than from any of the other sorts — 

 the rea'-on for this being, I suppose, because the 

 wax in the first place was harder. There was 

 8 per cent more honey built from the Roots 

 than from the Given; Sy'Jj per cent more from 

 the RoOtGiven than from the Given; 15 per 

 cent more from the Hunt than from the Given; 

 and 23 per cent more from the old Given than 

 from the Given. 



Another interesting fact is, that the Given 

 foundation made on rolls, or, rather, that foun- 

 dation having heavy side walls, and a perfect 

 fac-simile of the side walls of the wax made 

 from the Given press, compares very favorably 

 with that made upon the press. In the cases 

 containing the rolled Given and the Given, the 

 half super of the former wi'ighed 12 lbs. Goz., 

 and the latter 11 lbs. 15 oz. But here, perhaps, 

 Mr. Taylor may differ with me in stating that 

 the old Given gave 23 per cent of excess over 

 the Given made on a press; but this case of 

 honey may have been on a better colony than 

 the old Given. 



Taking it all in all, I am strongly of the opin- 

 ion that the foregoing tests do not prove the 

 superiority of the method of embossing the wax 

 after it is sheeted, so much as it proves the 

 superiority of the more pliable wax over that 

 less so before it Is embossed. The nearer we 

 can get to having the wax soft in the first 

 place, the quicker will the honey be filled out, 

 and the fatter the sections. 



For instance, in the Root and Given super 

 the two sorts of wax contained exactly the 

 same number of feet to the pound (10.92) ; but 

 the Root gave 11 lbs. ',> oz., and the Given, made, 

 as yo^u will remember, from selected hard wax. 

 10 lbs. 11 oz. per half-case. 



I expect great things from the new process of 

 sheeting wax under the Weed patent. The old 

 method of dipping to procure sheets, compared 

 with the Weed method, gave us products that 

 are as cast iron to wronght. The wax by the 

 old method is brittle, while that by the new 

 method is soft and pliable. 



