634 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



D. DANIELSEN AND FAMILY, OF BRUSH, COL. 

 Mr. Danielsen writes that his family consumes 60 lbs. of extracted honey every month — 720 lbs. a year, on the average. 



This picture is not a poor testimonial as to the food value of honey. 



that is entirely useless for certain manufacturing 

 purposes. As intimated, rightly or wrongly, 

 quite a number are putting the blame on sulphu- 

 ric acid, and it is up to the bee-keepers to find 

 out if their claim is correct or not. 



Of course, it is generally assumed that all the 

 sulphuric acid settles with the water at the bot- 

 tom of the cakes of wax; but that such is not the 

 case was fully proven to the writer and some 

 others by a little incident that occurred last sum- 

 mer. A friend bought a lot of beautiful wax 

 that had been clarified with sulphuric acid. The 

 wax was remelted and run into tart-tins, and the 

 small cakes were sold at fairs. These tins, after 

 the wax was taken out, were covered with a greasy 

 coating, and my friend was telling me only a few 

 days ago that, up to the present, they had found 

 no way of cleaning that coating from the tins. 

 No doubt that, in this case, an excess of the acid 

 had been used; but the case serves as an illustra- 

 tion as to what might happen any time if no ex- 

 act formula was observed. 



The manager of one of the departments of a 

 manufacturing firm in New York State told me 

 that they use thousands of pounds of beeswax, 

 and at present know of no substitute to take its 

 place. They had experienced considerable an- 

 noyance and loss by getting a lot of wax that 

 would not work right, and now they would buy 

 only after having found the sample satisfactory, 

 and following shipments had to be guaranteed 

 the same as sample. 



This man was inclined to think that some of 

 the wax was overheated in modern presses used, 

 and the ductility, or (as he expressed it) the 

 "life" was taken out of it. At least one exten- 

 sive dealer in painters' and artists' supplies in the 

 city of Toronto stipulates in all his contracts for 

 wax that no sulphuric acid be used in the render- 

 ing of the same. 



In submitting these statements it is not my in- 

 tention to raise a false alarm; but to my mind the 

 question is a very important one, and it seems to 

 me that the opinions of the dealers and manufac- 

 turers are entitled to some consideration. That, 

 as before stated, a lot of unsatisfactory wax is be- 

 ing put on the market, there is no question, but 

 to decide just what is the cause of this state of 

 affairs is another proposition. That a number of 

 our best bee-keepers use the sulphuric acid does 

 not necessarily prove the wisdom of that course. 

 In all the wax I have rendered, only once did I 

 use the acid, and yet I have never had a single; 

 complaint from those who have bought my wax. 

 That the acid does not injure the wax for founda- 

 tion ipurposes is self-evident from the fact; that: 

 thousands of pounds of such wax is used annually 

 for that purpose. But in the making of founda- 

 tion the wax undergoes different processes than is 

 the case in other uses to which the beeswax is put. 



Would it not be wise for the bee-keeper to dis- 

 pense with sulphuric acid.' then if the foundation- 

 maker wishes at fi.ydiSit v\ecessary to add the acid,, 

 let him do so. 



