992 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



given them and the blossoms were profuse. 

 Failure to fruit he attributed to the lack of bees 

 to pollenize the blossoms. He thought bees had 

 a far greater effect on plant life than most people 

 had any idea of. Frequently, he said, the want 

 of fruit was attributed to the cold weather in 

 spring when rather it was due to the dull and 

 chilly days causing the bees to stay at home 

 during the bloomLng period. This testimony is 

 interesting, coming as it does from the largest 

 city on earth, where smoke and grime gild every 

 thing, even the flowers, fruit, and honey. No 

 doubt the bees will " make good. " 

 * 

 "wax craft," by t. w. cowan. 



This is certainly the best book on beeswax 

 which has yet appeared in English or any other 

 language. It covers the whole subject in a man- 

 ner which leaves little to be desired. The book 

 itself is admirably printed and bound; in fact, 

 it is a model of its kind — a credit to its pub- 

 lisher, L. Upcott Gill. 



It commences with a historical sketch, giving 

 a vivid account of the place of beeswax among 

 the great oriental nations of antiquity, and fol- 

 lowing on to the present day. A beautiful illus- 

 tration is given, as a frontispiece, of an encaustic 

 wax-painting taken from Herculaneum. It is 

 copied from a steel-engraving by F. A. David 

 (Paris, 1780). Other illustrations of a like na- 

 ture enliven the text and add materially to the 

 value of the work. 



Beeswax must have been an important article 

 in the days of the Pharoahs, for on page 31 we 

 read : 



From a papyrus of Rameses 111. we gather that payments were 

 made from the royal treasury of sacrificial funds, such as the 

 following: 



."31,702 jars of incense, honey, and oil; 



3,100 teben of wax; 



1,933,766 jars of incense, honey, fat, oil, etc. 



In the times of Zoroaster, his worshipers burned 

 candles in their worship of the sun-god. It was 

 also done by the pagan Romans and also by the 

 Greeks of Attica in honor of the god Ceres. Of 

 course, the great Greek and Catholic churches 

 use immense quantities of beeswax candles in 

 their church services, and the worshipers of 

 Buddha in Ceylon also consider wax candles 

 indispensable. These candles have been used to 

 light cities, for the Emperor Constantine ordered 

 Constantinople to be lighted on Christmas eve 

 by means of lamps and wax candles. In the 

 city of Fez to this day the birthday of Mahomet 

 is celebrated by every schoolboy carrying lighted 

 torches of beeswax, some of them weighing as 

 much as 30 lbs. In the early days of the Cath- 

 olic Church, votive offerings were frequently 

 made of beeswax ; and it is related that the 

 church of the Annunciation, in Florence, had its 

 walls completely covered by them. 



In ancient times beeswax was used as a medi- 

 cine. Pliny says : " Every kind of wax is emol- 

 lient and warming, and tends to the formation 

 of new tlesh; fresh wax is best. It is given in 

 broth to persons troubled with dysentery, and 

 the combs themselves are sometimes used in a 

 pottage made of parched alica. Wax also coun- 

 teracts the bad effects of milk; and ten pills, the 

 size of a grain of millet, will prevent milk from 

 coagulating in the stomach." 



Both Herodotus and Strabo state that beeswax 

 was used for embalming the dead. 



It must be evident to the reader that the pro- 

 duction of beeswax "in ye olden tyme" must 

 have been very great, and it was. For example, 

 in the year 181 B. C, Prastor Pinarius, after 

 defeating the inhabitants of the island of Cor- 

 sica, imposed on them an annual tax of 100,000 

 lbs. of wax, and two years thereafter doubled it. 

 Again, we read that in 1632 John de Frettar, 

 sexton of the monastery of Chaise Dieu, in 

 France, stipulated for an annual rent of 600 lbs. 

 of beeswax. 



In London "The Worshipful Company of 

 Wax Chandlers" was organized as early as 1371, 

 and still exists, chiefly for ornamental purposes. 

 It obtained a royal charter in 1483. 



How the bee produces wax is fully described, 

 but we need not here advert to it. One para- 

 graph, however, is worth quoting. 



Huber, after a series of experiments, several times repeated, 

 proved that bees fed on honey and water produced wax; while, 

 if fed only pollen, none was produced. He also showed that 

 bees fed on sugar syrup were able to produce wax, and (after 

 several consecutive trials) that those fed with syrup made of 

 sugar made more wax than when fed on honey, brown moist 

 sugar yielding the largest quantities. These results were cor- 

 roborated by Dumas and Milne-Edwards, who in 1844 repeated 

 Huber's experiments and found that 500 grams of sugar yielded 

 30 grams of wax, while the same quantity of honey produced 

 only 20 grams. Other observers, such as Gundelach and Ber- 

 lepsch, have obtained similar results, so that Huber's conclusions 

 may be considered as established. 



Pages 53 to 72 inclusive are devoted to the 

 subject of wax-rendering. Beeswax in commerce 

 has a short chapter. Mr. Cowan states that the 

 beeswax of Guadeloupe and Brazil will not 

 bleach, but remain a mahogany color. This is 

 not to be wondered at, for the bees of Guade- 

 loupe and Brazil are stingless, producing quite a 

 different kind of wax from ours. They produce 

 beeswax almost the same as the kind we have ; 

 but they mix it with propolis to a considerable 

 extent. It is interesting to know that the waxes 

 of England, Hamburg, Odessa, Portugal, Moga- 

 dor, Zanzibar, East and West Indies, and North 

 America all bleach very rapidly, while those of 

 Cuba, Danzig, Konigsberg, Gaboon, and Gam- 

 bia bleach with difficulty. Twenty-one pages 

 are devoted to the subject of wax adulteration ; 

 and* anybody who understands the subject will 

 agree with me that the importance of the subject 

 justifies it. 



In chapter VII. Mr. Cowan carefully consid- 

 ers the manufacture of comb foundation. Color- 

 ing wax occupies chapter VIII.; wax candles and 

 tapers have chapter IX.; manufacture of wax 

 flowers has chapter X. ; while chapter XL contains 

 110 recipes in which beeswax is a prominent 

 ingredient. Possibly this last is the most valu- 

 able part of the book, as one good recipe may be 

 worth more than the price of the book. 



We have long wanted a book of this kind. 

 Beeswax is a very important object in commerce; 

 it is almost equal to gold in -all markets. Mer- 

 chants anywhere are ready and willing at all 

 times to take it in payment for goods, and the 

 price fluctuates very little. It therefore deserves 

 a very nice book. 



Anything Mr. Cowan writes is worth reading; 

 and this last proves that his pen has lost none of 

 its cunning. It is a work which ought to be in 

 every bee-keeper's library. For prices see Spe- 

 cial Notices. 



