456 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



the return of light. But another writer affirms : Evening watering 

 cools the surface excessively, and chills the roots of plants. I prefer 

 the early part of the morning for watering all plants out of doors, and 

 about noon, to water those in the house. Thus leaving to fair experi- 

 ment the settlement of the question; all agreeing in the fact, that if 

 you begin the practice of watering you must continue it, for the fibrous 

 roots, no longer depending upon themselves for a supply, and diving 

 into the subsoil for it. turn upwards, expecting to receive it from above, 

 and immediately suffer for the want of it, if it be not constantly fur- 

 nished by surface- watering . 



WAX. The bees carry the farina, or pollen, on their ^mder legs, 

 but, according to Reamur, this dust does not contain any real wax ; m>r 

 is this latter substance produced by the mixture of the farina with a 

 glutinous liquor, by trituration, or by any other mechanical process. 

 After long and attentive observation, this naturalist found, that bees 

 actually eat the pollen they collect, and that this pollen is converted, 

 by an animal process, into wax. Virgin wax, or propolis, is a resin of 

 a red color, which the bees collect from different trees, as poplars, 

 birches, and willows. This the insects use to fill up chinks or defici- 

 encies in their habitation, and to encase the dead bodies of large 

 insects, as shelless snails, which have intruded upon their hives ; to 

 the end that, by excluding the air, they may be .preserved from be- 

 coming offensive. Propolis is of a reddish color. It is the most tena- 

 cious kind of wax, and is recommended medicinally, as beneficial to 

 the nerves. The pollen gathered by the bees is of various colors ; 

 but the combs they construct are always of the same. Every 

 comb, especially when it is newly made, is of a pure white color. 

 This is liable to be injured by age, the operation of the air, and 

 by other accidents. To bleach wax, therefore, it is only neces- 

 sary to extract the foreign bodies that have insinuated themselves 

 into its substance, and obscured its original color. Hence the dis- 

 tinction, in commerce, between white and yellow wax ; the first being 

 bleached and the second only melted. With a view to bleach wax, 

 it is cut in small pieces, melted, and poured into cold water, where it 

 granulates. In this state, it is exposed to the sun arid, air ; melted 

 and granulated repeatedly ; then submitted to the influence of the sun, 

 air, and dew, in the interval between each liquefaction. When the 

 wax is perfectly blanched, it is dissolved for the last time, and cast 

 into flat moulds, in which it is again exposed to the air, for one or two 

 days, in order to render it more transparent. 



WAX TREE. A beautiful evergreen shrub, growing in wet sandy 

 ground, about the edges of swamps, in the Floridas. It rises ere<> 

 nine or ten feet, dividing itself into a multitude of nearly erect 

 branches, which are adorned with many green leaves. The branches 

 produce abundance of large round berries, nearly the size of bird 

 cherries, which are covered with a coat of white wax. It is in high 



