THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



49 



With concentrated lye and hot water 

 make a strong lye. Into this pour 

 melted beeswax, and stir it up, when 

 real soap will be formed having' a 

 strong, disagreeable odor. Beeswax 

 is an animal secretion, might even be 

 compared to animal fat, and will unite 

 with lye in making soap, the same as 

 will grease. Paraffin is of mineral 

 origin, and when added to the lye will 

 not unite with it, but remain upon the 

 top and cool in a nice, hard cake. 



Mr. Dadant mentioned a very simple 

 test that would, at least, indicate the 

 presence of tallow in wax. Draw the 

 finger nail over the surface of the cake 

 in such a manner as to scratch a small 

 furrow. In pure wax the surface of 

 the furrow will show ripples or waves, 

 while in the tallow-wax these corruga- 

 tions will be absent. 



By the way, Prof. Wiley, U. S. 

 chemist, the man who started the story 

 about artificial comb, now states, in the 

 Rural New Yorker, that the manufac- 

 turers of comb foundation in this 

 country are using paraffin to adulter- 

 ate their product. It is difficult to 

 conceive what defense can be made for 

 the Professor. Buying wax as they 

 do from so many sources, the manu- 

 facturers are compelled to exercise 

 great care, to test every shipment, and, 

 even then, a very slight adulteration 

 might pass undetected. Perhaps a 

 chemist might detect it; possibly the 

 Professor might find a trace, in some 

 samples of foundation, but to assert 

 that our manufacturers of foundation 

 are adulterating their product does 

 them a rank injustice, and creates 

 more prejudice in the minds of consum- 

 ers of honey. 



«^«*«ir«j«<^*« 



Hives and Supers. 

 A subscriber writes that he wishes to 

 begin bee-keeping next spring with 

 three or four colonies, and gradually 

 build them up into an apiary, making 

 them pay a profit as he goes along. 

 He is especially interested in hives and 



supers, and wishes to know what kind 

 I would advise him to adopt. He ex- 

 pects to make his own hives. He 

 wishes the inside dimensions of a ten- 

 frame I^angstroth hive. The Lang- 

 stroth frame is 9)^ inches deep and 

 17^ long. There should be a ^ space 

 all around the frame, between that and 

 the hive, hence, the hive should be 9^ 

 inches deep, and 18;^ long, inside 

 measurement. Usually, an inch and a 

 half is allowed for each frame, or 

 comb, hence, for ten combs, there 

 should be 15 inches of space. For a 

 bottom board I should use a plain 

 board, cleated at the ends to prevent 

 warping, with strips half an inch 

 thick, nailed around the upper edges 

 of the bottom board on the sides and 

 back end, to raise the hive from the 

 bottom board. My preference is also 

 for a flat cover, even if it has to be 

 made in pieces and covered with tin, 

 iron, or painted canvas. As I have 

 frequently explained in the Review, I 

 should use plain, all-wood frames. If 

 producing extracted honey, I should 

 use the same frames and hive bodies 

 for supers as are used for the brood 

 nests. If working for the production 

 of comb honey, I should use plain sec- 

 tions, and fence-separators. These can 

 not well be made without machinery, 

 and must be bought of some manufac- 

 turer. The beginner ought to read the 

 text books and journals, and will then 

 be able to decide many just such ques- 

 tions as those I have now an'iwered. 



■»^»^^^-»'««jr". 



The Price and Aims of the Review — Bee- 



Keeping as a Business. 



I believe I made mention, last month, 

 of my sending out circulars to those 

 who had received samples of the 

 Review, asking them why they had not 

 subscribed. Some of those letters are 

 decidedly interesting. I received one 

 from a bee-keeper in Ontario, and, as 

 it brought up several points upon 

 which I wished to make an explana- 



