riodicals, the Bee Journal or some 

 other bee paper is a regular visitor. In 

 many localities clubs are formed, and 

 all the bee papers and desirable books 

 are purchased, and these are passed 

 around and read in rotation, and their 

 contents discussed.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Comb Foundation— A Review. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I have not said a word about comb 

 foundation since January, 1879, but have 

 kept experimenting during the past two 

 seasons. As much is said in last month's 

 Bee Journal in regard to foundation, 

 I think a review of the foundation busi- 

 ness up to date will not be out of order. 

 Our first foundation was purchased of 

 John Long (Wm. Hoge) about Aug. 1st, 

 1875, and was placed in boxes. As the 

 bees did not obtain honey enough after 

 that to finish them, we fed extracted 

 honey to have them sealed over, after 

 which we had as nice-looking box honey 

 upon foundation as was ever before our 

 lot to witness, when built from a starter 

 of natural comb. We were elated till 

 we came to cut it, when the septum was 

 so hard that in trying to cut it the cells 

 of honey on the under side were mashed 

 fine. This, of course, would not answer, 

 and we had to laugh to-day, in examin- 

 ing a piece of bleached foundation, 

 which was sent out in 1877, 1 think, by 

 C. T. Reynolds & Co., to be used in 

 boxes. It is at least y & of an inch thick, 

 running, I should judge, about S}4 feet 

 to the pound. Such was the starting 

 point in the foundation business for 

 comb honey. 



In 1876 we bought a small quantity of 

 A. I. Root. This we experimented with 

 till we became disgusted, and had lost 

 in time, money and honey at least $50. 

 In our disgust we sat down and wrote 

 friend Root about it, and our trials with 

 it, and under date of Aug. 1st, 1876, we 

 have this from his type- writer : 



" You have, in spite of all that we said in Gleanings, 

 been using the paraffine." 



You can imagine how consoling this 

 was, inasmuch as I had purchased said 

 paraffine from him, without even a hint 

 but what it was bleached wax. Howev- 

 er, we obtained some more, warranted 

 to be pure wax, and kept on experiment- 

 ing, meanwhile expostulating with 

 Novice that it was not a success. To 

 prove to me that it was he writes, under 

 date of Aug. 9, 1876 : 



" It has already grown into quite an industry, and 

 we are using wax by the ton." 



How came such an industry to grow 

 up so soon ? Simply by Novice's push- 

 ing it through Gleanings. After using 

 the pure wax with no better results than 

 we had with that purchased from John 

 Long in 1875, as to the bees thinning it, 

 we sent samples of the foundation, after 

 the cells of honey were scraped • and 

 washed off, together with some that the 

 bees had not worked upon, to Novice, at 

 the same time writing an article to be 

 published in Gleanings, giving all my 

 experiments with foundation thus far, 

 which proved conclusively that founda- 

 tion was not a success for comb honey. 

 Novice replied that the samples sent 

 were "a great mystery tome,'" and that 

 I was "• putting my foot into it" in de- 

 siring said article published. As he 

 opposed the article so strongly, I told 

 him he need not publish it, and shortly 

 after, on a card, told him that my ex- 

 periments were conducted thoroughly, 

 and held good in my locality, but that I 

 could not reasonably expect him to pub- 

 lish them, as it would injure the sale of 

 foundation, which was a part of his- 

 business. Under date of Sept. 22, 1876, 

 he writes in reply : 



" Do you really think, friend D., that because I am 

 in the business, I would hesitate to give both sides ? 

 See next number of Gleanings." 



Of course I expected to see my exper- 

 ments given in full. The next number 

 (Oct. 1876) came; on page 245 we read : 



"Mr. G. M. Doolittle is the next and last, and his 

 claim that the thickness of the bottom of the cells 

 is a serious objection is not worth debating, for tons 

 of honey have been produced, and hundreds of bee- 

 keepers have used the foundation." 



Query : If such was the case, why does 

 he advertise thin foundation to-day, and 

 why the need of Van Deusen's patent 

 on machines that will turnout 14 feet of 

 foundation to the pound ? 



Time passes, and the next season 

 (1877) finds us with 15 or 20 lbs. of foun- 

 dation made from our own wax, for the 

 first trial in the brood chamber. Al- 

 ways anxious for real progress we 

 watched developments, both in our own 

 apiary and in that of our bee-keeping 

 neighbor, to whom we had given foun- 

 dation ; but the stuff sagged, so that 

 there was nothing practical about it, and 

 again the season ended with a loss to us 

 or at least another $50, by the many ex- 

 periments we had tried. Again I wrote 

 Novice about our experiments, and here 

 is his reply to my objections to it, as re- 

 gards comb honey and its use in the 

 brood chamber also. As to its use in 

 boxes he says : 



"It is utterly incomprehensible to me the way you 

 stick to your old notions on the foundation. It has 

 filled the markets with most beautiful honey." 



To its use in the brood chamber he says: 



" The whole world almost is rejoicing over the sue- 



