Superintendent of the Cook County (Illi- 

 nois) Poorhouse, to visit the city and 

 obtain some reading matter, with which to 

 relieve his long, monotonous hours. Old 

 and feeble— his mind, fast passing into 

 dotage, reverts bark to its struggles with 

 the first machine, to release the waxen 

 sheets from the rollers; next, to his over- 

 coming the difficulty with soapsuds; then 

 wanders in clouded dreams to his two boys 

 whom last he saw and parted from in the 

 fatherland ; then come his beautiful, airy 

 castles built in the future, all of which he 

 expects to reali/.e when he recovers from 

 his rheumatism, and regains his robust 

 strength of fifty years ago. Poor "old 

 Fred !" how forcibly did he bring to mind 

 the lines in the school-books of years ago : 



■' Pitv the sorrows of a poor old man, 



Wbose trembling limbs have borne him to your 

 door ; 

 Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span- 

 Give relief, and heaven will bless your store." 



Although soon to pass to obscurity, and the 

 records of his senilis blotted out "unhonored 

 and unsung," his invention will receive the 

 praise of being one of the greatest of the age. 



It would be tedious to review all the vari- 

 ous styles of foundation presented to bee- 

 keepers since " John Long " first introduced 

 *' old Fred's " product to the public, and the 

 claims of the many machines now upon the 

 market for its manufacture. We have had 

 foundation with triangular shaped cells, 

 with flat-bottomed cells, with nigh side- 

 walls and with no walls at all ; with linen, 

 cotton, wood, paper, tin-foil and woven- 

 wire for a base; while latterly we have 

 had flat-bottomed foundation, with fine 

 wires imbedded therein, and frames of 

 foundation with wires pressed therein. 

 But one by one these are passing aw r ay. 

 Experience is demonstrating that a medium 

 heavy sheet— say, 4}i to 5 feet per lb., with 

 a thin base or septum, and heavy promi- 

 nent side-walls or lines, is the most desira- 

 ble for economy in the use of wax, and 

 rapidity in comb-building by the bees ; and 

 whether it be distinguished by the name of 

 Dunham, or Given, or Bourgmeyer, or 

 Ferris— or call it what you will — the above 

 characteristics will be predominent in the 

 foundation of the future. My experience 

 has been that such is less liable to sag in 

 the hive, the bees will accept it much 

 more readily, and, unless honey be coming 

 in very rapidly, every particle of the wax 

 will be utilized. It is not unusual for such 

 foundation to be built out sufficiently for 

 storing and the queen's use in 13 hours, in 

 colonies in a normal condition ; while one 

 writer claims (and I do not doubt him) that 

 10 hours is sufficient time with him for 

 prime swarms to build out sets of combs. 



For some purposes, it is possible wires 

 may be desirable, but I have never had oc- 

 casion to use them, except by way of ex- 

 periment, and cannot now imagine why I 

 should want them, whether they be im- 

 bedded and dipped with the sheets, or 

 pressed in by a machine. 



I am not persuaded as to the desirableness 

 of full sheets of foundation in the surplus 

 boxes. I have frequently tried fiat-bottomed 

 thin, but never with the most gratifying 

 results, and I am long since convinced there 



is but little gained by its use — certainly not 

 enough to compensate for its cost and 

 trouble. Perhaps the style commonly called 

 Dunham, if made thin enough— say, S to 10 

 feet to the pound — would be more desirable. 

 Buteven this I should not use. could I after- 

 ward detect the boxes in which it was 

 employed. 



I am convinced from numerous experi- 

 ments the past season, that the brightest, 

 yellowest, purest, freshest foundation is 

 much the cheapest. It is possible for good, 

 unburned wax to be dark or brown, but it 

 is hardly possible for burned, or mixed, or 

 impure wax to be a bright yellow ; there- 

 fore, if for no other reason than a guarantee 

 of its purity, I would select the latter. It 

 is certainly a fallacy to suppose that very 

 dark foundation is less liable to sag in the 

 brood-chamber, and this erroneous impres- 

 sion can only be accounted for by the fact 

 that the bees are less liable to crowd upon 

 it in such immense numbers ; or that the 

 darker wax is cheaper in price, and hence 

 " the wish is father to the thought." 



In choosing wax to manufacture, always 

 select the brighest, cleanest and purest— it 

 will be cheaper and give better satisfaction, 

 even though you pay l@2c per lb. more for it. 



In ordering foundation for the brood- 

 chamber, specify what you want. First, 

 state what frame you use, giving the size ; 

 second, that you want foundation with a 

 thin base, and the bulk of the wax in the 

 side-walls ; third, that you want it to run 

 not less than 4% nor moie than 5 feet to the 

 pound. If for use in surplus boxes, full 

 size, or nearly so, all the above conditions 

 should be observed, except in weight, which 

 should run about S feet per pound. Judging 

 from my past experience, I would not advise 

 the purchase of any foundation with a flat 

 base, depending upon the bees to work it 

 into proper shape ; sometimes they will do 

 so, but more frequently they will not. 



In conclusion, while ready to endorse all 

 that has been said by manufacturers and 

 dealers of the desirableness and utility of 

 good foundation, 1 am half persuaded that 

 perfection has not yet been reached in the 

 machines employed in its manufacture. 

 Undoubtedly, many of the best machines on 

 the market are sold at as small a margin of 

 profit as their manufacturers can afford 

 them ; yet, whether the machine costs S50 

 or only $5 ; if it cannot be run to make up 

 the wax into good foundation at a less ex- 

 pense than 15 to 25c. per pound, it is a 

 practical failure. Many of the most promi- 

 nent and successful apiarists are loth to 

 advise the purchase of foundation freely 

 because of its cost; but reduce the price, 

 and thousands will use it who now cannot 

 afford to ; yes, thousands of bee-keepers 

 will melt up all surplus combs at the end of 

 each season, rather than trouble to make 

 them mothproof, and buy or exchange the 

 wax for foundation when wanted ! 



I have an abiding faith in the genius of 

 the American bee-keeper, and believe that 

 his ingenuity will yet perfect and bring out, 

 in the near future, a foundation machine 

 which will make good foundation so rapidly 

 and cheaply as to entirely supersede the use 

 of old combs and comb starters. 



Chicago, 111. C. C. Coffinberry. 



