PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T FALCONER MANPG CO 



VOL. IV. 



AUGUST, 1894. 



MO. 8. 



Wax Production, Possibilities 



off that Industry in Old 



Mexico. 



BY H. E. HILL. 



The production of beeswax, it would 

 appear, could be made an extensive 

 and lucrative business in old Mexico, 

 if the statements are reliable of those 

 who have visited this '' Egypt of the 

 New World." 



My interest in this direction has 

 been awakened not alone by the en- 

 chanting tales of the boundless profu- 

 sion of bee forage with which the 

 Sierra Madres are clad, but from a 

 source deemed throughly reliable, 

 with the assurance that numerous lo- 

 calities are available, in some instan- 

 ces hundreds of miles in extent, where 

 the nectar-secreting vegitation " grows 

 upon the mountains like the wool 

 upon a sheep's back," and by various 

 reports of a strong demand for this 

 product of the bee, which has never 

 been met, owing chiefly to the charac- 

 teristic indolence of the inhabitants 

 and " incidental cruck methods." 

 The churches and cathedrals of Span- 

 ish America being illuminated with 

 candles made of beeswax insures a 

 ready and inexhaustable market, 

 which information has repeatedly 



been corroborated by those possessing 

 knowledge. On one occasion by a 

 gentleman of evident ability and re- 

 puted veracity who had spent several 

 years in harvesting " cat's claw" honey 

 in Texas, who declared that he had 

 sold wax to the Mexicans at forty 

 cents per pound, to which expense 

 was added the import duty exacted by 

 the Mexican government. I am in- 

 formed that wax gathered from the 

 wild bees of the mountains by the na- 

 tives has been disposed of during re- 

 cent years in the Vera Cruz market 

 at one dollar per pound in the "coin 

 of the realm." If these stories of 

 Mexico's natural resources and adapt- 

 ability to apiculture and the great de- 

 mand for the wax aie true, why is 

 not this an open field for American 

 enterprise worthy of small investment 

 and big effort ? In this day of keen 

 competition in all branches of indus- 

 try, though such would surely follow 

 success in this new departure, to avoid 

 the beaten paths and launch upon an 

 unknown but promising line would 

 afford a degree of relief, not easily 

 obtainable. 



The idea of producing wax, as an 

 exclusive business, will not find fav- 

 orable commendation in the minds of 



