1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



363 



When using the press I go to work as fol- 

 lows: 



Put in enough water to cover the slumgum 

 completely, and allow for evaporation, and 

 then build a lire. When the water is hot, 

 place one slotted affair in the bottom of the 

 kettle; place the gunny sack with the slum- 

 gum on top, being careful to fold the top of 

 the sack so there will be no leakage. Place 

 the other slotted affair on top of this; then 

 a block of wood, or several, to get the right 

 height; then place the lever squarely on top, 

 and weight it with a couple of mower- wheels. 

 More iron can be added if needed. 



I tie the lever to the tree loosely, to pre- 

 vent it from gliding off sidewise as it other- 

 wise would be apt to do. Move the rope 

 down as the lever descends. 



kettle would do the work equally well, and 

 the cost would be only one-third. 



I will say in conclusion that this method is 

 hard on gunny sacks; but as long as it gets 

 practically all the wax, we do not care, as 

 it is the latter that costs money. Gunny 

 sacks cost only a trifle. 



Riee Lake, Wis., Dec. 4. 



[From the experimenting that we have" 

 done, we should think that you might be 

 able to get the wax out quicker, and per- 

 haps cleaner, if you removed the weights 

 from the lever once in a while, raised it a- 

 few inches, and then tied it firmly. Ire 

 about ten minutes you could loosen the tie, 

 put on the weights, acd press again. This 

 would allow the "cheese" to become thor- 



RE'«JDER]NG WAX OUTDOORS BY THE HOT-WATER METHOD. 



As to quantity of wax that could be ren- 

 dered in one day, I have never kept account. 

 I start the fire some time in the forenoon; 

 keep it going all day, and next morning re- 

 move the wax, which is then hard, from the 

 surface of the water. Then I fire up and 

 put in another quantity of slumgum. 



Of course, these cakes are melted over 

 again, as more or less impurities are bound 

 to rise to the top of the water with the wax. 

 When all the slumgum is rendered I put all 

 these cakes into a galvanized- iron wash-tub; 

 place the tub in the kettle; melt without the 

 press; skim both top and bottom with a 3ort 

 of dipper made of wire screen; then dip the 

 remainder into another tub. 



I do not know, but presume that an iron 



oughly saturated with the hot water so that, 

 when you applied the pressure again, the 

 wax would be washed out. This, of course, 

 would mean more work; but we believe you 

 could, by so doing, secure the wax in a 

 shorter time, and probably get more of it 

 from a given amount of comb. You might 

 press two lots in a day, but it would be more 

 convenient to use a fresh lot of water each 

 time, for almost all the water would have to 

 be dipped out anyway, in order to get all the 

 wax. If some wax were left on the water, 

 it would almost all be absorbed by the cheese 

 when taken' out. So the best way, then, is 

 to press but one lot at once, and it would 

 not take more than half a day to get all the 

 wax.— Ed.] 



