BIEL^OURN^H 



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(Entered as second-class matter July 30, 1907, at the Post-Offlce at Obicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.) 

 Pablished Monthly at 75 cents a Year, by George W. York & Co., 118 West Jackson Boulevard. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., APRIL, 1909 



VoL XLIX— No. 4 



Rendering Wax in an Oven 



Very commonly there are more ways 

 than one of doing a thing, and one of 

 the ways may be bad while another 

 good. In that excellent work, "Wax 

 Craft," the author very properly says 

 that extracting wax in an oven can not 

 be recommended, because of too great 

 heat, as the temperature should in no 

 case exceed 172 degrees. Evidently he 

 has in mind that the oven door will be 

 closed, and one can readily see the 

 great danger of going beyond 172. But 

 there is another way of extracting in 

 an oven that may be commended to 

 those who have only a small quantity to 

 render, as follows : 



Take a dripping-pan with one corner 

 split open ; put it in the oven with the 

 split corner projecting out so that the 

 melted wax as it drips from the open 

 corner may fall into a dish set beneath 

 to catch it. Something must be put 

 under the inside to raise it, so the melt- 

 ed wax shall flow outward. As wrax 

 melts at 143 degrees, it runs out before 

 any danger of reaching 172 degrees, 

 thus doing away with Mr. Cowan's ob- 

 jection. 



For cappings and bur-combs the oven 

 serves a good purpose, but, like the solar 

 extractor, leaves in old combs some wax 

 that can be got out by a press. 



Our Qoestion-Box and Its Limitation. 



The many expressions of appreciation 

 of the question-box leave no doubt as 

 to its serving well the purpose for which 

 it is intended. Occasionally, however, 

 some one expresses disappointment be- 

 cause he has watched in vain for the 

 clearing up of some point upon which 

 he is in doubt. He seems to have some 

 vague idea that the question-box is in- 



tended to give light upon all knotty 

 points, whether any question is asked 

 about them or not. He ought hardly to 

 expect a question to be answered that 

 is not asked, and he may wait a long 

 time before some one else asks the par- 

 ticular question he desires answered. 

 "If you don't see what you want, ask 

 for it." 



Every subscriber to the American Bee 

 Journal is at liberty to make use of the 

 question-box without any charge what- 

 ever. But there is one limitation. The 

 question-box is not intended to take the 

 place of a bee-book, or book of instruc- 

 tion, onlv to supplement it. Suppose 

 John Smith says, "Does the old queen 

 or the young one go with the swarm?" 

 "How do you transfer a colony from a 

 box-hive?" with a number of other 

 questions equally elementary. If any of 

 his questions are cut out, and he is told 

 that they are answered in the bee-books, 

 he feels aggrieved, and says, "I pay my 

 subscription in full and am entitled to 

 answers to any questions I may ask. 

 I don't propose to be held up and forced 

 to pay out extra money for a bee-book." 

 But suppose his questions are all fully 

 answered. A year or so later he finds 

 the same questions are repeatedly asked 

 by other beginners, and John Smith is 

 likely to say: "What is the sense of 

 having space taken up each month with 

 questions that have been asked over 

 and over again? I pay for my paper, 

 and would like to get something for my 

 money." 



There are certain things that every 

 beginner is likely to want to know — 

 must know, if he would be successful — 

 and a bee-book is written for the ex- 

 press purpose of telling him these things. 

 If John Smith, when he first becomes 

 a subscriber, should object to what he 



calls being forced into buying a book, 

 he might be answered, "It would be 

 hard to do you a greater favor than to 

 get you to procure such a book, for in 

 it you will find answered the greater 

 number of questions that you will want 

 to ask, and a good many others that you 

 ought to ask but will not think of ask- 

 ing. Then there will be other questions 

 that will occur to you that are not an- 

 swered in the book, and such questions 

 will always be welcomed by the ques- 

 tion-box. It would not be a difficult 

 task to occupy space in each number 

 with questions that are answered in 

 every book of instruction upon bee- 

 keeping; but it is for your future pro- 

 tection against space being thus wasted 

 that you are now urged to inform your- 

 self on these elementary points through 

 the studv of some one of the books." 



Washing Honey-Cans 



Allen Latham, in Gleanings, protests 

 vigorously against putting honey in new 

 cans first without washing the cans, 

 saying : 



These cans are made by men the vast ma- 

 jority of whom chew tobacco. These cans have 

 all their seams wiped with a vile brush wet 

 with a solution of zinc chloride (a poisonous 

 salt.) They are all made from tin which, 

 though for the most part largely handled by 

 machinery, is frequently touched by men with 

 grimy hands — hands befouled wth dirt dis- 

 tasteful to eye and taste. With all justice to 

 these workers, does Mr. Burnett think that one 

 of them would wash off the spot if he by chance 

 spat tobacco juice upon the inner surface of a 

 tin can, when that inner surface was only the 

 side of a sheet of tin? 



When a can is emptied, he thinks it 

 should be thoroughly washed, so that 

 no daub of honey left may injure the 

 can. Editor Root thinks that while this 

 may be true for climates like that of 

 Mr. Latham, near the sea-shore, for in- 

 land localities the case may be different. 



Mr. Latham says a honey-can should 

 be entirely filled with honey, for if any 

 air-space is present it will injure the 

 honev if left till the next summer. 



"Wax Craft" — A Unique Book 



Mr. T. W. Cowan has again done a 

 service to bee-keeping by writing a book 

 telling "all about beeswax, its history, 

 production, adulteration, and commer- 

 cial value." The book, entitled "Wax 

 Craft," contains 172 pages, 7 by S '"ch- 



