THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



21 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Wax Boiling: in England.— Mr. A. 



Pettigrew, in the London Journal of 

 Horticulture, gives the following de- 

 tails: 



Boiling wax and preparing it for the 

 market is very disagreeable work. 

 All bee-keepers" with their wives and 

 servants dislike this work exceed- 

 ingly, and none dislike it more than we 

 do. Melted wax is easily cooled, and 

 when cooling cleaves to everything 

 it tonches, and it is ditiiciilt to remove. 

 Combs before being melted are bulky, 

 and therefore have to be compressed 

 before tliey are placed into a copper 

 to be boiled. When the wax begins 

 melting the pollen of the combs is lib- 

 erated and mixes with the water in the 

 copper or boiler. There is great diffi- 

 cnlty in separating the melted wa,\ 

 froni the pollen. Our plan has been to 

 place the compressed combs in a bag 

 of cheese-cloth and boil them, skim off 

 the nielted wax and run it through a 

 strainer or a piece of muslin. But we 

 have never been satisfied with this 

 mode of melting wax. It is trouble- 

 some work. After the cakes of wax 

 have cooled some pollen slightly mixed 

 with wax adheres to their under sides, 

 which is scraped off, the cakes being 

 again boiled in clean water and run 

 through a cloth into dishes half filled 

 with clean cold water. We obtain 

 thus wax as pure as it is possible to take 

 it. By running the wax into cold water 

 at the last time of boiling the bottom of 

 the cakes appear to advantage, and 

 look as if they had been moulded. 

 The bottom of our cakes of wax look 

 better than the upper surface, owing 

 to the cold water freezing the wax into 

 various forms as soon as they meet. 



Some years ago a bee-keeper at 

 Wigan told the readers of this journal 

 that this plan of taking wax is too slow 

 and troublesome, and that he had in- 

 vented another wliich is easier and bet- 

 ter. His plan or mode commended it- 

 self to me at the time, but owing to 

 the smallness of our kitchen oven I 

 have never put it to the test of exper- 

 iment. His plan, if I remember 

 rightly, is to melt the combs in a dry 

 heat by putting them into a wire sieve 

 ■or strainer or colander, and placing 

 this in an oven sufficiently warm to 

 melt the wax, and over a dish to re- 

 ceive the melted wax as it escapes 

 from the pollen. This appears to me 

 to be a very feasible mode of melting 

 wax, and easier than the one we have 

 followed for so many years. 



Another mode -of "taking wax— pro- 

 bably the best invented— was carried 

 intojexecution in Bowdon a short time 

 ago. A lady obtained a great boxful 

 of honeycombs; she first took the 

 honey cleanly from the combs, then 

 commenced in a novel mannerto maii- 

 ufactiu-e the wax. Instead of taking 

 the wax from the pollen and rubbish, 

 she took the pollen from the wax by 



washing it in clean water. Then she 

 boiled the wax and poured it into a 

 dish without using a filter. She 

 brought the wax to me to sell for her, 

 which I did at 2s. per lb., and I have 

 never seen better or cleaner wax. 

 This plan makes wax-taking compar- 

 atively easy and pleasant. 



(ilucose and the Michigan State Bee- 

 Keepers' Convention.— The Dowagiac 

 Times gives the following account of 

 Dr Kellogg"s lecture on Honey Adul- 

 teration with Glucose : 



An excellent dessert to the general 

 feast was dished up by Dr. Kellogg, of 

 the Sanitariimi. Doctor K. is a young 

 man of far more than ordinary natural 

 abilities, in addition to having a fin- 

 ished medical and chemical education. 

 His subject was " Honey as Food." 

 Ttie Doctor dwelt at length npon the 

 use of sweets to the human system ; 

 spoke very liighly of honey as one of 

 those sweets. 



The subjectof adulteration of sweets 

 naturally came up, and was discussed 

 at length, many questions being asked 

 by the audience. Glucose (a syrup or 

 sugar made from starch, by a sulphuric 

 acid treatment) he had found to be the 

 one adulterant used in the honey, 

 syrup, and sugars of commerce. Glu- 

 cose is made from corn (that being the 

 cheapest starchy substance), though it 

 can be, and has been, made of potatoes, 

 grapes, wheat, rye, sawdust, old rags, 

 or anything that will produce starch. 

 lie told how much had been made 

 from an old shirt, but had no fears of 

 any contact with shirt glucose, as the 

 great bulk was, from economy, made 

 of corn. Tliousands of bushels of corn 

 is used daily by the Buffalo factory. 

 Other factories are springing up all 

 over the United States. France and 

 Germflny aie parents of the manufac- 

 ture. Much is used in making beer. 



Grape sugar is glucose granulated by 

 a secret process unknown to classical 

 chemistry, and keptsecret by the man- 

 ufacturers. On beingaskedoftlie pre- 

 valence and effect of adulteration bj 

 glucose and grape sugar, Dr. K. said 

 it was almost impossiljle to find a sam- 

 ple of syrup that was not a large pro- 

 portion glucose ; that soft sugars were 

 also badly mixed. He recommended 

 the purchase of granulated or confect- 

 ioners' A sugar as the only ones safe 

 against adulteration. They had trou- 

 ble in getting pure syrups at the San- 

 itarium. The dealers were unable 

 to getit, Sauiplesof liquid honey that 

 he had analyzed was found badly 

 mixed. They had all been put up by 

 dealers in the large cities. He had no 

 idea that producers adulterated honey, 

 thougli he had read that a mixture 

 could be put into combs and capped 

 over artificially. Tliis caused hearty 

 and prolonged laughter. 



Prof. Cook (professor of entomology, 

 of our State agricultural college), 

 arose and said tliat he had read the 

 same thing, but every man of any ex- 

 perience with bees or honey of course 

 knew better ; that no lui'man being 

 could fabricate even the most bung- 

 ling imitation of honey comb filled and 

 capped over. 



Dr. Kellogg then said that he had no 

 fears of comb honey being adulter- 

 ated by any one, nor of any honey be- 

 ing adulterated by the producers. 

 Tliese producers have got a state law 

 enacted making the adulteration of 

 honey a fine of $100. He gave it as 

 his opinion that sufficient quantities 

 of tree sulphuric acid, or lime, or ox- 

 ide of iron, or all, were to be found in 

 glucose, or syrups mixed with it, to be 

 unwholesome to the human system. 

 Besides, it was a great clieat, because 

 the sweet was only about y or }^ as 

 great ;is tliat of cane sugar. 



An elderly physician in the audience 

 (Dr. Whiting) arose and said we are 

 finding new and dangerous symptoms 

 with our patients, that by inquiry and 

 the symptomatology point directly to 

 the free use of commercial syrups." 



Signing Notes.— In the Dowagiac, 

 Mich., Times, "J. H. " (eddon) gives 

 the following advice on this subject: 



" Say, John, I want to ask a favor 

 of an old friend, I need one thousand 

 dollars bad just now, and the bank 

 wants a signer. I can pay it easily 

 enough in 30 days. It wont even 

 trouble you." 



" Well Harry, I would like to do you 

 a favor any time, but read this," 

 (taking a paper from his wallet that 

 reads as follows): 



TO MY BEST FRIENDS.— The follow- 

 ing is a copy of a "pledge" I have 

 given to my wife: 



" Whereas, you have practiced in- 

 dustry, economy and self-denial, to 

 aid in the accumulation of the little 

 we now possess, making your interest 

 and rightful ownership the same as 

 my own, therefore, I promise you that 

 I will not go far usurp your rights and 

 those of your cliildren, as to hazzard 

 our accumulations by signing any ob- 

 ligations with any person whomso- 

 ever." 



" I trust your reason will approve 

 of, and your friendship excuse my 

 necessary refusal." 



How strange it is that bankers with 

 their vast experience can't trust 

 John's "30 days," when they "can 

 pay it sure " so easily? Readers cut 

 out this " pledge," sign it, and when 

 a friend asks you to sign an obliga- 

 tion that you do not wish to, show it 

 to him, and after he reads it, if he is 

 a friend worth having, he will be a 

 friend still. 



Snrvival of the Fittest.— The Cana- 

 dian Farmer, says: 



The bee-keeper who seeks to grasp 

 the ideal bee by his own culture, must 

 take no stock "in the absurd doctrine 

 of tlie "survival of the fittest." 

 What luis been done by stock-breeders 

 has been a^'complished by a most care- 

 ful system of selection and manage- 

 ment, backed up by untiring industry 

 and perseverance. 



1^" It will pay to devote a few hours 

 in getting up a club for the Bee Jour- 

 nal. Head the list of premiums on 

 another page. 



