1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



105 



results between the two is only three per 

 cent, I am sure that this fact is impoi'tant; 

 for if a bee-keeper van make or buy such a 

 cheap outfit that will come so near doing as 

 good work as the more expensive outfit, he 

 will prefer it. I have shown that the wax 

 from very old comljs can be extracted in this 

 unheated press at the rate of about 7 to 10 

 lbs. an hour, and, as I said before, leaving 

 not over three per cent of waste, and in 

 many cases not over two. Furthermore, the 

 work is very easy, as it can be done out of 

 doors if necessary instead of on top of a hot 

 stove. Such a press can be made sti'onger, 

 so that there is no danger of breakage. 



Another important fact that must not be 

 overlooked is that the quality of wax fi-om 

 this press is of the very best. The cakes 

 need only a little scraping on the bottoms, 

 when they are ready for market. The color 

 is good, so that there is no need of refining 

 the wax afterward. After having worked 

 extensively with this unheated press, and in 

 view of the results that have been obtained, 

 I should rather use the method as described 

 than any other plan that I have ever follow- 

 ed. The process of rendering wax from old 

 combs requires a considerable amount of ex- 

 perience. I am well aware that some pro- 

 ducers might not be able to do the work 

 quickly and thoroughly at the same time, 

 and that there might be a final loss of as 

 much as 10 per cent. But, on the other hand, 

 this trouble would be found, to a great ex- 

 tent, with any method of rendering that 

 might be used. This fact, however, can not 

 be overlooked: If good results can be ob- 

 tained in one instance with this cheap unheat- 

 ed press, there is no reason in the world 

 why they shoukl not lie obtained in another, 

 proviiling the work be done in the same way. 

 There is a wrong way of doing almost every 

 thing, and there is no exception to this in the 

 business of wax-i-endering. With any meth- 

 od, the success depends almost as much upon 

 the man as upon the press. 



THE 1906 OBITUARY OF EMINENT 

 BEE-KEEPERS. 



BY W. K. MORRISON. 



Early in the year Russia lost a bee-keeper 

 with a world-wide reputation in the person 

 of Ghennadj Kandratieff. born at Vrinesch- 

 ma, in the province of Kastroma, where his 

 family were the hereditary proprietors of a 

 large landed estate, his father being a noble 

 and a veteran of the Napoleonic war when 

 he served under that brilliant general Su- 

 warrow, who scj worried the great French 

 leader hj his strategy. Of coui'se, young 

 Kandratieff was early initiated in theart of 

 war, and joined, as a subaltern officer, the 

 regiment of the Grand Duchess Pavlovna, a 

 unit of cuirassiers in the Russian army. 

 Young though he was, he served with dis- 

 tinction in the defense of Sevastopol in the 

 war with England. France, and Turkey. 

 But he had no liking for the military art. 



and was a passionate student of music: so as 

 soon as the war was over he hastened to It- 

 aly to study, with intense eagerness, music 

 in all its phases, for four years. On retuin- 

 ing to Russia he made a .splendid deliut as a 

 bass singer, and in a short time became gen- 

 eral manager of the Imperial Theater in St. 

 Petersljurg. Thus far he had learned nothing 

 about bee-keeping: but among his friends 

 was Mr. Boutleroff, Professor of Chemistry 

 in the Imperial LTniversity, who was a very 

 enthusiastic^ bee-keeper, and who published 

 a bee-paper, chiefly at his own expense. 



He soon inoculated his friend Kandratieff 

 with a desperate case of bee-fever which 

 lasted a lifetime. The two friends went so 

 far as to go to the extreme south of Russia, 

 where they established large apiaries, which 

 Kandratieff intended to give over to his son. 

 It is to these men we owe our knowledge of 

 the bees of the Caucasus, for it was under 

 the shadow of these lofty peaks that their 

 apiaries were established. But Prof. Bout- 

 leroff" died, as did also Kandratieff 's only 

 son. so all hopes were dashed to the ground. 

 But to relieve his mind he started a paper, 

 The Bee Messenger, after a visit to the lead- 

 ing bee-keepers of Europe, in which he ad- 

 vocated the methods of Langstroth, as did 

 his friend in Switzerland, Bertrand, whose 

 book, the "Conduct of the Apiary," he trans- 

 lated into Russian. On the death of his 

 daughter he suffered from sleeplessness: and, 

 to while away the hours, he translated Lang- 

 stroth's "Hive and Honey-bee," as revised 

 by Dadant. He also published the unedited 

 letters of Huber. In a word, he "reformed " 

 the Russian method of bee-keeping. To the 

 day of his death he was manager of the Thea- 

 ter Marie, in St. Petersburg, dying at the 

 age of 73. 



GLEANING.S has already mentioned the 

 death of Dzierzon, the uncrowned king of 

 apiculture, at the wonderful age of almost 

 9() years. His was a life of strenuous activity 

 in behalf of ])ee-keeping, much of which work 

 will endure for all time, or at least as long 

 as men pursue the art of bee-keeping. To 

 be the discoverer of parthenogenesis is glory 

 enough for one bee-keeper. Americans owe 

 Pastor Dzierzon a debt of gratitude for this, 

 and, to a great extent, they owe to him the 

 introduction of the Italian race of bees into 

 this country, for it was he who discovered 

 their superior qualities. He was the inventor 

 of the system of bee-keeping founded on 

 sound sense and scientific principles, and 

 the work he did in this connection can not 

 be measured by any known standard. Per- 

 haps we can not give him any higher praise 

 than this: He was the Langstroth of Europe, 

 doing for Germany. Austria. Hungary, and 

 the central states of Europe, the work assign- 

 ed to his American colleague in the United 

 States. Canada, West Indies, and Central 

 and South America. 



By the death of the Rev. Paul Schonfeld 

 the world of bee-keeping su.stained a heavy 

 loss, for his kind of genius was of a sort that 

 is hard to find in any age or country. He 

 was born in Silesia, Germany, in 1K21, and 



