514 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



why the disease will not propagate with 

 foundation. All our wax is melted by 

 steam in a large vat, holding over a ton. 

 This vat is enclosed in another, and is, 

 therefore, surrounded by water. I have 

 just been down, and foand that the 

 temperature of this surrounding water 

 was 200C>. After the wax in the inner , 

 vat is melted, this temperature is allowed 

 to go down to about 180^. We aim to 

 keep the wax itself in the melting vat at 

 from 170^ to 180-, and this tempera- 

 ture is maintained for days. 



The supply of wax is kept up by- put- 

 ting in a few cakes at a time, and it is 

 dipped out as fast as wanted. As Mr. 

 Corniel himself admits, a long-continued 

 high temperature is equivalent to a much 

 higher temperature for a few minutes; 

 and not only the microbes, but the 

 spores themselves, have to succumb. A 

 few hours of 170^, we know from long 

 experience, will kill all foul-brood germ- 

 life. 



Whi-le the wax in the melting-vat is 

 kept at 1700, that in the dipping-tank 

 is kept very near the congealing point — 

 140^, sometimes as low as 130-. But 

 before it has arrived at the dipping- 

 tank, it has long been thoroughly disin- 

 fected by the long-continued heat of 

 170O. 



Dadant & Son have a similar melting 

 arrangement, and I feel sure that their 

 foundation, like our own, is perfectly 

 free from any live germs. 



Perhaps I should remark further, that 

 the wax melted in a solar extractor inhiht 

 not be disinfected, and it would be a 

 wise precaution to remelt all such wax 

 that has come from diseased colonies. 



Medina, 0. 



Getting Bees Started Rigtit— SDrayini, 



DK, C. O. MILLER. 



A correspondent writes : " Last year 

 I did not use honey-boards. The bees 

 commenced at the bottom instead of the 

 top of the frames in the upper story. I 

 got 40 pounds to the colony — not a comb 

 ever touched my coax-comb guides. I 

 thought the bees would work above more 

 readily without the honey-board. Is this 

 the usual result when the honey-board 

 is left out?" 



Well, that was a joke. I do not know 

 that I would have thought of it, but that 

 is iust about what might be expected if 

 a good sized chamber of usual depth — 

 — say 8 to 12 inches — were placed over 

 the hive with nothing but narrow start- 



ers at the top. You see the starters 

 were so far from' them that they paid no 

 attention to them, but just commenced 

 building up from the tops of the brood- 

 frames. 



If afc least one of the frames had had 

 its foundation coming clear down to the 

 bottom, that might have induced the 

 bees to have gone to the top, to cluster 

 there. Even with the honey-board, they 

 might sometimes commence at the bot- 

 tom, but would not be likely to, for that 

 would hinder them about clustering over 

 the tops of the frames. 



This correspondent also asks about 

 bees, that appeared in considerable 

 numbers in June, with black heads and 

 backs, and unusually slender. They 

 were nothing but bees with their hairs 

 gone. Perhaps, robbers ; perhaps some 

 accident had happened to a colony that 

 had stripped some of the bees of their 

 hair, such as being shut up in a hive till 

 they were overheated. They were no 

 more slender in reality than others, but 

 being stripped of their hair they ap- 

 peared so. 



POISONOUS SPEAYIXG. 



Another correspondent asks why there 

 is so much apathy among bee-keepers as 

 to the^matter of securing the passage of 

 laws to prevent the poisonous spraying 

 of fruit trees, while they are in bloom. 

 This question may well be raised. 



If all fruit growers were sufficiently 

 informed, there would be little difficulty 

 in the matter. Spraying the blossoms 

 can do no good whatever. There is no 

 worm to kill in the blossom. The egg is 

 laid in the little fruit after the blossom 

 has dropped off ; so that it is a useless 

 expense. Not only that, but I suppose 

 it is a real damage to the tree. If the 

 poison is put on sufficiently strong, it 

 will kill every leaf. Is it likely that it 

 does no harm when diluted ? 



The question may be asked, whether 

 it would be put on at all if it injures the 

 foliage. Even if it does injure the foli- 

 age to some extent, the damage is so much 

 less than that done by the worm, that it 

 pays to spray. But there is expense and 

 loss, and positively no gain, in applying 

 the poison to the blossom. The damage 

 to the foliage is probably greater at that 

 time, for the foliage is then more tender. 



But all fruit growers are not thor- 

 oughly posted, and in their ignorance 

 may do that which will be a damage to 

 themselves, as well as to their bee-keep- 

 ing neighbors. A law bearing on the 

 case would be a good educator, and 

 would give the bee-keeper a very effi- 

 cient weapon of defense. 



