v.l 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Can the work be mi- de of real value V 

 Take one item. For myself I have become 

 more and more impressed with tlie impor- 

 tance of a thorough knowledge of founda- 

 tions designed for use in sections for the 

 production of comb honey. Much has been 

 guessed but so far as I can learn little is yet 

 known on this sub.ect. In the experiment 

 of which I recently gave an account one of 

 the objects aimed at was to determine if 

 possible if there was a difference among them 

 and if so what kind was of such a nature as 

 to enable the bees to work it down most 

 nearly to the thinness and character of 

 natural comb. To me the results were very 

 satisfactory and encouraging and this not 

 because one kind was shown to be better tliau 

 another but because it appeared that a meth- 

 od had been hit upon by which the relative 

 value of foundations could be practically 

 determined. But this it seems is only a be- 

 ginning. Now that a door is open many 

 other questions come up at the very thres- 

 hold and press for a solution. What makes 

 the difference among found ttious ? Is it the 

 character of the machine used in making or 

 the character of the wax or is it the method 

 of the dealing with the w^x ? Then if comb 

 from foundation is made as thin as the 

 natural comb, is it still more tenacious or is 

 it equally friable and tender V Again it is 

 well understood that the natural comb is not 

 composed entirely of wax but that other 

 substances are combined with the wax. Can 

 any th ng be done to imitate the natural 

 comb in this, and so make foundation even 

 less subject to the charge of being an adul- 

 teration th^n it is at present ? This suggests 

 the matter of economy of wax in the use of 

 foundation thus : What is the per cent, of 

 wax wasted, not to say worse than wasted, 

 when so made into foundation tiiat the septa 

 of comb resulting is GO per cent, thicker than 

 the septa of natural comb ? or to put it in 

 another way : If foundation who^e septa 

 the bees will work down to a thickness of 

 90-10,000 of an inch is worth GOc. what is that 

 wo"th whose septa the bees wil work down 

 to a thickness of (JO-10,000 of an inch ? Prob- 

 ably from twenty-five to forty per cent, mo e. 

 If a man needs much foundation this should 

 touch him at the tenderest point. 



I try not to be carried off my feet by en- 

 thusiasm, perhaps, nevertheless, I may be. 

 What do bee-keepers who stand oft' at arm's 

 length think of the value of such investiga- 

 tion ? 



It will not do to say it is better not to agi- 

 tate these and such like questions, it will 

 only call the attention of consumers to the 

 defects of comb honey as now produced and 

 injure its sale. It can hardly injure the sale 

 of honey for consumers to know that we are 

 trying earnestly to improve itf. quality, but 

 if on eating it a heavy wad of wax forms in 

 the mouth, that will do the work though the 

 eater may hardly know exactly why. Noth- 

 ing finds so ready a market as yoods that 

 give a fine sensation to the palate in every 

 particular. We are bound to make our comb 

 honey equal in every respect to that pro- 

 duced by the bees unaided by foundation, if 

 we can. 



I can think of nothing that would have a 

 greater tendency to popularize the work of 

 the station ;.nd to excite the interest of the 

 bee-ke?ping fraternity in it than to enlist as 

 many as possible in the matter of making 

 suggestions as to subjects and methods of 

 experiment, but more especially as to metli- 

 uds. Subjects are plentiful and easily dis- 

 covered but simple and satisfactory methods 

 are of en slow to suggest themselves. I 

 meditated upon the matter all summer be- 

 fore a practical plan for the comparison of 

 comb made from d fferent foundations pre- 

 sented itself ; to another mind the first 

 thought would have been the right one. Now 

 I am at work endeavoring to discover a 

 method of procedure for determining the 

 cause of the wintering trouble. I want it to 

 be so plain that every one will recognize it 

 as the right one and be compelled to accept 

 its utterances as finrd. It is hardly necessa- 

 ry to say that it is still undiscovered but 

 perhaps our own journal, the Review, mi ht 

 furnish us the key by means of a symposium 

 of numeroiis brief articles addressed to this 

 one point. ' 



Finally, s a closing paragraph, I want to 

 take this op ortunity to make a suggestion 

 to the apicultural journals of the countrj — 

 I am no journalist — I make no professions 

 of knowing how to conduct a journal and am 

 not going to offer any advice on that point, 

 but I wonder if some of them without detri- 

 ment to themselves could not give a little 

 more 'ctive assistance in sustaining the work 

 by an effort to create a more general interest 

 in its behalf. For that purpose probably 

 nothing could be better than candid criti- 

 cism. 



Lapeek, Mich. Dec. 20, 1898. 



