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TBE BEE-KEKPERS' REVIEW. 



essential qualities of foundation, and how to 

 secure them." Your statement "that foun- 

 dation that is the most readily accepted by 

 the bees, and the quickest made into comb, 

 yet containing the least unavilable amount 

 of wax, would seem to be the most desira- 

 ble," states the matter very concisely. Mr. 

 Taylor's experiments are of value in several 

 ways, one of which will doubtless be to in- 

 duce the makers of foundation to pay more 

 attention to the points in t'e making of 

 foundation that will make it conform to the 

 thr'-e requisites in your statement above 

 quoted. 



It is evident to any one who has manufac- 

 tured foundation on the Given press, and 

 also on roller mills, that it requires more 

 care in dipping, or sheeting the wax for the 

 press than it does for the mills ; that is, if 

 the best is to be done on the press that the 

 press will do, but I think it is possible to so 

 make the rollers, and dip or sheet the wax 

 that is to be made into foundation on them, 

 as to produce the same results as or may be 

 produced on the press. 



You say " in the roller mills having deep 

 interstices between the cell-dies I do not 

 understand why or how the side walls receive 

 pressure, bu'^ perhaps they do." In making 

 foundation on rollers the sheet of founda- 

 tion is made !onger than the wax sheet just 

 in proportion as the wax sheet is thicker than 

 is r quired to fill the space in the rollers in 

 which the septum and side walls are made. 

 If the rollers were so made that there was a 

 surplus of room for wax in the interstices 

 between the cell walls, and the wax sheets 

 were made of such thickness that the septum 

 would be of the right thickness and the sur- 

 plus go in the side walls and still not fill the 

 interstices, would not the sheet of founda- 

 tion be of the same length and width as was 

 the wax sheet, and would not the side walls 

 be in the same condition as those made on 

 the press ? Is not the pressure which is made 

 by the rollers on the side walls produced in 

 part by the pressure that comes from the 

 "squeezing" of the wax sheet that makes 

 the sheet of foundation longer than the wax 

 sheet, and the thicker the wax sheet the 

 greater the pressure on the side walls, if the 

 septum in each instance is of the same thick- 

 ness? 



In making foundation on the press the wax 

 sheets must be so made that there will be no 

 more wax than is needed to make the sep- 

 tum and side walls. Should there be more 



it will result in either thicker septum or 

 harder side walls. Perhaps it is possible 

 that the septum made on the press is as hard 

 as is that made on the rollers, but it is dif- 

 ferently made, so that with the same degree 

 of hardness the septum made on the rollers 

 might be more brittle than that made on the 

 press. 



I am not sure that pressure hardens wax, 

 but I have always believed that it did, and 

 have always thought that the reason the bees 

 seemed to work on Given foundation more 

 readily and draw it out more rapidly than 

 that made on the rolls was because it was 

 softer, and that it was softer because made 

 with less pressure. And I believe that foun- 

 dation can be made on the press that will 

 approach as near to natural comb as that 

 made on rolls, and be done with no greater 

 pressure, but the wax sheet must be of the 

 right thickness ; and with the wax sheet of 

 the proper thickness there need be no sur- 

 plus or unavailable wax, but it requires more 

 care in making the wax sheets. 



I have just been testing some samples of 

 foundation, some of which were made on 

 my Given press and some on a roller mill, 

 and I find that that made on the press seems 

 to be less tough than that made on mills. 

 The pressure produced by the rolls may have 

 so condensed the wax tissue, so to speak, that 

 it may have room to stretch out more with- 

 out breaking than will the Given founda- 

 tion where the wax tissue has not been so 

 pressed together, and so readily comes apart. 



AuBUKNDALE, Ohio. Feb. 23, 1894. 



Bee-Keepers' Review. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



Terms : — $1.00 a year in advance. Two copies 

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 70 cents each. If it is desired Ui have tlie Review 

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 please say so when subscribini^, otherwise it 

 will be continued. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN. MAR. 10. 1894. 



Majorities are not always right. 



— y — 

 Rest satisfied with doing well and let 

 others talk as they will. 



fi 



One good way to get along with some folks 

 in this world is not to know they are in it. 



