THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



295' 



Along with the following succinct state- 

 ment of the general results obtained the 

 present year is placed for comparison the re- 

 sults of last year in the cases where founda- 

 tion of like manufacture and of the same or 

 similar weight was then tested. 



1S94. 1893. 

 Given foundation, punctured bases .60.3 



" " ordinary 61.6 68 



Van Ueusen foundation 83 73 



Root " 57 84 



Dadant " 50 89 



Hunt " 70 



GrivenHuut " 66 



Root-Hunt " 53 



Natural comb 56.5 



either pared down the septa or else manipu- 

 lated the entire wax of the septa, usin<^ for 

 them only what was necessary, so th:it ilie 

 resulting comb does not suffer at ail so far as 

 thinness is concerned in comparison with 

 the natural comb. 



3. The same thinning process is very ap- 

 parent in the drawing out of the Hunt foun- 

 dation. 



4. In the case of the Van Deusen and gen- 

 erally in a greater or less degree in the case 

 of that made on the Given press the process 

 has been changed to a thickening one. 



■ P-l . 5P3 . .0; -Tj 



Beal's Measurements in 24 14 14 12 20 



lOOths Millimeters. 26 17 17 14 21 



31 9 19 17 22 



Total , 



Average 



Average in 10,000th of an inch 106 52 66 56 



40 40 40 60 



Root's Measurements in 30 40 45 55 



10,000th of an inch. 20 40 50 55 



40 40 50 50 



Total 130 160 185 220 380 



Average 33 40 46 55 95 



THE GENEBAL AVEBAGE. 



Beal's Average 106 52 66 56 83 



Root's Average 33 40 46 55 95 



Total 139 92 112 111 178 



General Average 70 46 56 56 89 



88 104 93 60 



440 290 190 



110 



104 

 110 



73 



93 

 73 



48 



60 



48 



214 166 108 



107 



83 54 



In the study of these experiments atten- 

 tion is called to the following points : 



1. In all cases except the Van Deusen 

 there seems to have been an improvement 

 in the foundation over that used in 1893, and 

 in the case of the Van Deusen it is to be 

 noted that the bees accepted only the sep- 

 tum, which was shown by their removing the 

 cell walls and building instead more or less 

 regular drone cells. 



2. Most remarkable is the improvement 

 in the foundations made by Root and by the 

 Dadants in so far as the lightness of the 

 septa is concerned. By a comparison with 

 the measurements of the septa of the un- 

 worked foundation as shown in the table on 

 this page it will be seen that the foundation 

 has been so skillf ally made that the bees have 



5. In point of thinness of base of the 

 comb produced the foundations stand in the 

 following order : The Dadant first then in 

 their order the Root, the Given, the Hunt 

 and the Van Deusen. 



6. The comparison by weighing places 

 them in substantially the same order. Where 

 there is a variance it is reasonably account- 

 ed for by the difference in the size of the 

 cells. Thus the Van Deusen had it carried 

 the amount of cell walls that would have 

 been necessary for worker comb would evi- 

 dently have been of considerably greater 

 weight. 



It would, of course, be of great interest to 

 know the methods and the peculiarities of 

 the wax used in making the foundation 

 which seems to disclose such a decided ad- 



