THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



139 



witli the idea that the methods employed 

 with such success by uiyself were the best 

 and only methods in voj^ue for securing 

 the desired ends, but the presence of foul 

 brood in my neighlwrhood, in years past, 

 had compelled me to melt up thousands 

 of old combs, and I was giving the result 

 of that experience. Unite naturally, I 

 resorted to all available means which, in 

 my judgment, appeared to be of value. 

 Among other plans I tried that advocated 

 by the Dadanls; that of crushing the 

 combs in cold water, and allowing them 

 to remain for, saj' 48 hours, in order that 

 the cocoons and pollen may become thor- 

 oughly water-soaked, and thus prevent 

 the absorption of wax. Afterwards the 

 broken comb is placed in a gunny-sack, 

 and immersed in boiling water so that the 

 wax, as it melts, rises to the surface and 

 can be dipped off. I found this plan as 

 good as any; consequently, I followed 

 that system to the greatest extent. How- 

 ever, I longed for some improvement; or, 

 to be more explicit, some means by which 

 the same, or better, results might be ob- 

 tained with less labor. As a consequence 

 I betook myself to the Boardman solar 

 extractor, made and operated as nearly 

 as possible in accordance with the inven- 

 tor's instructions, and gave the same a 

 good trial, only to find that for such 

 combs it did not give as good results 

 as the previous plan; unless I used pres- 

 sure on the refuse or .slum-gum. 



Of course, there was yet the Doolittle 

 method, of melting and then pre.ssing the 

 combs with the lever, in an iron kettle or 

 caldron containing boiling water, and op- 

 erated in the open air, but, from the ex- 

 I)erience of a friend who tried it one sum- 

 mer while curing foul brood, I could not 

 bring myself to adopt it in toto. Never- 

 theless, I became convinced that, in my 

 case, a press was a necessity. Before ar- 

 riving at this decision, I, at the suggestion 

 of mv frientl Hall, trie<l a modified, steam, 

 Swiss extractor, (sometimes called a 

 Jones), such as has many times been il- 

 lustrateil in the various l)ee periodicals, 

 only on a much larger scale than gener- 



ally used. The vSalisburj' plan was not 

 trieil, for the reason that it was not avail- 

 able in my case. 



M3' selection of a press fell on the 

 Hatch, with some improvements added by 

 myself; but, as I am not an inventor, I de- 

 sire here and now to give honor to the in- 

 ventor of this or any other article of value 

 I may have occasion to utilize; and, until 

 a better article is furnished, I shall con- 

 tinue to use and advocate the same. 



I need not further trespass upon your 

 valuable space, nor the patience of your 

 readers, except to state, for the benefit of 

 those not already familiar with the suc- 

 cess attained so far, that my average 

 yield of wax secured from any given 

 amount of old brood combs has been three 

 pounds from a set of eight I^angstroth 

 combs; while my friend J. B. Hall, al- 

 ready referred to, one of Canada's best 

 apiarists, secured a like proportion; viz. 

 from three and one-half to three and 

 three-fourth pounds from eight Ouinby 

 combs; they, of course, being larger than 

 the Langstroth. I have never yet heard 

 of such an amount being secured by any- 

 process when no high pressure was used. 



I have always been willing to acknowl- 

 edge, uphold and encourage inventive 

 genius; and, lately, my attention being 

 called to the advertisement of Mr. C. G. 

 Ferris, of South Columbia N. Y. , in 

 which he claims that his new, improved, 

 steam, wax extractor will secure all the 

 available wax in old brood combs when 

 used according to instructions, vvithout 

 the use of a separate wax p^ess, I wrote 

 to Mr. Ferris, and a corresjjondence took 

 place between him and mvself, as you Mr. 

 Kditor, are already aware, the substance 

 of which was to the effect that, if the ma- 

 chine would do as he stated, and we could 

 satisfactorially arrange matters regarding 

 the duty, that I would purchase one and 

 give it a fair and impartial trial; and, as a 

 result, I am now in possession of one of 

 his single-basket machines. 



I regret that, owing to circumstances 

 over which I had no control, I am not 

 able, at this writing, to give the result of 



