THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW- 



209 



contiuement. If the tempcrjiture ia such 

 that the bees are comfortable, that they siuk 

 into a quiet repose, but little food is cou- 

 puuied. The less food consumed the longer 

 cau contiuement be borne. If extra food 

 must be consumed to keep up the animal 

 heat, the sooner are the intestines over- 

 loaded. The advice to thoroughly protect 

 the colonies is excellent, perhaps none bet- 

 ter could be given, but to say that it will 

 always, or nearly always, prevent diarrhiea, 

 is a statement not in accordance with the 

 experience of hundreds of bee keepers. 



There are many excellent minor points in 

 the book, and much good advice, and it is 

 with real regret that I see the author, appar- 

 ently at least, ignore facts with which every 

 advanced bee keeper is well acquainted. 



One excellent point that he makes is in 

 showing the objectional features of absorb- 

 ents about the bees in winter. Water is an 

 excellent conductor of heat when compared 

 with air, and when the absorbents become 

 wet they conduct away the heat very rapidly. 

 In cellar wintering he thinks a complicated 

 system of ventilation unnecessary. 



He calls attention to the necessity of pro- 

 tecting colonies on top. To illustrate, he 

 calls attention to the melting of snow in a 

 circular spot on the top of a hive just over a 

 cluster. I have noticed the same thing even 

 on the roof of a packing box inside of which 

 was packed a colony. 



If colonies are weak in the spring crowd 

 the bees to such combs as they can cover, 

 protect well and let them alone. Don't add 

 brood from strong colonies. 



Stimulative feeding is discouraged. A 

 prolific queen, enough bees, plenty of food 

 and a warm hive is all that is needed. 



EXTRMOTED. 



Ernest replied as follows: — 



"It is not a very difficult matter to pro- 

 duce a jet of steam. Take an ordii ary square 

 tin cau, and have your tinner attach to it a 

 tin pipe, and let thi^ same communicate with 

 a barrel near the stove. I have tried a tive- 

 gallon tin boiler on the stove, and find that 

 it will generate <iuite a pressure of steam. 

 In fact, it will heat hot a coil of pipes in my 

 bath-room; but the probabilities are that 

 the wax-press and the ordinary methods of 

 rendering wax will answer perfectly well for 

 those who have only a hundred pounds or 

 so." 



Having Steam Tinder Pressure at Little 

 Expense. 



Last February Mr. F. A. Salisbury sent an 

 excellent article to Gteuninus upon rendering 

 wax with steam and acid. After reading the 

 article, E. France commented as follows:— 



" All right; that will do first rate for you 

 chaps who have steam; but how are we poor 

 chaps going to raise the steam? Can a man 

 who makes from fifty to one hundred pounds 

 of wax per.j'ear afford to put in steam-works 

 on purpose to render out his wax ? Now, 

 give us some cheap way of raising steam, 

 and I am with you." 



Dadant on Sulphuric-Acid Wax Rendesing. 



''Friend Ernest:-- After reading your re- 

 marks on the use of sulphuric acid, pages 703 

 and 704, I had about made up my mind not 

 to reply, because I thought the arguments 

 which I could give you against the grounds 

 you took would be of little importance, but 

 in reading Dr. Miller's opinion on this sub- 

 ject as given in his Stray Straws I find his 

 views to agree so well with my own that I 

 will give you what arguments I have on this 

 point. . • , i J 



We find the more beeswax is manipulated, 

 the more it is re-melted, the more it loses 

 its fine honey fiaver, and therefore the more 

 objectionable it is to the bee-keeper's taste, 

 and the more readily bees will object to it. 

 There i* not a doubt in my mind concerning 

 the healthfulness of beeswax refined by the 

 sulphuric acid method, and I believe that 

 this method is advantageous to cleanse 

 black wax or refuse, since we use it our- 

 selves ; but to use it on all grades will 

 simply make an insipid material of the 

 sweetly perfumed article produced by the 

 bees. I have often heard parties wonder 

 what sweet-scented substance was used in 

 the manufacture of foundation, when it was 

 only the perfume that Nature put into the 

 blossoms that could be so plainly detected. 

 All the seceret of this was the use of clean 

 water in rendering the combs. For this rea- 

 son, I should be sorry to see any of our bee 

 friends use the dangerous oil of vitirol when 

 another process much more simple will do 

 as well. Let us teach bee-keepers to render 

 their wax in the sun or in clean tin vessels 

 with clean soft water, and we shall make 

 the very best foundation that can be ob- 

 tained. C. P. Dadant. 

 Hamilton, 111., Sept. 18. 



[I believe what you say is true, that melt- 

 ing and re-melting does to some extent de- 

 stroy the peculiar aroma that is present in 

 virgin beeswax. Whenever visitors go down 

 into our foundation basement, they usually 

 exclaim, ' How good it smells ! ' adding that 

 the odor is suggestive of honey. In regard 

 to the sulphuric acid, perhaps I should ex- 

 plain that we have tested it on only the very 

 darkest grades of wax, and the whole amount 

 rendered in this manner will be small com- 

 pared with the sum total used in foundation- 

 making. But we find that bee keepers 

 clamor more for the yellow color of wax 

 than for its peculiar odor; eo even if all the 



