STATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 133 



dinary piece of foundation and winding it around a rod and 

 selling that to them for beeswax. The biggest part of the 

 people that looked over my exhibit could see what was con- 

 sidered artificial comb was practically pure wax drawn out 

 by the bees, and I think it had a big influence in the enlight- 

 enment of people in regard to this artificial comb. 



Mr. Dadant — A gentleman over here spoke a while ago. 

 He thought it was not advisable to let people know that there 

 is foundation in combs. The question is only whether we 

 shall allow the people to keep on believing a lie or tell them 

 the plain truth. We do put foundation in our honey. In fact 

 we cannot get straight sections without putting foundation 

 in it. if we explain that we must explain to them we put 

 foundation in the bottom. It is nothing to be ashamed of. 

 Why not tell them that rather than allow them to believe a 

 lie, for fear of telling them that honey-comb is manufactured 

 and sealed over? I have never seen a lady, delicate as she 

 may be, that was not willing to take a piece of that founda- 

 tion and chew it. If they are willing to do that they are 

 willing to eat the honey that is made on that foundation. 



Mr. Horstmann — I think each bee-keeper is responsible 

 • for his own neighborhood. I don't agree with Mr. Wheeler. 

 I believe you should explain to them the use of the founda- 

 tion and why you use it. I will take people right into my 

 bee-house and show them sections before they are bent and 

 put together; show them the strips of foundation before they 

 are put in; show them the machine I use for putting the 

 foundation in, and for fastening it; show them how I fix up 

 the supers ; shows them how I put it on the hives ; show 

 them the bees working, and then guarantee to everybody that 

 my honey will be absolutely pure. If they find any adultera- 

 tion I will give them $100, and also pay for the analysis. I want 

 people to be fully satisfied when they buy honey from me 

 that they are getting it pure. I have never had to take any 

 honey to a wholesale house ; I have always been able to sell 

 it at home. 



Mr. Wheeler — I am afraid I was misunderstood. I have 

 been selling honey a good many years. I aim to sell as much 

 honey with as little work as possible. It would be a pretty 

 hard job for me to explain to every customer who buys a 

 pound of honey all about it, but I tell you one thing that 

 proved to me very strongly that the idea of foundation went 

 against the people? I have used for ten years a split section 

 that showed the foundation on four sides. I put in four sections 

 in a row, put sheets of foundation through the middle, the 

 sheet of foundation running the full length of the section, 

 and when I got ready to case up those sections I pulled the 

 sections out and scraped the foundation off and went ahead 

 and cased it up. A great many objected to that foundation. 

 AH they saw was the foundation sticking out. The grocery 

 men say, "I wish you would let me have sections that are not 

 split; my customers object to those split sections." The con- 

 sequence was I quit for the present using them. It is a very 

 convenient section the best kind of section in the world to 



