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170 



NINTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



not wire frames entirely toy this 

 method. It seems to me there is 

 hardly enoug-h wire. My own method 

 'has been to drive a %-inch nail 

 throug-h, and with a pair of pliers 

 make a hook on it, and, also, one on 

 the bottom bar, running the wires in 

 this Tvay, and it thus makes practically 

 three wires, two of them crossing 

 and one running transverse. I have 

 never tried this method spoken of, but 

 I think it would be an easy method to 

 run another wire, and it might be an 

 improvement, I don't know; I simply 

 suggest it. That matter of waxing the 

 foundation, I believe, is a valuable sug- 

 gestion for reinforcing the foundation. 



Mr. Huffman — I would like to ask 

 one question about this additional wax- 

 ing, how much does it add to the 

 •weight of the foundation? We hear a 

 great many complaining about founda- 

 tion being too heavy, and it costs too 

 much. With all this extra wax you 

 put on there it still adds, and it will 

 make you more foundation. WlMch is 

 the most advisable? 



Mr. Poppleton — ^I use what is called 

 ^medium foundation, as made by Mr. 

 Dadant. This year I have used it 

 from other imakers. The amount of 

 wax used is very light, but I think the 

 more you can use the better, because 

 it is a matter of feeding wajc back to 

 the toees that is only worth 30 cents 

 a pound, instead of having to pay 45 

 or 50 cents a pound for foundation. 



Mr. Dadant — I aim to avoid speak- 

 ing of foundation, and you can under- 

 stand the reason. In this case, I think 

 I can enlighten you as to the probable 

 advantage of it. This method is news 

 to me, but I am struck with the ad- 

 visability of it. The Given Press 

 would have been just the thing to 

 make sheets, if it had been practicable. 

 That is to say, the sheets made on it, 

 because they are tougher; they are 

 cast wax; they are in regard to wax 

 what cast-iron is in regard to iron. 

 The moulded sheets made on the mills 

 are annealed, and they are exactly 

 right; with wrought iron they will 

 stretch, they will bend, but they will 

 not break. The sheets that were 

 made on the Given Press were defic- 

 ient in several respects, and they were 

 generally too heavy. When they were 

 light they were so brittle that if you 

 took the edges of a sheet it remained 

 in your fingers and the rest of the 

 sheet remained on the table. You 



could not ship the Given foundation 

 with any satisfaction. With the 

 foundation made in the mills you have 

 an article that bends. The experience 

 of the past is that bee-keepers want 

 lighter and lighter foundation all the 

 time. At one time we made founda- 

 tion 4 1-2 and 5 sheets to the pound; 

 we make it now 7 to 8 sheets, and 

 they want it fully that light. When 

 you take that medium foundation and 

 you put on cast wax, you put on liquid 

 wax, which becomes a cast article 

 right away, and it does not take much 

 of that to stiffen it. In other words, 

 you are putting cast-iron on your 

 wrought iron. The thing struck me 

 right away as soon as it was mention- 

 ed that it must be a good thing, and 

 you can use a lighter article of founda- 

 tion than you could otherwise. A 

 great many of the Europeans make 

 their sheets almost altogether by the 

 cast process, but they are not hard to 

 please. I read an article in which a 

 man said he was making a very light 

 article, 3 1-2 sheets to the pound. It 

 is impossible with a cast to make a 

 good article that is satisfactory in 

 America. 



Mr. Southworth — I want to say 

 right here I believe I have got a 

 point out of this matter that is worth 

 to me all the energy I put in to come 

 to the National at Sioux City. I have 

 had trouble with that method of wir- 

 ing with the sheet sagging at the end. 

 Now I have this principle of the wax, 

 dipping down each end, which will 

 hold those edges of the foundation. I 

 believe we have got a good system of 

 w:iring to hold the foundation. 



Mr. Hall — I didn't intend to say any- 

 thing on this subject. It seems al- 

 most everyone who gets up gets a 

 piece of my story. Speaking about 

 this reinforcing with the paint brush, 

 I never heard about this before in 

 public. I didn't think of it, but I can 

 show you probably 25 or 30 combs 

 that my bees have never worked up- 

 on which have been strengthened in 

 this very way. It seems I have tum- 

 bled on to something which some- 

 body else has got away ahead of me 

 on and patented. I propose to go on 

 and use this if I find it is doing the 

 work Mr. Poppleton and others have 

 said. 



There is one point about foundation 

 I want to speak about, and that is put- 

 ting foundation in sections. I believe 



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