STATE PEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. 53 



ing the work the lever would slip off and bother me. I don't 

 believe a lever is as good as a screw. It is too much trouble. 



Then there is this question : How are you going to get 

 that wax off of the top of that hot water? You can't dip it 

 off; stand there and dip it off a spoonful at a time, it would 

 take you forever. Just simply pour it out into another pail 

 somewhere, and let it stand in it for half an hour, and you 

 can take ^the cake of wax right off. It takes four or five 

 pallfuls to keep going. It seems like a very mussy method, 

 but it gets the wax. There are a good many who argue that 

 they would rather get a little less wax and do the work 

 quicker, but am I not right in saying that when a bee-keeper 

 is rendering wax it is at a time when his time is not very 

 valuable, and he can afford to take a little more time in order 

 to get all that wax? I am sure that if any of you will try 

 the two methods side by side, giving them a fair trial, you 

 will be surprised at the amount of wax that can be gotten 

 from the pressing with continued heat. 



Now I would like to hear from some of the rest of you 

 who can talk on subjects they have been working at for 40 

 years. 



Mr. Wilcox — Mr. Root, would you melt that in another 

 vessel and pour it into the wax-press and press it, or set the 

 press on the stove and heat the water there? Which would 

 be the better? 



Mr. Root — It was a wooden tub! I should use the steam, 

 and let the steam come right up in. I neglected to say that 

 in my experiments with both steam and hot water it was the 

 same — you get just as much wax one way as the other. The 

 hot water took a little longer, but steam is so much nicer to 

 work with, the wax is in nicer shape, and you don't have to 

 pour it out and cool it, so that I prefer the steam, although 

 steam could not very well be employed in a home-made wax- 

 press. 



Mr. Meredith — What about the amount of wax that we 

 obtain from a solar extractor as compared to 18 ounces you 

 got from five pounds? 



Mr. Root — I really cannot answer that question, as to 

 how much can be obtained from a given amount of wax in 

 the solar, as to the hot-water method. I don't know. Of 

 course we had two or three solar extractors running all the 

 time, but I wasn't home long enough to work that out, but 

 some time I intend to put five younds of wax in the solar and 

 give it a good trial, and see just how much wax we obtain; 

 but I know I obtained lots of wax from the refuse of the 

 solar, but of that I didn't keep any data, and I wouldn't even 

 assume to state the amount. 



Dr. Miller— In using the lever as compared with the 

 screw, the lever exerts a continuous pressure and the screw 

 you screw down and it stands right there, and it doesn't fol- 

 low on down. Don't you think there is an advantage in that 

 continuous pressure on the lever ? 



Mr. Root — I cannot see that. As I applied the screw I 

 kept my hand turning right around, and just as soon as I 



