64 TEACTICAL BEE-KEEPING. 



plan, wliicli we did not reach till many partial failures. Select a 

 straight, old, and large comb, containing no drone oeUs, free from honey, 

 and, if possible, ifrom pollen also. These conditions can be nearly, if not 

 quite absolutely reached by the owner of three or four movable comb 

 hives, if he select a card of comb in the early spring. With an old sharp 

 dinner knife dipped in hot soapy water, pare away the cell walls from the 

 more perfect side of the comb, until it is found that the chrysalis oases 

 begin to tear, and make the work untidy ; now pour some melted tallow or 

 dripping into the cells, and allow it to set ; bend the end of the knife, so 

 as to make it like that used for uncapping (see "Extractor"), keep its ' 

 edge keen by rubbing upon a hone, and now continue the operation of 

 cutting away the cell walls, when it will be found that the tallow will hold 

 the old pupae skins against the knife, and all will proceed with perfect 

 smoothness ; cut carefully as you approach the midrib ; your warning 

 win be the apparent thickening of the partition between the cells. The 

 work so far complete, turn the comb over upon a flat board, 

 and remove as much of the partitioning on the other side as 

 you can without risk. Place the comb before the fire, not 

 near enough to at all endanger its melting, but merely to soften it, so 

 that it may sink down upon the face of the board, and give us bye-aud-bye; 

 a perfectly true and level mould. Pour thin plaster of Paris over the back, 

 so as to fill every cell as completely as possible. The plaster having set, 

 our work, now flat and stiff, may be lifted, when we have to remove the 

 tallow filling the bases of the cells. Place the comb at an angle in a sink, 

 and pour over it, in a thin stream, hot water (about 130° ; wax melts at 

 160°) allowing it to fall two or three feet. The heat wiU melt the taUow, 

 while the gentle blow wiU drive it out, at the same time leaving our mould 

 so far finished. The cast is to be taken from it, as from the metal plate 

 previously referred to, not omitting the dabbiiig with paraffin. "We may 

 be unable (we have been) to obtain a comb large enough to make a midrib 

 for a whole frame ; if so, make two casts,* each about half-an-inch thick, 

 rub or saw those edges which you intend fitting together, so as to have 

 a good join. Turn them on their faces, bring close, and then make up 

 the plaster at the back over both to one and a half inches. This mould 

 must then be cut to size, and used after careful soaking, like the cast u 

 (Pig. 38), gently dabbing it with a wet sponge after each sheet made. 

 The impression will be much more deeply cut than that obtained 

 from the metal die ; and, in addition, making the mould from old comb 

 will so thicken the portion of ceU-waU given, as to supply material 

 for its elongation, wMle the size will be necessarily exact, which is 

 unfortunately not the case with the German plates, these giving fifteen 

 and a half cells in three linear inches, while a large number of combs we 

 have measured, give an average of fourteen and a half cells only in the 



* Any number may be made when the matrix is once prepared. 



