308 How Foundation is Made. 
into the wired frames. Rubber plates have also been made 
but as yet have not won general favor or acceptance. 
Plaster of Paris molds made directly from the foundation 
are made and used satisfactorily by some excellent bee- 
keepers. All of the improved machines give us founda- 
tion of exquisite mold and with such rapidity that it can be 
made cheap and practical. As Mr. Heddon says, the bees 
in two days, with foundation, will do more than they 
would in eight days without it. Every one who wishes the 
best success must use foundation often in the brood cham- 
ber, and always in the sections, unless nice white comb is 
at hand. Whoever has 100 colonies of bees may well own 
a machine for himself, though it usually pays better to 
purchase. The specialist can make nicer foundation than 
the mere amateur. 
HOW FOUNDATION IS MADE, 
The process of making the foundation is very simple. 
‘Thin sheets of wax, of the desired thickness, are pressed 
between the plates or passed between the rolls, which.are 
made so as to stamp either drone or worker foundation as 
desired. Worker is best, I think, even for sections. The. 
only difficulty in the way of very rapid work is that from 
sticking of the wax sheets to the dies. Mr. Heddon finds 
that by wetting the dies with concentrated lye the wax is 
not injured and sticking is prevented. Mr. Jones uses soap- 
suds with excellent success for the same purpose. Think 
of two men running through fifty pounds of foundation in 
an hour! That is what I saw two men do at Mr. Jones’s, 
with a Dunham machine, by use of soap-suds. The man 
who put in the wax sheets was not delayed at all. The 
kind of soap should be selected with care. Mr. Root pre- 
fers common starch to either lye or soap-suds. New 
machines are more liable to trouble with sticking than are 
those that have been used for some time. It is said that 
dipping the sheets in salt brine also prevents this trouble- 
some sticking. Mr. Baldridge gives this hint but conceals 
the name of the discoverer. 
