154 THE APIARY. 



To carry out the directions here given, it is necessary 

 to warm the besmeared comb-bar at a fire ; the wax plate 

 has also to be warmed. Having tried this plan, and 

 found inconvenience attending- it, especially from the wax 

 curling with the heat and the difficulty of rhaking it stick 

 firm, to say nothing of the uncomfortableness of per- 

 forming the operation before a fire on a hot day in July, 

 we began to consider if a litle carpentering might not do 

 the work better and more pleasantly, and adopted the 

 following plan : — We split or cut the comb-bars of the 

 Woodbury super in half, lengthways, and, taking the un- 

 stamped edge between the two strips, joined them together 

 again by small screws at the side, confining the wax 

 plate tightly in the centre, v/ith no possibility of its falling 

 down. Where frames are used, of course the bar could 

 not be cut in two (except with the "compound bar and 

 frame, ' ' where the bar being loose, it might be as easily 

 managed). The plan we adopt with an ordinary frame 

 is to saw out an opening, about an inch or an inch and 

 a half from either end, where the sides are morticed 

 in ; this opening we make with a keyhole-saw. Through 

 it the wax plate is easily put, and, with a heated iron 

 passed over the upper side of the bar, is made sufficiently 

 firm. If the wax plates are too large, a portion may 

 be cut off; an opening of full eleven inches long can be 

 made without materially weakening the bar and frame. 



Another, and perhaps the simplest, plan is, to fix a 

 strip of wood with brads to the underside of the top 



