11 



of torase. I imported and had in use 

 at Matamata, in addition to the Root 

 machine, all the other Americans, with 

 the exception of the "Pelham," which my 

 friend, Mr. G. A, Green, now a leading 

 nurseryman of Auckland, had imported 

 and lent me for a while, so that I had 

 six machines in use. They were really 

 under trial to see which was the hest. 

 My choice eventually fell upon the Root, 

 though for very ,thin section foundation.? 

 I preferred the "Van Deusen" machine, 

 and kept to that till I gave up busi- 

 ness. 



The improvement made in the Root 

 machine from time to time kept it 

 ahead of the others, till eventually it 

 superseded all of them. My friend, Mr. 

 George Stevenson, of Gisborne, was 

 early in the field with a "Given-press," 

 which he always believed in. I must con- 

 fess it was a failure with me. I could 

 make three times the quantity of better 

 foundation with a roller machine than 

 with the press, in a given time. 



A NOVEL FOUXDATION MACHINE. 



While on the subject of comb-founda- 

 tion machines I am reminded of a very 

 novel one. Not long after I received 

 my first one, Mr. John Blair, of the 

 Great Barrier Island, paid me a visit at 

 the Thames. I remarked after he had 

 gone that he seemed more interested in 

 •the comb-foundation machine and the 

 making of comb-foundation than in any- 

 thing else. Some time after I learned 

 that he had made a machine which 

 answered the purpose; it was ingeni- 

 ously constructed of two wooden rollers 

 studded with hob nails. 



ADULTERATED BEESWAX. 



Two or three Auckland firms who 

 had country connections used to buy up 

 all the wax they could get. It came 

 forward in small parcels, from 5 or 101b 

 up to 30 or 401b, and was generally 

 ifiought by barter — exchanged for other 

 goods. The price given was from 6d to 

 7d per lb for clean wax. "Wlien the 

 parcels had accumulated to several cwt« 

 it was shipped to England, where double 

 the first cost or more was obtained for 

 it. 



After I got properly under weigh, and 

 was buying up all the wax I could get, 

 the price went up to 9d and lOd in a 

 very short time. Some cute individuals 

 then thought it Worth their while to 



resort to adulteration. At firet it wa» 

 carried out in a very crude manner- 

 easily detected. Mutton fat (tallow) 

 was the adulterant. This, however, gave 

 the wax an unnatural pale colour, and 

 a greasy feel when handled, so that it 

 ■could ibe detected at once. On one occa- 

 sion I was victimised and put to con- 

 siderable loss over adulterated wax. 



Three or four sacks of wax reached 

 me at th© Thames sent by an Auckland 

 firm with whom I had had many pre- 

 vious transaetions. I was on the point 

 of leaving with a large exhibit of bees 

 and bee material for the Auckland 

 iSpring Show, and as I had many orders 

 on hand for comb-foundation my wife, 

 who had assisted me many times to 

 make it, undertook, with the aid of a 

 stout lad, to have plenty ready to fill 

 •orders on my return. I was away a 

 week, and on my return found Mrs. 

 Hopkins in great trouble. She had about 

 a couple of cwt of sheets ready, Ibut 

 could not get them through the rollers 

 of the machine; the sheets seemed "rot- 

 ten." She had been trying off and on 

 for two days, and did not get one sheet 

 through. As it was dark, a,nd I was 

 tired, I said I would investigate matterti 

 in the morning, cheering her up by 

 saying it was simply a matter of ad- 

 justing the rollers. 



The next morning at daylight I 

 tackled the job, but with no better suc^ 

 cess, the wax sheets, as my wife had 

 said, were simply "rotten," and would 

 not hang together to go through the 

 imachine. Luckily there was some wax 

 still left in the sacks, and on investiga- 

 tion I found a lot of it adulterated 

 with tallow, hence the cause of the 

 trouble was revealed. A week's work 

 gone, and a big loss beside. If I hart 

 examined the wax before I left the 

 trouble would not have occurred; it 

 taught me a lesson I profited by after- 

 wards. 



COMMERCIAL ADULTERATION OF 

 BEESWAX. 

 As the demand for beeswax increased, 

 so the price advanced, and when it had 

 reached over 1/ per pound, wholesale, the 

 temptation for fraud brought some very 

 clever imitations of the genuine article) 

 into the field. The old clumsy system 

 of tallow adulteration was a thing of 

 the past; the later fraudulent subetarice 

 was infinitely more difficult to deteeto 



