WAX AND COMB. 195 
were placed precisely */,, inch from their ends, thus 
showing the exact depth of natural cells. It was also 
curious to notice how readily the bees would lengthen the 
artificial cells with wax, when they were used for storing 
honey. In nearly every instance they were extended 
enough to allow them to be uncapped with the honey 
knife for extracting. These experiments are quite suffici- 
ent to incline me to the already expressed belief in the 
future success of complete artificial comb. 
SUPPLYING MATERIAL FOR COMB. 
The amount of honey and labor involved in the con- 
struction of natural comb, as previously indicated, shows 
the extreme desirability of, in some way, utilizing refuse 
wax, by converting it into perfect comb again, rather 
than to dispose of it at 30 cents per lb. It has often 
been noticed that, in warm weather, bees would bite off 
bits of wax from fragments of comb, and carry them into 
the hive to use in comb-building. I have been, for a 
long time, convinced, as I have since demonstrated, that 
this process might be facilitated by furnishing the wax in 
some feasible way. I have placed tender cappings, that 
had been taken from new combs when extracting, in 
feeders, where the bees had free access to them, at a time 
when they were building out foundations, and the wax so 
furnished was speedily appropriated by the bees and. 
used in the completion of the combs. 
COMB—FOUNDATION. 
Tt is difficult to understand why comb-foundation has 
received so little attention during the twenty or more 
years, since it was first brought to notice by our German 
friends. Prof. Cook states that the Germans first manu- 
factured it in 1857, by merely pressing sheets of wax be- 
tween flat, metal plates, stamped in such a way as to 
