Apiary Experiments. 



11 



COMPARATIVE WEIGHTS OP NATURAL COMB AND COMB ON ARTIFI- 

 CIAL FOUNDATIONS. 



There is a third method of studying the effect of foundations 

 upon the resulting comb which, to my mind, gives the most con- 

 vincing evidence. By this method pieces of natural comb and 

 comb on different kinds of foundation were cut into blocks of known 

 area and carefully weighed. Then the cell walls were removed 

 from the midribs and the weight of these two portions determined 

 separately. Then the weights of the midribs and cell walls of 

 natural comb were compared with the corresponding parts of comb 

 built on artificial foundations, and the midribs of the latter with 

 their corresponding foundation midribs. In this way I was able to 

 determine whether the cell walls or the midribs of comb on arti- 

 ficial foundations were as light as in the natural comb. 



Table Giving Weights, in Grains to the Square Inch, of Whole Comb and 

 of the Midribs and Cell Walls of the Comb, in Each Case Separate. 



* This line is an average of pieces composing 15 square inclies of comb. 



