344 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
by forming nurseries, and rearing queens carefully selected 
from fine broods, queens of good blood—if a term may be 
borrowed from the turf—may now be bought at prices ranging 
from one dol. to five dols. each. 
Side by side with improvements in the culture of the bee, 
too, there have been many ingenious contrivances introduced in 
order to save the time and labour of the bees, and of the honey- 
dealers. About ten years ago a German suggested that thin 
corrugated sheets of wax, which he called “artificial tablets,” 
should be provided for the bees to make their comb from. 
These, however, did not come into general use, but a few years 
azo Mr. W. H. Hoge effected an improvement by starting the 
side walls of the cells. When these “foundations,” as they 
are called, were presented to the bees, the intelligent little 
creatures at once took advantage of them, and extended the 
side walls so as to form the regular hexagonal cell. The 
machine by which the impression is made on both sides of 
the wax is very simple, and somewhat resembles a clothes- 
wringing machine, only the iron rollers are studded with 
little hexagonal-headed pins, just the size of the section of a 
cell, so that when the thin sheet of wax is passed through, 
the wax is pressed up between the pegs, to the height of 
about one-sixteenth of an inch, thus indicating the position, 
and offering the substance for the construction, of the cell 
walls. Another remarkable adaptation of machinery is afforded 
by the use of a rotating frame, which causes the cells of 
the comb placed in it to be emptied by centrifugal force. 
The empty, uninjured comb is afterwards replaced in the 
hive, and again used by the bees. As about three-fourths 
of the time of the bees, it has been computed, is taken up 
in the construction of the comb, it will be seen that by these 
contrivances a great saving of bee labour is effected. 
With the rapidly-increasing supply obtained by this well- 
organised system of bee-keeping, the dealers in honey in the 
United States are already trying to open new channels for 
trade, and to create fresh uses for the product of the hives. 
With this object in view, a prize has been offered by the 
American Bee-keepers’ Association, for the discovery of a 
