ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



165 



solid cake after it has cooled. A weight of some kind, like a big 

 stone, or some bricks, must be laid upon the sack to hold it at the 

 bottom of the boiler while the wax is cooling, otherwise the sack 

 will be embedded in the wax when it is cooled. This plan may be 

 employed upon a large scale, even to the extent of using a large 

 kettle out of doors, and the use of the sacks may be dispensed 

 with by making a sort of pail or basket out of tine wire cloth, setting 

 it down in the melted wax, inside the kettle, and then dipping off 

 the wax with a dipper, by dipping inside the wire cloth basket, the 

 wire cloth straining out the coarser impurities. This method of 

 rendering wax by the use of boiling water will probably get out as 

 much of the wax as it is possible to secure without the use of pres- 

 sure upon the residue, or "slum gum," as it is called. Old combs 



The Alpaugh, Solar Wax Extractor. 



are largely made up of cocoons — more cocoons than wax — and they 

 absorb and retain the melted wax, much as a sponge will hold 

 watei", and pressure is the only thing that will cause them to give up 

 the golden treasure. 



Another plan particularly feasible for melting cappings, new 

 combs, or scraps that are nearly pure wax, is by the use of the solar 

 wax extractor, which is simply a shallow box painted black inside 

 and out, and furnished with a false bottom of sheet iron a few inches 

 above the real bottom, a cover of glass completing the arrangement. 

 The box is placed in a slanting position, facing the sun, and the 

 refuse combs, etc., placed upon the false bottom of iron, or in a sort 

 of basket arranged at the upper end for the reception of the cappings, 

 scraps, etc. The direct rays of the sun, aided, sometimes, by the 



