MANUAL OP THE APIARY. 207 



boiler used in melting the wax has the gate with a fine wire 

 sieve attached near the top, so that the wax as it is drawn off 

 into the second boiler, will be thoroughly cleansed. Mr. Eoot 

 states that two men and a boy will thus make four hundred 

 pounds of wax sheets in a day. 



Others use wooden plates on which to mold the sheets, 

 while the Hetherington brothers prefer, and are very success- 

 ful with a wooden cylinder, which is made to revolve in the 

 melted wax, and is so hinged, that it can be speedily raised 

 above or lowered into the liquid. 



For cutting foundation, nothing is so admirable as the 

 CarlLn cutter (Fig. 67, a), which is like the wheel glass-cutters 

 sold in the shops, except that a larger wheel of tin takes the 

 place of the one of hardened steel. Mr. A. I. Root has 

 suggested a grooved board (Fig. 67, b) to go with the above, 

 the distance between the grooves being equal to the desired 

 width of the strips of comb foundation to be cut. 



USE or FOUNDATION. 



I have used foundation, as have many other more extensive 

 apiarists, with perfect success in the section-boxes. The bees 

 have so thinned it that even epicures could not tell comb- 

 honey with such foundation, from that wholly made by the 

 bees. Yet, I forbear recommending it for such use. When 

 such men as Hetherington, Moore, Ellwood, and L. C. Root, 

 protest against a course, it is well to pause before we adopt it ; 

 60, while I have used foundation, I think with some small ad- 

 vantage in sections and boxes for three years, I shall still 

 pronounce against it. 



It will not b»well to have the word artificial hitched on to 

 our comb-honey. I think it exceedingly wise to maintain invio- 

 late in the public mind the idea that comb-honey is par 

 excellence, a natural prpduct. And as Captain Hetherington 

 aptly suggests, this argument is all the more weighty, in view 

 of the filthy condition of mu<ih of our commercial bees-wax. 



Again, our bees may not always thin the foundation, and 

 we risk our reputation in selling it in comb-honey, and an 

 unquestioned reputation is too valuable to be endangered in this 

 way, especially as in these days of adulteration, we may not 



