MANUAL OP THE APIARY. 207 



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

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

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

 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 

 Carlin 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 (Pig. 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 OF 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 ; 

 so, 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 be 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 eomb-honey is par 

 excellence, a natural product. And as Captain Hetherington 

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

 of the filthy condition of mu<3h of our commci-cial bees-wax. 



Again, our bees may not always thin tbe 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 



