200 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
put on again ; but it has the good point of being 
capable of spacing to every distance intermediate 
between the widest and narrowest, by slipping the 
alternate ends back, much or little, as may be 
required. Propolis would then, however, in most 
localities, do its evil work. 
The extreme importance of being able to use founda- 
tion at all normal temperatures, and with stocks or 
swarms indifferently, stimulated the search for methods 
which should completely overmaster the besetting 
weakness adverted to (page 195), and the Van Deusen 
Nillis wired foundation, with flat bottoms to the cells, 
first promised a satisfactory solution of the difficulty. 
At intervals of an inch, thin iron wires were em- 
bedded, taking the perpendicular as the foundation 
hung in the frame, and so holding the sheet that 
the disposition to stretch downwards, under the 
weight of the builders^ was entirely obviated. Every 
cell of the resulting combs was mathematically 
symmetrical ; but careful experiment showed that the 
grubs maturing in those through whose bases the 
wires ran, frequently died, and I had cases of long 
lines of dead larvae, pointing out unmistakably the path 
the wire took. This fatality appears to have been 
due to neglecting to use wire properly protected by 
tinning. The reason why the flat bottom was chosen 
is obvious. The wires passed between the rolls, along 
with the sheet, and, had the rhomboidal bases been 
preserved, the wire would have been bent backwards 
and forwards at angles of about 30 deg.* to the per- 
* The angles really are 35deg. i6min., and I9deg. 28min., as those Avith 
mathematical tastes may discover. 
