Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/168

128 We were wont to make beeswax as follows: The broken combs were packed in a muslin bag which was weighted by a sinker and hung in the wash-boiler by tying the bag to the poker, which was placed crosswise the top. By this contrivance the bag was completely surrounded by water, which filled the boiler, and yet did not touch the bottom, and so there was no danger of burning; the cloth acted as a strainer and the bag was pressed occasionally; this act being judiciously performed by means of the tongs, which had previously been cleaned. After the wax had boiled out the boiler was taken off and the whole contents cooled, after which the wax was taken from the top in pieces and remelted in a dish set on the back side of the stove so as not to burn, then poured into oiled bread-tins, and thus caked for the market. Some of it was clarified for special use thus: It was allowed to simmer on the back of the stove for some hours in water to which vinegar had been added, and then was dipped off into scalloped patty-tins and a neat little loop of cord inserted at one side. These cakes when cooled had a long though scarified existence ensconced in work-baskets with spools of thread, for wax thus cleaned and prepared made very pretty little gifts for lady-friends. But the experience of rendering wax was never complete without spilling some of it on the stove, which spread with fearful rapidity and smoked with stifling smoke; because of the certainty of this accident we always made the beeswax in the late