60

58 CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK.

are wrapped up min white paper, and carefully packed away,
or put a number of them together in a box. It is one of
the best specimens of New Zealand produce with which to
surprise and please our friends at home. But it affects
what I am now telling you about running your honey in
this way. It is difficult, nay, impossible, to get it from the
impure combs by any of the ordinary methods ; it will
not run -- pressure is equally useless.

And now for the second article of bee produce - the wax.
It is by far the most valuable of the two ; for this reason
--because there will be an unlimited demand for it. I
have spoken of honey and wax, the produce of bees in their
first and simple forms. The bleached wax of commerce
is easily prepared by increasing the surface of the wax,
and then exposing it to the action of sun and air. A simple
way of bleaching wax in small quantities is to run it into
cakes in the usual way, and then bleach as before; only be
careful not to overheat your wax, or you will spoil its
colour, and deprive it of many of its useful qualities.

The uses of wax for domestic purposes, and in the arts,
are various and extensive. The greater portion of that
imported into England is used perhaps in candles. But I
haved already said that I hope the day may come when
wax candles of our own make will take the place of dips.
But there atr many smaller articles which a careful house-
keeper will like to have at hand, to say nothing of the
pleasure of sewing with a well waxed thread. Lip salve
and cerate are no bad things to have in the house -- the
latter is made by melting an ounce of wax and heating an
ounce of sweet oil, not boiling either. Pour them together
at the same temperature, and keep stirring steadily until
they leave the fluid for the buttery state. If you leave off
stirring just at the setting point, the wax and oil will
separate, and you will have to melt again. But if you
stir steadily all the time, you will have a substance soft as
butter and smooth as oil - of such excellent healing powers,
that I have sometimes wished to have a sore place to test
its virtues. The cerate may be made harder or softer by
altering the proportion of oil to the wax.

The softer cerate is best for dressing a blister ; nothing