Carl F. Buck, a leading manufacturer of Augusta, Kans., is a native son of Butler county. He was born in Augusta in 1878, the only child of F. C. and Mary S. (Dix) Buck. The father was a native of Maine and an early settler of Butler county, and during his lifetime was prominent in the political life of the county. He served as county surveyor a number of terms and died in 1881 when Carl F. was three years old. Mary S. Dix was born in Indiana and is now a resident of Butler county, residing on a farm three miles northwest of Augusta.

Carl F. Buck received a good common school education, and afterwards attended the State Normal School at Emporia, and after leaving school returned to his home in Augusta in 1879 and became interested in the bee business. He began in a very humble way, and at first had only two stands of bees, and at the same time began dealing in supplies for bee keepers. His business developed rapidly and in 1899, he entered the wholesale business and began selling to dealers as well as to bee keepers. In 1905 he engaged in the manufacture of the Weed process comb foundations, and this business has developed beyond all anticipated proportions. He is one of the large manufacturers of this product, so essential to successful bee keepers, in the United States and at present there are only five other factories in the United States similar to this one. He carries a large supply and at the present time has about three car loads of the finished product on hand. He ships his product to nearly every State in the Union.

Mr. Buck's factory at Augusta is large and well suited for the purpose of manufacturing his product. The main building is 25x125 feet, and is divided into six compartments, and in addition to this building he has a store house 25x50 feet. Comb foundation which is the chief product of his factory has become a commercial necessity with bee keepers who aim to conduct their business on the most profitable basis and get the best results. Mr. Buck says that it is a demonstrated fact that bees will consume 20 pounds of honey while making one pound of wax in the construction of the comb. The average price of the prepared foundation is 60 cents a pound and if the investment of that amount saves the bee keeper twenty pounds of honey at the average market price it is a simple process to compute the economy of using the product of this factory. Mr. Buck is a practical bee man as well as a manufacturer and keeps on hand about 170 stands of bees from which he ships large quantities of honey. The capacity of his factory is about 500 pounds of comb foundation per day.

Mr. Buck was united in marriage in 1900, to Miss Ruby McKittrick, of Augusta, Kans. She came to Butler county with her parents from Ohio in the eighties and they located at Augusta where Mrs. Buck was reared and educated. To Mr. and Mrs. Buck has been born one child, Floyd J., now a student in the Augusta High School. Mr. Buck is one of the progressive business men of Augusta where he and his wife are well known and have many friends.

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