94 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Mr. Baxter — It is very simple. We 

 have a large can with a reel, and this 

 reel has a wire screen. We will sup- 

 pose this is the comb honey there. It 

 has a capping on. Take all the cap- 

 pings off as thin as we can and put 

 comb of honey in the reel. Our ex- 

 tractor holds eight of these frames. 

 We try to see that the weight is bal- 

 anced all around, then we swing the 

 reel around, and by centrifugal force it 

 forces all the honey out of the cells; 

 it falls against the sides of the cans 

 and goes down to the bottom of the 

 can and comes out of the faucet at the 

 bottom. We throw the honey out of 

 one side, reverse the frame and throw 

 the honey out of the other side, with- 

 out injuring the comb. 



Mr. McElvain — Do you have to warm 

 it? 



Mr. Baxter — No, we do not have to 

 warm it, as a rule; we extract in 

 weather that is warm enough. Of 

 course, at this time of the year the 

 honey would have to be warmed, so as 

 to cause it to flow, but we aim to do 

 our extracting not later than the first 

 of October. The fall crop is finished 

 in our latitude, when the frost has 

 destroyed all the flowers, unless it be 

 the asters, so there is no more honey 

 to extract, and as soon as that occurs 

 we extract right away, so as to be 

 sure to get it off before it gets too old. 

 You will find there is a vast differ- 

 ence between extracted honey and 

 strained honey. Some people talk 

 about strained honey. I have people 

 every once in a while ask me if we 

 have any strained honey to sell. I tell 

 them no, I do not strain honey. 

 Strained honey was produced before 

 the extractor was known. They would 

 go to a comb, kill the bees, take all 

 that was in there, larvae brood, dead 

 bees and everything, mash it all up, 

 warm it, probably heat it on a stove, 

 and then pass it through a cloth, and 

 what ran out of that cloth was 

 strained honey, of course, but look at 

 the difference. In extracted honey you 

 do not find any larvae, no dead bees, 

 and it is as clear as the finest comb 

 honey that you can find anywhere, and 

 that is W'hy I always want to make a 

 distinction between extracted honey 

 and strained honey, because they are 

 no more alike than an apple is like a 

 peach. 



A Member — I imagine it would have 

 a different flavor. 



Mr. Baxter — Very much so.. In this 

 extracted honey there is no foreign 

 smell nor taste, nor any dirt, while in 

 the strained honey you always get the 

 flavor of the crushed brood, dead bees, 

 etc It destroys the flavor. 



Mr. McElvain — How do you keep it 

 from getting into a candied condition? 



Mr. Baxter — Honey that candies or 

 sugars is a pure honey; impure honey 

 will not candy. You can mix glucose 

 with honey and you can tell just how 

 much honey is in there and how much 

 glucose. The honey will settle and be- 

 come candied and the glucose will be 

 on top, liquid, but if it is candied 

 thoroughly, it is pure. Alfalfa honey 

 is the first to candy; sweet clover 

 candies readily, and white clover not 

 quite so fast, and Spanish needle still 

 more slowly. 



Mr. McElvain — Do you keep your 

 extracted honey in a warm place? 



Mr. Baxter — Always in a dry place. 



Mr. Richardson — What do you con- 

 sider the two or three best honies? 



Mr. Baxter — Well, that depends how 

 you want that question answered. If 

 you mean honey produced in* a small 

 way, that you seldom find on the mar- 

 ket, I would say that probably orange, 

 apple and Ti-Ti. 



Mr. Richardson — Two of those three 

 that you mentioned are not produced 

 here. 



Mr. Baxter — No, three of them 

 are not really produced here, because 

 you cannot fiud apple honey on the 

 market. The best that we have here, 

 white clover honey, brings the highest 

 price on the market; it even sells for 

 more than orange honey does. It is 

 a standard all over the United States. 



Mr. Richardson — Are there enough 

 basswood trees in this country to pro- 

 duce honey? 



Mr Baxter — Yes, we have bass- 

 wood honey. It is not as good as the 

 clover honey; it is not as white. It 

 has a strong odor. Basswood gives 

 honey a kind of medicinal flavor that 

 some people do not like. 



Mr. Sanders — Is the sweet clover of 

 Illinois almost as good as the white? 



Mr. Baxter — It does not make as 

 fine a honey. Some people like it — I like 

 it — it has the odor more or less of the 

 sweet clover Itself, but I remember in 

 1903 I had a pretty good crop and one 

 customer up in Birmingham, Mich- 

 igan, wanted some samples of white 

 clover honey. I sent samples of white 



