56 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLH«AC. 



Jan. 28, 1904 



Mr. Josephson — Why do we want to teach the people to 

 buy liquid honey? I was born in Sweden. In that country 

 we consume a good deal of honey, but can never sell liquid 

 honey. They want granulated, and considered liquid honey 

 unfit to eat. They said it wasn't ripened. We are teaching 

 the people to buy liquid honey here. Why don't we teach 

 them to buy granulated honey, and we get out of all that 

 work? 



Pres. York — Perhaps we had better ship our honey to 

 Sweden! 



_ Mr. Starkey— I have had the same difficulty in my ex- 

 perience in handling honey. The fact is, that my trade wants 

 liquid honey, and we find that out when we try to teach them 

 to use something else. My experience is that honey that is 

 once brought to the proper temperature that drives out the 

 moisture, evaporates the water particles, if kept so that water 

 does not again get into it, it will not granulate. But this 

 gentleman's question would conflict with that. Small par- 

 ticles of honey, as in a cell exposed to the air, will not ab- 

 sorb moisture so that it will contain it long enough to cause 

 granulation, but if you want to prevent your liquid honey 

 from granulating after it is once ripened, then it must be kept 

 scaled, or else this bulk of honey will absorb sufficient mois- 

 ture to again bring about granulation. That is my experience. 

 I believe we can answer the question, the reason his does 

 not granulate, that is, exposed to the moisture, is that the 

 smaller quantity will not contain it sufficiently but will 

 evaporate exposed to the air as it is. But to prevent larger 

 quantities it is necessary to keep it sealed. You can keep it 

 indefinitely if you will bring it to the proper temperature and 

 then seal it in glass. 



Pres. York — What is the proper temperature? 

 Mr. Starkey — I would say from 150 to 160 degrees, if 

 quickly. If a slower process, lower temperature will do it, 

 but it takes longer time; as in Dr. Miller's suggestion, an at- 

 tic is an ideal place if the honey is left there long enough 

 to ripen thoroughly. Speaking again of the Spanish-needle. 

 In 1879, when I began in Missouri, that was my main honey 

 crop, and I sold hundreds of pounds in the market and in the 

 stores, or anywhere they kept it, and I never knew it to 

 granulate. I kept it in sealed jars. I was selling there two or 

 three years, and I never knew any of the merchants to have 

 any of it candy on their hands. 



Mr. Kanenburg — About two or three years ago I had 

 quite a little difficulty with honey granulating on my hands, 

 and so I figured it out that if I got a box and put a glas.s 

 over it and put it in there and peddled honey, it wouldn't 

 granulate. It succeeded perfectly. Let me state that in the 

 tight box with the glass over it the temperature was 150 de- 

 grees. I took the temperature two or three times. I kept 

 that honey two or three years and it never granulated. 



Dr. Miller — If you have your honey brought, as you may 

 call it, to that waxy state before it ever granulates at all, 

 then you can get along a good deal better than if you have 

 honey that has granulated. Never allow it to granulate. You 

 say that you can get a sample that will not granulate but a 

 larger quantity is another thing. That's true; but if there's 

 price enough you can get the larger amount. You could have 

 a place arranged — it would take but very little difference in 

 the price of a pound for making a building for it and put 

 a large amount there. It isn't the bringing it to a certain 

 temperature. One hundred degrees is better than 160, and 

 if 160 degrees will do it in a short time the 100 degrees will 

 in a long time. There is something in the long time that 

 counts. We are taking quite a little time on this, but I be- 

 lieve it is important, and I believe there is only one way that 

 we can do a little more than we do do in having it ripened 

 and never allowing it to granulate. And, by the way, I may 

 say to the president, no matter how bad the place that the 

 grocers have, if it is not allowed to granulate, and is so 

 treated that it has got into that waxy condition, that grocer 

 will have to take some special pains to have it granulate if 

 it has first been put up without granulating. 



Mr. Abbott — I agree that it is very important, and we are 

 just touching the danger-line. This waxy condition spoken 

 of is very easily gotten by a little carelessness, and if you are 

 not very careful you will spoil the flavor of the honey. There 

 is a plan of ripening honey by a system of steampipes, and I 

 bought some of this honey once. It never granulated, and I 



don't know but in the start the honey was all right and pure, 

 and of that waxy consistency that nobody wanted it. It 

 wasn't exactly burned, but it was like chewing molasses candy 

 that hadn't been made quite thick enough, and it wasn't de- 

 sirable honey for the family trade. Every once in a while I 

 have myself permitted a can to get just a little bit harder 

 than it ought to be, and while it wouldn't be burned at all, it 

 would get thick and waxy, and it had to go back to Mr. 

 Somebody, where it was used for candy or printers' rollers. 

 It is a very easy matter to spoil honey while endeavoring to 

 keep it from granulating. 



Mr. Whitney — Do you mean spoil by overheating or get- 

 ting too thick? 



Dr. Miller — I don't believe it. 



Mr. Abbott — You can't with the sun. 



Mr. Moore — There is a train of thought that went 

 through my mind when I heard Mr. Abbott speaking, and I 

 ask him if there is any suspicion of glucose in that. 



Mr. Abbott— No, sir. 



Dr. Miller — Had a great degree of heat been used in that? 



Mr. Abbott— Yes, sir. 



Dr. Miller — There's where the trouble is. It is the long 

 and not the high degree of heat that we want. I doubt very 

 much if it ever ought to go above 120. 



Mr. Abbott — 140 degrees. 



Dr. Miller — That may be, but if you keep it at 100 long 

 enough, I won't be much afraid of it. 



Mr. Niver — Just one more word on this subject. .Mr. 

 Morton, of New York, had a special building for his comb 

 honey : he believed in heating comb honey to ripen it. to make 

 it thick so it would ship better, and he had this special 

 building covered with steel that kept warm, and over night, 

 if it was going to be cool at all, he would heat it. He kept 

 his comb honey in there from four to six weeks. I attribute 

 his success in holding the trade, and nobody could get it 

 away from him. to ripening his comb honey after taking it 

 off the hives. You cannot leave it for the bees to ripen it. for 

 it will get all travel-stained. In New York we have to take 

 it off just as quick as capped, or else it will get travel-stained. 

 By taking it up in this building and keeping it there for a 

 month or six weeks, we got honey we could ship safely. It 

 was very thick, and waxy, and heavy. 



Mr. Duby — Do we know the cause of granulation? I be- 

 lieve from my experience that it may be in the method of ' 

 handling the honey, because I got some of the same quality 

 that had been canned, and some would granulate and others 

 would not, and I noticed in handling it that sometimes there 

 are air-bubbles, and I had an idea that that's what caused the 

 granulation. If we could prevent these air-bubbles, perhaps 

 it would not granulate. That's only a question I am asking. 

 Pres. York — Do we know the cause of granulation of 

 honey? Don't keep it a secret if you do; we want to know. 



REGRANULATION OF RELIQUEFIED HONEY. 



"Will honey that has once granulated and then been re- 

 liquefied, granulate quicker after that than the first time?" 



Dr. Miller — Very much quicker. 



Mr. Abbott — That's not my experience in 20 years. 



Mr. Duby — Not mine, either. 



Mr. Wilcox — If you reliquefy it most thoroughly. Keep 

 it hot a long time, and after you think it is sufficiently melted 

 so that there will be no particles in it. be sure it is all lique- 

 fied, and it will be all right. 



Dr. Miller — I am very sure that Mr. Wilcox is right. I 

 said yes, it will granulate very much quicker the second time, 

 and I said to Mr. France, "There is one of the things that 

 I am sure I know," and two or three said I was "off," and I 

 found I didn't know after all. I am sure in a good many 

 cases that I have tried it, it granulated very promptly after 

 being liquefied, but it was simply liquefying and not ripen- 

 ing. Now, Mr. Wilcox is speaking about heating it and 

 retaining it at that heat until every particle is dissolved. You 

 simply heat it up enough to melt it, at least in a great many 

 cases that I tried it, to melt quickly and it will granulate 

 ever so much quicker. 



Mr. Abbott — I think this is something I know something 

 about because I have been handling it. We sell honey in 

 glass-jars, and our grocery men don't want it when it is 

 granulated. We take it away at once whenever we find any 

 in the stores that's granulated. We re-liquefy by dry heat in 

 the glass, without taking the labels off. There is no more 

 heat than is necessary to liquefy used. It is heated until it is 



