THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



329 



fertilizer; the feet for making glue and 

 neat's foot oil; gelatine conies from the 

 joints near the foot; pepsin from the 

 stomach of hogs. But why continue the 

 list, for as one of Armours agents said 

 last fall at the Illinois fair, the only part 

 of the pig that is lost is his "squeal." 



Bee-keepers have done something in 

 this line by saving all of the waste bits of 

 coml) and rendering them into wax, but 

 very few, indeed, have done anything 

 towards saving the waste bits of honey. 

 In even the best regulated of apiaries 

 there will be occasional "musses" of hon- 

 ey to be cleaned up; there will be the 

 washing of dishes that have contained 

 honey; there will be honey that can be 

 washed from the cappings when honey is 

 extracted. All these odds and ends sav- 

 ed during the year, and made into vine- 

 gar, and it can be done almost as easily 

 as not to do it, means several dollars. 

 For this reason, and because there is 

 often dark or fall honey that can be sold 

 only at a low price, it would be a profit- 

 able thing for some bee-keepers if they 

 would start a vinegar factory, on a small 

 scale, in connection with their apiary. 

 Just to show you how easilv this may be 

 done, I copy the following from Glean- 

 ings. It was written by Mrs. A. J. Bar- 

 ber, of Colorado. 



I have had so many inquiries about 

 making vinegar lately, that, being verv 

 busy, I can not answer by letter, so I will 

 write to Gleanings for all. To give short 

 directions, I will say: 



I'se about one pint of honey to the gal- 

 lon of water ( you will soon be able to 

 tell by the taste when it is sweet enough 1. 

 Put it into a keg or barrel with a good 

 tight head, and leave a hole not larger 

 than one inch for ventilation. Keep it in 

 a warm place and put in sotne good vine- 

 gar or yeast to start it. After it gets to 

 working, draw off a pailful now and then 

 and pour it back; or if you have more 

 than one keg, pour from one to another. 

 It helps new vinegar to put old vinegar 

 into it; but itspoilsthe keeping qualities 

 of the old vinegar to put fr^h vinegar 

 into it. 



We save all the washings from the ex- 

 tractor, tank, strainers, and cappings, for 



vinegar. We wash the cappings by pour- 

 ing warm water through them again and 

 again, until about all the honey is out of 

 them. The}- are then rinsed by pouring 

 a pail or two of cold water through, when 

 thev are in fine shape for the wax -ex- 

 tractor. The water is all put into the 

 vinegar barrels. It took us two 3-ears to 

 get really good vinegar from the start in 

 new barrels. Now that we have our old 

 sour barrels and good vinegar to start 

 with we can get good vinegar this season 

 from last year's washings. For the last 

 four 3'ears we have made from four to 

 twelve barrels each year. We have twelve 

 for market this A'ear, and now at the last 

 of July four new ones coming on for next 

 year. We expect to make several more 

 before the season closes. Each barrel 

 should be cleaned every other year. Un- 

 less this is done the "mother" will begin 

 to decay and break up, making the vine- 

 gar flat in taste and muddy in color. 

 The barrels that we started vinegar in 

 this spring had the sweet water put in 

 with the remnant of last year's salable 

 vinegar. Next spring the vinegar in 

 them will be drawn off and put into 

 clean barrels to keep until sold. When 

 we get an order for a barrel of vinegar we 

 draw off again and put into a clean barrel. 

 By this time there is but little "mother" 

 forming, as the vinegar is ripe and will 

 keep indefinitelv. • 



We have a house specially for our vine- 

 gar. It is a double-wall frame with a ten- 

 inch space between walls, packed with 

 sawdust. The ceiling is covered with 

 several inches of sawdust, and the vine- 

 gar keeps nicely all winter. We put the 

 barrels into the house in Novembe'', and 

 take them out in April. The vinegar is 

 drawn off and put into a clean barrel. 

 The head is then taken out of the one 

 just emptied, and it is well scrubbed 

 w'ith v.'ater and a stiff broom. When 

 clean it is reheaded, and the contents of 

 the next best barrel drawn off and put in- 

 to it. Thus the barrels are cleaned and 

 the vinegar put in shape for market. We 

 have a long low bench or platform for the 

 barrels, where they stand in two rows. 

 The first barrel drawn off is placed at the 

 east end of the south row. That is No. i, 

 as it is the first to be ready to .sell from. 

 The next barrel drawn off being next 

 be.stis placed next to No. i on the row, 

 and is No. 2. So we go on till we get to 

 No. 12. When we sell a few gallons from 

 No. I we draw from No. 2 and replenish 

 it; draw from No. % and fill up No. 2; 

 from No. 4 and fill No. :\, until we have 

 gone through and left the empty place in 



