1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



87 



how to cure it, and Is doing a great work for 

 Ontario. The government allows S.500 a year 

 for this work. 



Another thing: They seem to be able to 

 secure almost any legislation that they ask for. 

 I suppose that one difficulty is that our whole 

 United States is so large, and so many interests 

 are clamoring for recognition, that bo^e-keeping 

 is lost sight of. Another thing, we have been 

 lacking in united effort and organization. 



The first session was partly used in transact- 

 ing routine and official business. After this 

 the subject of making an exhibit of honey at 

 the World's Fair was discussed; or. rather, the 

 manner in which the honey should be sent and 

 exhibited. Mr. S. T. Pettit stood up stoutly 

 for having honey shown in the candied state. 

 He said that that was the shape in which it 

 would reach foreign markets, and that was the 

 shape in wliich foreign visitors should see it. 

 They ought to see it in the shape in which it 

 would reach them when they bought it. Mr. 

 McKnight contended that the first thing that 

 the majority of purchasers of extracted honey 

 do, is to liquefy it, and that is the shape in 

 which honey ought to be sold. J. B. Hall said 

 that most people would not know what candied 

 honey was. There was nothing attractive 

 about, the appearance of candied honey. It 

 resembles lard. The way in which to show 

 honey is in the liquid state. It was linally de- 

 cided that each exhibitor should be asked to 

 send at least a sample of candied honey, so that 

 the attendant in charge can show visitors the 

 state in which honey may often be found. The 

 government will pay all the expense of getting 

 the honey to Chicago, putting it up in glass 

 vessels, a man to take care of it, and will pay 

 the expense of returning it if the exhibitor does 

 not wish it sold. When it was asked how many 

 intended to send honey, almost every hand 

 went up. Uiiles-^ some of the States Ijc^stir 

 themselves. Canada will get the persimmons at 

 the World's Fair, so far as th" honey exhibit is 

 concerned. 



In the evening Mr. Mciiivoy read a paper on 

 "How I Prepare Bees for Outdoor Wintering, 

 and Care for them in Spring.'" The bees were 

 crowded upon six combs of solid honey, and 

 then the hive packed with dry leaves. He 

 placed great stress upon what he termed the 

 "constitution" of the colony. By this he 

 meant the condition of the colony itself instead 

 of its surroundings. He considered this of 

 greater importance than the manner in which 

 it was packed or the manner in which it was 

 wintered. A colony in excellent condition in 

 the fall as regards queen, populousness, stores, 

 etc., he felt was almost certain to be in similar 

 condition the next spring. Mr. Cornell called 

 attention to the fact that a board was a very 

 ])oor covering for a colony. It is a good con- 

 ductor of heat. Wool and cork dust are excel- 

 lent packing material. Where the hive is out 

 of doors, and the entrance left open, but little is 

 to be gained by packing beneath the bottom- 

 board. Those who wintered their bees in the 

 cellar testified as to the superior results obtain- 

 ed when the colonies were near the top of the 

 cellar. Losses nearly always were heavier in 

 the lower hives. McKnight and others put no 

 hives nearer the bottom than about fifteen 

 inches. 



Mr. Cornell read a paper on "The Density of 

 Honey." He showed how greatly honey may 

 vary in density. That which is very dense is 

 not sold at a higher prii'e, but it is worth much 

 mon-. There ought to be some standard of 

 density. To test honey by inverting a bottle of 

 honey and seeing how rapidly the bubble of air 

 will rise, is not at all i-eliable. The variation of 

 the temperature alone is sufficient to destroy 



the value of this plan. An instrument (hydrom- 

 eter, I believe it is called) is needed to make a 

 test; or, rather, this is one reliable and simple 

 method. It is like a long slim little bottle. In 

 the bottom is some lead. When put into liquid, 

 the depth to which it settles into liquid snows 

 the density, or specific gravity. There is a 

 graduated scale on one side of the tube which 

 shows the degree of density. 



In the course of his remarks, Mr. Cornell said 

 that, when thick* and thin honey were mixed 

 thoroughly, as when part of a comb contained 

 thin honey and the other part thick, and the 

 honey should be extracted, the honey would 

 remain mixed. That is, the thick would not 

 settle to the bottom and the thin rise to the 

 top. He gave examples of allowing honey to 

 stand a long time in tanks, and then taking 

 some from the top and bottom; and a test 

 showed both samples of the same density. Al- 

 most the whole convention took issue with him. 

 S. T. Pettit had found the honey so thin on top 

 that he had used a long-handled dipper to stir 

 up the contents of the can and make the honey 

 all alike. J. K. Darling had found a thin 

 stratum of water on top of his candied honey, 

 and the remainder of his honey seemed to be 

 thicker after this. Mr. Cornell said that this 

 water might have been absorbed from the at- 

 mosphere. Mr. McKnight had found a stratum 

 of water two inches deep on the top of his cans 

 of honey. The thick but liquid honey could be 

 felt below it as easily as a board could be felt 

 with the finger. Mr. Cornell thought that this 

 might be a sort of separation of the honey, or 

 of its component parts: that the thin substance 

 was levulose. Mr. McKnight thought it too 

 thin for levulosi;. It was simply sweetened 

 water. Some other member had kept one can 

 in which he dipped off the top of the honey 

 from th(^ other cans, and tlie honey thus dipped 

 off wa-* " pretty poor stuff.'" 



Here the discussion drifted off into crystalli- 

 zation, or, rather, the cause of crystallization. 

 \Vhile it is admitted, even by scientists, that 

 all about crystallization is not yet understood, 

 there seemed little doubt that the crystalliza- 

 tion of honey is caused, or at least aided, by 

 light, air. change of temperature, the presence 

 of water, and by agitation. The honey from 

 which nearly all of the water has been driven 

 off by evaporation is slow to crystallize— may 

 never do so. Honey that would remain liquid, 

 if left in the comb, crystallizes upon being 

 extracted, even if immediately sealed up in a 

 bottle. The same honey, if left undisturbed in 

 the combs, might be uncapped and yet remain 

 liquid. The agitation of the extracting, and 

 the more thorough exposure to the air, may be 

 what starts crystallization. Some even went 

 so far as to suggest that the " germs " of crys- 

 tallization came from the air, the same as in 

 the case of fermentation; but Mr. Cornell 

 promptly "called them down." Instances were 

 given where honey left at home in the fall re- 

 mained liquid, while that taken away oyer 

 railroads, and exhibited at fairs, soon candied 

 as the result of agitation. W. Z. Hutchinson 

 had some that candied in three days at the 

 Detroit Exposition, where placed over the dy- 

 namos that generated the electricity. There 

 was a constant jarring. The Dadants turn 

 their honey from one barrel to another to start 

 granulation. 



Referring again to the matter of heavy honey 

 settling to the ijottom of the can, Mr. Frith 

 suggested that honey might be ripened, possi- 

 bly, by running it through a "separator,'" the 

 same as butter is separated from , milk. Mr. 



*Iii making' this test the honey must always be of 

 a certain temperature— 60°, I believe. 



