98 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb 1 



The bottling of honey is an important sub- 

 ject, and I am anxious to read your sympo- 

 sium, and learn how others do it. 



New Albany, Ind., Dec. 14. 



BOTTLING HONEY. 



Size and Construction of Vats for Heating the 



Bottles of Honey ; Tumblers vs. Jars or 



Bottles. 



BY WALTKK S. POUDEB. 



Bottling honey, with me, is done according 

 to the time we have to devote to the work, 

 making a sort of fill-in job of it. For in- 

 stance, we wash a batch ot jars one day, and 

 fill and cork them at another time, and so 

 forth, although we try to get a good stock 

 ready in the fall before granulation starts. In 

 washing jars we use a vat containing five gal- 

 lons of clean water. Take one jar at a time, 

 and with the jar half full of water shake and 

 then rinse the outside of the jar. We now in- 

 vert them till well drained, and then place 

 them right side up and allow them to stand 

 till dry. In heating the filled jars we use a 

 two-burner gas stove which stands eight inches 

 above the floor. We like the low-down stove 

 because it is very convenient in lifting off 

 sixty-pound cans of honey or heavy pails of 

 beeswnx. 



For heating jars we use vats made of gal- 

 vanized iron, 11X18>4 and 5% deep. Heavy 

 handles are riveted at each end, and we find 

 this a very convenient size to handle. In the 

 bottom we place thin boards with narrow cleats 

 secured to the under side to prevent the jars 

 from touching the metal. As many of these 

 vats can be used as business may require. 

 They hold 28 one-pound jars, 40 eight ounce 

 jars, or 54 five-ounce jars. On a two-burner 

 gas-stove we use two vats at a time. If we 

 wish to melt honey in five-gallon cans we use 

 a vat covering two burners, and melt two cans 

 at once. If we used Mason jars or tumblers 

 we would then have vats made especially for 

 them If we did not use gas for fuel we 

 would then use a gasoline-stove, because we 

 must have a fire that can be easily regulated. 



I have no doubt that a tumbler is a very de- 

 sirable receptacle for honey in Mr. Fowls' lo- 

 cality; and the fact that a tumbler is still a 

 useful article after its contents have been used 

 is worth considering ; but I have often won- 

 dered if the consumer takes this into consid- 

 eration. I abandoned the tumbler because I 

 learned that I was competing with a tumbler 

 exactly like one I was using, and containing a 

 thin slice of comb honey and a whole lot of 

 glucose mixture. The jars are not convenient 

 for such adulterated goods, and to my knowl- 

 edge 1 have never seen them used for any but 

 pure honey. 



We cork all jars immediately after filling 

 and before heating. I prefer the cork to fit 

 easily; but if they are properly steamed, quite 

 a large cork can be inserted in a small-mouth- 

 ed jar by hand. On one-pound jars I use a 

 labil covering one side of the jar and a foil 

 cap over the cork. This side label consists of 



a guarantee of purity, and directions how to 

 liquefy in case the contents should granulate. 

 On the smaller jars we use a round gummed 

 label over the cork and a slender label around 

 the neck. 



Indianapolis, Ind., Jan. 9. 



[It has been our practice to pour the honey 

 into the jars when cold, and then heat the jars 

 with the honey in the vats of water, of the 

 kind described by Walter S. Pouder. After 

 looking over the various methods this seemed 

 the more practicable for our conditions and 

 circumstances ; and now it would appear that 

 it is altogether the best method in that it may 

 (I don't know positively) preserve the honey 

 in a liquid condition longer than when the 

 honey is poured into the jars while hot. I 

 had never thought of it before ; but if jars are 

 filled with either cold or even hot honey, and 

 corked, innumerable small bubbles of air 

 would be scattered, I should suppose, all 

 through the honey. Whether this is true or 

 not, these would necessarily disappear if the 

 honey were heated gradually, and then corked. 

 I had not thought of it before, that air in hon- 

 ey will hasten granulation ; but our own ex- 

 perience leads me to believe that the theory 

 of Mr. Walker is correct. We have taken 

 some of the honey that we bottled during the 

 past fall, placed it outdoors in the cold air, to 

 be subject to all sorts of variation, from 70 de- 

 grees down to zero, or nearly so, and yet it 

 has remained clear. Mr. Fowls, in his article 

 on bottling honey, described how he heated 

 the honey in the first place, poured it into the 

 jars hot, and then sealed. In one of his pre- 

 vious articles he tells how he goes around and 

 gathers up all the jars in the local groceries 

 where the honey is candied, takes the bottles 

 that are cloudy, and gives them, in exchange, 

 bottles of clear honey. Now, I don't know, 

 but it strikes me if he were following the plan 

 that Mr. Ponder, Mr. Walker, and ourselves 

 use he would not have to go into this kind of 

 exchange business. 



Mr. C. H. W. Weber, of Cincinnati, who 

 has been doing a large business in bottling, 

 and who bought out C. F Muth & Son, told 

 me of a valuable little kink, and that is, in 

 the method of inserting corks. The jars are 

 filled, and then the corks are laid loosely on 

 top of the bottles, or just barely entered, we 

 will say. After half a gross of the bottles are 

 so prepared he goes around with a mallet hav- 

 ing a rubber face, and drives these corks clear 

 down into the mouth of the bottle. One or 

 two blows force the corks clear down ; and it 

 is done so quickly that it leaves all other 

 methods of forcing corks down clear in the 

 shade. Some insert them by means of the 

 weight of the body on the hand. Others use 

 a lever. But this wastes lime as well as re- 

 quiring a great deal of strength. 



Mr. Weber did not tell us where he got his 

 mallets with rubber noses ; but here is a sug- 

 gestion : Take a common wooden mallet and 

 put on each of its faces one of these new-fan- 

 gled rubber heels, such as you can buy at any 

 shoestore for a few cents. These rubber heels 

 are about half an inch thick, and are secured 



