822 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 24, 1903. 



sour. Do not cork it tight, but cover the tnouth with a cork. 

 A wide-mouth jar covered with a cloth is still better. 



Air, that is, oxygen, is needed. The making of vinegar 

 is simply the oxidizing of the sugar contained in the liquid. 

 No change may take place unless air is, or has been, 

 supplied. For that reason the vineyardist keeps his barrels 

 of wine full, and bunged tightly, so that no air may reach 

 the wine. If, perchance, a barrel remains open, he soon has 

 a barrel of vinegar instead of a barrel of wine, and the bet- 

 ter the wine has been the better the vinegar will be. 



Sufficient sweetness is needed. If the directions I give 

 are followed, a good article of vinegar will be produced. If 

 you want to put the honey by weight, put not less than 2 

 pounds of honey for each gallon of water. A less quantity 

 may make fair vinegar, but it is much easier to weaken your 

 vinegar if too strong, by the addition of a little water when 

 you wish to use it, than to strenghen it by adding more 

 honey after it is partly made. 



A very good inducement for any sweet or alcoholic 

 liquid to turn to vinegar is the addition to the liquid of 

 what is called "vinegar-mother" — the viscous, ropy matter 

 which is usually found in a barrel of good vinegar. This 

 " vinegar-mother " contains the principal ingredients that 

 go to make vinegar, and although it is practically degener- 

 ated vinegar, yet it will add strength to the vinegar very 

 promptly. 



So, if you happen to have some old vinegar that has 

 been long standing, you can soon strengthen your new 

 vinegar by adding a little of this " mother." Do not listen 

 to those who will say that this is a disgusting looking resi- 

 due. It looks no worse than an oyster does. Vinegar con- 

 taining this residue is sure to be pure and wholesome. 

 Vinegar made from chemicals does not contain any mother, 

 neither does it contain any living organism. 



The more air the vinegar gets at proper temperatures, 

 the quicker the vinegar is made. Manufacturers of first- 

 class wine-vinegar in Europe often drain their Vinegar 

 through a barrel full of shavings slowly, drop by drop, so 

 as to give it a good chance to air. In this way the best vine- 

 gar is made. 



If you have no fruit-juices to add to your vinegar, a little 

 cider will help to give it a start. Hancock Co., 111. 



The Use and Abuse of the Honey-Bee. 



Head at the Minnesofii State Convention in Dee.. 190:^, 

 BY FRANK YAHNKB. 



THE little busy bee was in the Garden of Eden to fulfill 

 its mission of poUenizing the flowers and gathering the 

 honey for the unborn generations. When Adam tilled 

 the soil the honey-bee was with him, and it has been taken 

 wherever civilized man has gone. All the ancient writ- 

 ers mention the honey-bee, and the usefulness of its product. 

 Homer, Herodotus, Aristotle, Varro, Virgil, Pliny, and 

 other ancient sages, composed poems, extolling the activity, 

 skill, and economy of the bee. In the Hebrew language 

 the word ghoneg means delight, and where is there in the 

 wide world an article more precious for food or medicine ? 

 Ovid, when describing the feast of the gods which required 

 costly aliments and precious wines, says : "The delicious 

 honey-cakes were never wanting." 



In the statute books of ancient natives, laws are found 

 for the protection of bees. The thief of a swarm of bees, 

 according to old Saxon laws, was punishable by death. The 

 old Bohemian people believed that it was a sin to kill a bee. 



The honey-bee is just as useful now as it was in ancient 

 times. In my younger days I planted, every year, a piece 

 of cucumber for pickling, and was troubled greatly in the 

 blossoms not setting fruit. I then began to keep bees, and 

 that remedied the trouble. 



How often our apple crop would be a failure if it were 

 not for the aid of the honey-bee I The product of the bee is 

 as useful as it ever has been. 



"Honey is a food in one of its most concentrated forms. It 

 gives warmth to the system, arouses nervous energy, and 

 gives vigor to all the vital functions. To the laborer it gives 

 strength, to the business man mental force. Its effects are 

 not like ordinary stimulants, such as spirits, but it produces 

 a healthy action, the results of which are pleasing and perma- 

 nent — a sweet disposition and a bright intellect. 



" Karl Gatter, a German teacher of the city of Vienna, 

 says : ' In medicine, and especially in the healing of wounds, 

 honey was used as a universal remedy already in early I 

 times. It yet constitutes the principal ingredient of several j 



medical preparations, and is used with the best results in 

 many internal and external diseases. It serves as a means 

 for taking powders, for the preparation of salves, and the 

 sweetening of medicine.' 



"Honey is also of great value as a medicine for chil- 

 dren, and is readily partaken of by them as a choice, dainty 

 dish. For the removal of worms, honey has often been 

 beneficially used, and it is often used in diseases of the 

 mouth and throat." 



Now, I come to the abuse of the honey-bee, which is not 

 as old as its use. The first public abuse the honey-bee re- 

 ceived that I know of, was when it was accused of punctur- 

 ing grapes. Most of you remember how bitterly both sides 

 of the question fought to prove their point. Brother fought 

 against brother, and even went to court about it. To-day it 

 is proved beyond all doubt that the honey-bee does not 

 puncture grapes, or any other fruit. If a man now would 

 claim that honey-bees punctured grapes, he would be 

 looked upon as an ignorant man. 



The latest abuse of the honey-bee is the spreading of 

 blight. Let us look at this a little. Professors claim that 

 the bees carry blight in nectar from flower to flower. How 

 this can be I do not know, for bees carry nectar in the 

 honey-sac, and I have never seen this leak yet. If the na- 

 ture of blight is rightly understood, it will be found that 

 blight does not begin in the flower, but that the dying of 

 the flower is the result of the blight in the wood. 



Experience has proved to us that in orchards where 

 bees work extensively on the blossoms, there is the least 

 trouble with blight, and in cases where there were no bees 

 the trees were infested by blossom-blight. 



I will not discuss the question longer in this paper, but 

 I think it's very unwise for authorities to publish such theo- 

 ries in magazines (which every one looks upon as good 

 authority), before it is proved beyond reasonable doubt 

 that bees are guilty of carrying blight. 



Winona Co., Minn. 



Adulteration of Honey in Minnesota. 



Read at the Minnesota State Convention, Dec., 11102, 



BY G. L. DINGMAN, 



State Dairy and Food Cominissi07ier. 



YOUR Secretary wrote me a letter asking what had been 

 done by the State Dairy and Food Department in pre- 

 venting frauds and adulterations in honey. Briefly, I 

 will try to answer these questions. 



During the two years of the incumbency of the present 

 department there have been analyzed in our laboratory 112 

 samples. These were gathered by our inspectors from all 

 parts of the State in their regular work. The results of 

 these analyses are as follows : 



Samples adulterated with cane-sugar. . . .8 



" " " glucose 7 



" Imitation honey 2 



Total illegal samples 17 



Pure honey 95 



This is indeed a good showing, and when the investi- 

 gation shows that not one of these illegal samples came 

 from any apiary in Minnesota, the result is more than grati- 

 fying. The large number of California, or so-called Cali- 

 fornia, honeys, that have been sold by the trade of the 

 State, has been nearly driven out of the market by the 

 superior product of the Northwest. The coarse, rank taste 

 of these grades of honeys has never been pleasing to the 

 palate of the consumer, and when a sufficient supply of 

 such honey as the flowers of our own State yield to the 

 little toilers, which store it up for our delicacy, can be pro- 

 duced to meet the supply of demand, these coarser products 

 must find a less-favored market to meet with any sale. 



A very large percent of strained honey has been sent to 

 the commission dealers of the Twin Cities, especially during 

 the past winter, and they, fearing from the extremely large 

 amount that the product might not be pure, have submitted 

 many samples to our chemists for analyses with the invari- 

 able record of the legality of the article. Several samples 

 have, however, come to us from Wisconsin that have been 

 found to contain sucrose. The producer, however, has 

 claimed that we were in error, but when the matter was 

 closely investigated it was found, as he claimed, the bees 

 had been fed largely on cane-sugar, and this proved our 



