1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



769 



BOARDMAN'S STERILIZER WITH THE GLASS REMOVED; THE SUPPLEMENTARY CANS ARE PLACED 



ON BENCHES OUTSIDE. 



honey stood outdoors during the followine winter, 

 subject to extremes of temperature. If there is any 

 thing- that will make honey granulate it is alternate 

 warming and cooling; and if ever simples of honey 

 were subject to these changes, these were. As we 

 now remember it, the honey remained liquid through- 

 out that winter, and all of the following summer and 

 fall; but about the middle of the following winter it 

 began to show slight traces of granulation. We re- 

 ported the results in Gleanings at the time. 

 *l[Mr. W. A. Selser, of Philadelphia, who was then do- 

 ing a large business in bottling honey i probably the 

 largest in the United States), was very much interest- 

 ed. We learned afterward that he wrote Mr. Board- 

 man, offering him rive hundred dollars in cash if he 

 would tell him the method; but at that time our friend 

 was not ready to make it public, saying he had not yet 

 tested it thoroughly, and wished for more time. 



A few days alter the publication of Mr. Rood's arti- 

 cle on p. 496 we received a letter from Mr. Boardman 

 saying that the plan was the same that he had been 

 using for many years, and then added that, if we 

 would like, he would send us an article describing the 

 whole thing. You may imagine we did not wait for a 

 second invitation. Well, here is the picture and the 

 article, and they will speak for themselves.— Ed. J 



During the last ten years I have kept, per- 

 haps, an average of one hundred colonies of 

 bees, and have run them mostly for extract- 

 ed honey. Nearly all of this I have put in 

 glass packages, sterilized in my solar steriliz- 

 er, and furnished to the grocery trade or sold 

 in my home market. So entirely satisfactory 

 has this lioney been found that I now have 

 very little, if any, other. I am seriously con- 

 templating cutting out comb-honey produc- 

 tion entirely in the near future. 



I started my experiments with the rays of 

 the sun by placing granulated honev in a so- 

 lar wax-extractor to restore it to the liquid 

 state. So well pleased was I with the results 

 that I continued the experiments further. 

 In the mean time I discovered that there 

 were some properties besides heat in the 

 sun's rays which were being imparted to my 

 honey that made it act differently from any 



honey that I had warmed artificially. These 

 results led me to treat liquid honey, as soon 

 as I extracted it, in the same way, and I 

 found that it came out bright and sparkling, 

 with the delicate original flavor unimpaired. 



LAST YEAR'S CROP. 



Some of my honey from last year I carried 

 over. It was in two-quart jars, and all that 

 was thoroughly treated to the sun I found 

 remained bright and sparkling, and in per- 

 fect condition in every way. Some that had 

 been treated hurriedly, on account of a lack 

 of capacity of my sterilizer, crystallized more 

 or less, but I was not disappointed in this. 

 Honey that is often disturbed will soon show 

 a tendency to granulate. Moisture will cause 

 honey to granulate. Some of the jars in the 

 top row in the engraving show this very 

 clearly. A little water got into these jars 

 after the honey was sterilized last year. This 

 honey grained and settled down into the clear 

 liquid, and remained suspended in fantastic 

 shapes. 



In 1902 I sent the editor some samples of 

 honey put up in jelly glasses, and taken from 

 a lot prepared for market the year previous. 

 At that time, as it showed no signs of granu- 

 lating, I supposed it would remain liquid in- 

 definitely. This was put to a strenuous test 

 during the winter, and it granulated as re- 

 ported at the time. I am entirely satisfied, 

 however, from further experiments, that this 

 granulating was caused by frequent handling 

 and disturbing. I have some of this same 

 lot of samples yet that have remained undis- 

 turbed, and there is no granulation, even 

 though seven years have elapsed. 



In the light of these experiments I think 

 it is conservative to say that honey thorough- 

 ly and properly sterilized will remain from 



