166 



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PRIZE ESSAY. 



Extracted Honey — Its Produc- 

 tion and Oeneral Use. 



Written lor the American SceJoximal 



BY ,T. F. LATHAM. 



With the steadilj- increasing utiliza- 

 tion of lioney in the many useful 

 branches of the arts to which it is ap- 

 plicable, and for which no other pro- 

 duct of human industry is so well 

 adapted, it is becoming more apparent 

 every year that, to meet the public de- 

 mand, it must be supplied to the trade 

 freed from the comb — extracted. In 

 no other condition can hone}" be made 

 to fill the numerous places, in response 

 to the present rapidly-developing uses 

 as an aliment ; or the many ways by 

 which its virtues prove to be service- 

 able, medicinally, for which it is 

 needed. 



In order to bring extracted honej' to 

 the notice of the general public, many 

 obstacles that now retard its introduc- 

 tion, require attention from the pro- 

 ducer. Although it is an established 

 fact, that honey extracted from the 

 comb can be obtained by the bee- 

 keeper at less expense than honey in 

 the comb, the fact is no less prominent 

 that the present trade excess of the 

 latter over the former, is detrimental 

 to the sale of extracted honey, as it 

 leads the uninformed consumer to con- 

 clude that honey out of the comb is 

 intrinsicall}' less valuable than honey 

 in the comb ; and that, too, in tlie face 

 of the fact that the constituent ele- 

 ments of honey are alike in both con- 

 ditions. 



In working for honey that is to be 

 exti-acted, and in ulacing it upon the 

 market within the reach of the con- 

 sumer, it should be the first and para- 

 mount object of the producer to so 

 mold his efforts as to I'esult in obtain- 

 ing and supplying his patrons a first- 

 class article. 



Honey is very susceptible to any 

 flavor foreign to its own, and when 

 mixed with the other substances, of 

 even a .slightly unpleasant flavor, the 

 compound will be ver}' nauseating to 

 a delicate taste. This leads to a nice 

 discrimination, making it an important 

 preliminarj' object to supply the bees 

 with receptacles that are free from 

 any odor that will impart a dileterious 

 effect to the nectar that may be stored 

 in them. Combs that are allowed to 

 get moldy, or those that have been 

 .stored away with honey adhering to 

 them (as is often done after extracting 

 at the close of the season), and allowed 



to remain until put upon the hives for 

 use again, are apt to be in an improper 

 condition for receiving the nectar that 

 is to make the limpid honey that should 

 be drawn from the extractor. 



SEPARATING THE VARIETIES OF HONEY. 



Another item of importance, is that of 

 keeping the honey from various blooms 

 separate, or as nearly so as it is con- 

 venient to do. Perhaps this statement 

 may be deemed somewhat extreme by 

 those of extensive experience, but 

 nevertheless I am prone to the belief 

 that the pungent flavor which honey 

 retains from the apple, golden-rod and 

 aster blooms, when mixed with the 

 delicate-flavored honey from the rasp- 

 berry and white clover, make a com- 

 pound inferior in flavor to either of 

 the former when separate ; the mixing 

 seems to develop a condition, which 

 for want of a more precise term, may 

 be called ferment, culminating in a 

 substance that but slightly resembles 

 either of its components in flavor, 

 odor, or, eventuall)', gravitj-. 



RIPENINfi EXTRACTED HONEY. 



If it is desirable that honey should 

 retain the rich, mellow flavor so agree- 

 able to a i-efined taste when used as an 

 aliment, the ripening process merits a 

 special share of attention from the pro- 

 ducer. The contrast experienced in 

 eating a ripe, rich, mellow apple, and 

 one of the same kind of fruit at the 

 plucking, is very striking ; but however 

 rough this comparison, it is a very fair 

 similitude of what maj' be experienced 

 in eating hone}' as soon as it is capped, 

 and after it has remained on the hive, 

 in bright combs, six months or a year. 

 It is not to be inferred from the fore- 

 going that the bee-keeper can allow 

 his honey to remain on the hives half 

 a year, or more, to receive a thorough 

 ripening, but the fact is none the less 

 apparent, that an improvement is en- 

 hanced by so doing, that adds to its 

 eating qualities. 



The richest honey that I ever used, 

 was obtained from the broken combs 

 of a small after-swarm that was hived 

 in a box, and united with a queenless 

 colony in the fall, by placing over the 

 brood-apartment, and transferred the 

 spring following. Others who were 

 so fortunatg as to get a taste of that 

 honey, were enthusiastic in its praise. 



BROOD-COMBS FOR EXTRACTING. 



Brood-combs containing pollen are not 

 fit receptacles for nectar that is des- 

 tined for honey that is to be extracted. 

 Pollen that remains in the brood-apart- 

 ment two seasons, is apt to decay, and 

 when in an advanced stage of decom- 

 position, it imparts a very dis.agreeable 

 flavor to honey, when thrown from the 

 combs, and mixed in the extractor ; 

 even to a degree that it would be difli- 



cult to decide a use to which it might 

 be applied ; it certainly is not a food 

 suitable for man, neither is it fit for 

 bees at any season of the year, al- 

 though it may be fed in small quanti- 

 ties at a time, after having been boiled, 

 without injurious eS'ects, when they 

 can fly frequently. 



R.adically speaking, it is an unwise 

 procedure to put honey on the market, 

 that has been extracted from the 

 brood-co/nbs, in receptacles that will 

 carry it to the table of the consumer — 

 very few there are who will declare it 

 a food " fit for the gods," after once 

 testing its merits. If the " out" quali- 

 ties of extracted honey do not rank 

 among the extremes, it is as good for 

 some medicinal and manufacturing 

 purposes, or even the minor grades 

 of cooking, as the better qualities. 



HONEY-RECEPTACLES FOR MARKETING. 



After extracting and ripening, comes 

 the preparation of honey for the mar- 

 ket, bringing to the front the choice of 

 .shipping receptacles. Here, again, 

 care must be exercised that the fine 

 qualities of superior honey are not 

 injured. 



Glass is the best material in which 

 edible honey can be put. Honey-re- 

 ceptacles are the acme of perfection 

 when made of glass. 



Tin may be superior to glass for 

 shipping purposes when quantity, and 

 safety of contents are considered ; but 

 there is a chance for the contents to be 

 injured by contact with the metal sur- 

 face, when the surface contains more 

 lead than tin — the acid in the honey 

 and the lead in the tin (?) not com- 

 pounding an agreeable assimilation. 

 Pei'haps some of the reported bad ef- 

 fects experienced from eating ex- 

 tracted honey may have originated 

 from that source. Who knows? There 

 are chemists in the bee-keeping ranks 

 eminently qualified to investigate this 

 point to a certainty, and should it 

 prove a reality, it seems that caution 

 should be exercised, when preparing 

 honey for shipment, to guard against 

 inadvertencies from that direction. 



Extracted honey can be kept two 

 years — perhaps longer — in unwaxed 

 kegs, made of staves riven from the 

 heart of white-oak, without any per- 

 ceptible change in its flavor. It seems 

 that other woods — the heart of old 

 growth spruce, poplar, and Norway 

 pine, of the North ; tulip and cypress 

 of the Middle and Southern States — in 

 short, any kind of lumber that will not 

 impart its flavor to any liquid coming 

 in contact with it, or produce acidnla- 

 tion (as would result in using red-oak, 

 birch, or maple, without waxing), 

 would meet the same purpose. 



Honey put into receptacles that are 

 sour, is sure to absorb the acid, cans- 



