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PRIZE ESSAY. 



Extracted Honey — Its Flavor, 

 and Hoiv to Secure It. 



Written for the American BceJuumal 



BY T. F. BINGHAM. 



The first requisite of extracted honey 

 is that peculiar to all fine honey, 

 whether extracted or in the comb, 

 namely, delicious flavor. It is not be- 

 cause honey is so sweet, that honey is 

 so sought after, neither because so 

 beautiful, but from its peculiar flavor. 



It is true that those buying honey 

 buy that which is the lighter in color, 

 but the color is used as a number, 

 trade-mark, or brand, the association 

 of which with the taste of the pur- 

 chaser is linked that most fascinating 

 odor and combination of acids and 

 sweets upon which is based true epi- 

 curean taste. 



Once master of those qualities and 

 combinations found alone in honey, 

 a high degree of excellence in the 

 commodity can alone maintain its 

 lofty position as a dainty luxury of the 

 most appetizing kind. 



It is not too much to state that honey, 

 as honey, does not always meet the 

 gasti'ic delight anticipated by the pur- 

 chaser. It is this disappointment that 

 has brought extracted honey to its 

 market rate, and widened the measure 

 of values between honey in the comb 

 and combless honey. 



Having touched at a few salient 

 points relative to the reasons why 

 honey holds a higher market value 

 than sugar — that merely sweet com- 

 modity, so much prized because it has 

 nothing to render it more than a culi- 

 nary necessity — it may be well to state 

 that while sugar is simply sweet, that 

 is its greatest recommendation as 

 an essential in cooker}'. Had it flavor, 

 however delicate or peculiar to itself, 

 yet no greater or more delicate than 

 the choicest honey in the comb, it 

 would be objectionable as a sweetener. 



The delicate flavor of that most- 

 prized table luxury — tea — would be 

 obliterated by the stronger flavor of 

 the sugar, and tea would become to 

 all as it now is to the older users of it 

 — only prized when not sweetened. 

 Thus it will be observed that only the 

 deodorized or granulated sugars are 

 used to sweeten cofl'ee or tea. 



With the foregoing carefully kept in 

 mind, the easy analj'sis of those pecu- 

 liarities found in the choicest comb 

 honey, which exalt it so high in the 

 realm of pure and healthful luxuries, 

 will be at once understood. I shall 



not attempt to explain in detail why 

 "extracted honey" as a phrase has 

 failed to touch the public heart as a 

 term or phrase signifying honey ; I 

 do not mean to be understood that 

 " extracted honey " is adulterated, or 

 that it ever has been, but that, as a 

 rule, without adulteration it signally 

 fails to make for itself a perennial 

 market. 



Careful eftbrt has led me to regard 

 the extracted-honey market as an ap- 

 pendage due to comb honey, which 

 has, in spite of every and all eftbrts, 

 maintained in the public mind a reali- 

 zation of the old and oft-repe»ted quo- 

 tation — " Sweeter than honey and the 

 honey-comb." 



To those not expert in the kinds or 

 varieties of honey, a clear and distinct 

 conception of it cannot reasonably be 

 supposed to exist, hence the easy and 

 natural confidence reposed in that 

 sweet word " honey !" 



While the innocent purchaser does 

 not feel that he has been imposed upon 

 or deceived in his purchase, he does 

 not fail to realize that either honey 

 differs, or the tastes of its devotees 

 dift'er widely from his. 



I will now use a parallel industry 

 and some of its methods, to illustrate 

 in part how this thing that we have so 

 long tried to show is not strained 

 honej', does not help us to explain. 

 The cane-planters of Louisiana under- 

 stand perfectly well what portion of 

 the blue cane makes the refined sugar ; 

 also that the very hour and moment 

 that the sweet juice is pressed from the 

 air-tight stalk, that juice must be 

 boiled, else it will yield very little re- 

 fined sugar. 



The careful analysis of the expert 

 methods of maple sugar manufactur- 

 ing, demonstrates how valuable is 

 time, and how fatal the exposure of 

 sap before boiling, in the production 

 of a strictly No. 1 sugar. Yet we no- 

 tice bee-writers advocating the extract- 

 ing of honey before the combs are 

 sealed, and exposing this "green" 

 nectar in open vessels to undergo 

 evaporation without heat in order to 

 ripen. What would a sugar maker 

 say of such advice ? What sage has 

 succeeded in finding out in what re- 

 spect the juice of flowers dift'ers from 

 the juice of the cane or the sap of the 

 maple ? 



I assume without fear of coutrover- 

 tion.that until the same rational methods 

 are brought to bear upon the produc- 

 tion and management of combless 

 honey, that obtains in the management 

 of cane and maple sugars, there will 

 remain the same reasonable distaste 

 for " extracted honey," and the same 

 futile eflbrt to show that extracted or 

 fluid honey is not "strained honey," 

 that has clung to the liquid article 



ever since the invention of the ex- 

 tractor. 



Musicians sometimes have recourse 

 to a little simple instrument to enable 

 them to judge of tone, or to place 

 their voice or instrument in the proper 

 key; if those, who wish to determine 

 accurately' the quality of combless 

 honey, will obtain a choice one-pound 

 section of clover hone)- — all sealed — 

 and after taking it from the section 

 pare oft' thatpoi-tion of the comb which 

 joins the section on all four edges, so 

 as to remove every possibh' unsealed 

 cell ; then place the remaining comb 

 in a thin, clean strainer-cloth, and 

 hang in a warm place until the whole 

 is warmed to a point at which the 

 honey will run freely, and then crush 

 the comb and press out the honey at 

 once, they will have a test or " tuning- 

 fork " by which to judge of the char- 

 acter and flavor of combless honey. 

 If, then, it should be desired to keep 

 or preserve for future reference this 

 standard, place it in a vial which it 

 will completely fill, cork tightly, and 

 place in a cool, dark place. 



Now, whenever a doubt exists as to 

 whether liquid honey is as good as it 

 is possible to have it, sample it beside 

 the test, and decide by the standard. 

 I need not say that such honey would 

 soon make for itself a market, and do 

 away with the cry of adulteration, so 

 much used in connection with ex- 

 tracted honey ; neither that the market 

 could be glutted with it. Every bee- 

 keeper knows that there could be but 

 one answer. 



By the above, first, I trust that it 

 will be understood that good combless 

 honej' cannot be obtained bj' extract- 

 ing nectar or unsealed honey ; second, 

 that combless honey, if properly man- 

 aged, is simply separated from the 

 comb, and in no sense ditlerent ; and 

 third, that the degradation of nomi- 

 nally extracted honey in demand and 

 price, is due to its injudicious treat- 

 ment. 



Abronia, Mich. 



FOUL BROOD. 



Bulletin by the IVicliigan Agri- 

 cultural College. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



By special request of several bee- 

 keepers, I am led to issue a bulletin 

 upon this the most serious malady that 

 ever attacks bees in this or an}' other 

 country. The problem of safe winter- 

 ing, once so important, is now solved, 

 and the intelligent apiarist feels no 

 longer any dread of winter's cold. 

 Foul brood is now the bee-keeper's 

 terror. Like the cholera — a disease 

 which is close akin to foul brood — 



