432 



T^mm JEMBMICMK mmm jQiammmi^. 



run their honey to facilitate the work 

 of curing. Whatever the means em- 

 ployed, it should be borne in mind 

 that a high temperature is necessary to 

 rapid ripening. 



There is still another method of 

 curing honey, that I have m5-self prac- 

 ticed with success. This may be de- 

 nominated the " gravitation" method. 

 It consists in storing honey in deep 

 tanks (mine hold from five to seven 

 hundred pounds each, and are about 

 equal in diameter to that of a large- 

 size extractor-can). If these be placed 

 in a warm room in summer (better 

 still, a glass house), and tilled with 

 unripe honey, then covered and left to 

 stand for two or three weeks, it 

 will be found that the water incorpor- 

 ated with the honey will have risen to 

 the surface — the lioney and the water 

 forming two stratums as distinct and 

 well defined as that of oil and water 

 in the same vessel. 



The honey may then be drawn oft" 

 through the faucet below, and the 

 water left remaining in the tank, when 

 it will be found to be no sweeter and 

 no denser than the liquid usually em- 

 ploj-ed in making honey-vinegar, and 

 this is the use to which I put it. It 

 may be dipped out or poured oft" the 

 top of the honey. 



On several occasions I have found a 

 body of water on top of the honey as 

 much as three inches deep, and on 

 passing one's finger down through it, 

 the surface of the honey will be palpa- 

 able and well defined. 



When honej' is first extracted, it is 

 in a liquid state, but under ordinary 

 conditions it will in time change to a 

 semi-solid form. It is then known as 

 '■ candied honey." The length of time 

 that elapses before candying takes 

 place, differs materially in dift'erent 

 seasons, and under dift'erent circum- 

 stances. The .slowness with which 

 honey changes from the liquid to the 

 candied form, and the rapidity with 

 which this takes place at other times, 

 may be attributed to the presence or 

 absence of water in quantities favor- 

 able or unfavorable to the transforma- 

 tion. So also will the grain be coarse 

 or fine. The less water present, the 

 slower the crystallization, while its en- 

 tire absence prevents it altogether. 



"Grape-sugar," of which honey is 

 mainly composed, combines chemically 

 with water in two proportions — mouo- 

 hydrated glucose (C,, K,4 O,o HoO) 

 and bi-hydrated glucose (Cj.j H24 0,2 

 2H2O) ; both of these hydrates lose 

 their crystal water at 212^ (Johnston). 

 It follows that if honey be heated to 

 the boiling point until its water of 

 crystallization be expelled, the air 

 then excluded and kept excluded by 

 sealing it down, no crystallization can 

 take place. This should be borne in 



mind and acted upon when desirable ; 

 by doing so, the bee-keeper will be en- 

 abled to supply his customers with 

 liquid honej' at any season of the j'ear 

 — spring, summer, autumn or winter. 



KEEPING HONEY IN ITS LIQUID FORM. 



To preserve honey in its liquid form, 

 then, it is only necessary to expel the 

 water it contains by the application of 

 heat (this is best done in a water-bath), 

 bottling while hot, and hermetically 

 sealing the bottles. The common pre- 

 serve jars, with their rubber rings and 

 screw tops are admirably adapted for 

 this purpose. 



This is no vague theoiy, but one 

 founded on sound chemical principles, 

 and vei'ified in my own practice and 

 experience. At the International Con- 

 vention held at Brantford, Out., I pro- 

 duced a sample of liquid honey of the 

 season of 1888, that had not been 

 candied, and those who tasted it pro- 

 nounced it excellent. 



A neighbor of mine never permits 

 his honey to candy, by treating as 

 above described, and I have known 

 him to receive orders from people a 

 hundred miles from his home, because 

 the_y get honey from him in its liquid 

 state, while at home they cannot pro- 

 cure it in other than a candied condi- 

 tion. 



RETARDING HONEY-GRANULATION. 



The careful observer will have no- 

 ticed that granulation may be retarded 

 by keeping in an uniforml}' high tem- 

 perature. I believe if honey be kept 

 at say 90^, it will not crystallize so long 

 as this temperature be maintained. 

 The melting point of glucose-sugar 

 crystals is 86^ ; cold weather acceler- 

 ates the candying of hone}' — this is 

 well known, but little understood. It 

 is not the cold that does it, but the 

 condition of the atmosphere incident 

 to cold. In other words, the point of 

 atmo.spheric saturation is then low, in 

 which state the air is in a condition 

 favorable to its giving back its mois- 

 ture to the honey, which has for water 

 a strong affinity. 



Let the skeptic who cures his honey 

 bj- causing it to flow over shallow 

 troughs, or by storing it in shallow 

 tanks, and who refuses to accept this 

 theory, transfer his opei'ations to a 

 cold room, or to the cellar, and he will 

 discover that instead of obtaining cured 

 honey, he will soon have candied 

 honey. 



A colorless syrup is sometimes found 

 floating on top of a body of granulated 

 honey. This liquid is almost pui'e 

 levulose, and its presence is not an 

 evidence of unripeness, but a jsroof 

 that levulose is present in an undue 

 proportion. 



A reference to the analytical table 

 given before, will show that it varies 



in quantity in various samples of 

 honey. It is in itself uncnystallizable 

 glucose, or from its co-constitutent, 

 dextrose. When it is present in honej' 

 in abnormal quantities, a portion of it 

 refuses to combine with the dextrose, 

 and finds its way to the surface, where 

 it floats in the form of the liquid well 

 known to most bee-keepers. At least 

 most of them have had an opportunitj' 

 of seeing it. 



Owen Sound, Out. 



'V^ORKER-CELLS. 



Wliat i$ tiie Correct Size of 

 Worker Cells ? 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY DK. C. C. MILLER. 



I want to begin as I meant to end 

 my last article, by apologizing to Rev. 

 W. P. Faylor for taking him to task as 

 to the measurement of worker-cells 

 when I had not carefully measured 

 them myself. It has been the general 

 thing to speak and write of worker- 

 comb as having five cells to the inch, 

 but if I had looked as carefully as I 

 should, I would have found that at 

 least some of the books are more ex- 

 act. 



But Mr. Cheshire, who is quite 

 minute in calculating the number of 

 cells to the square inch, gives one-fifth 

 of an inch as the diameter of a worker- 

 cell, and I supposed that when he had 

 carefully formulated a table I might 

 rely on it as correct. After I had 

 mailed the article, I happened to find 

 a piece of natural worker-comb, which 

 I measured, and found, as nearly as I 

 could tell, with a common rule, four 

 and four-fifths cells to the inch. I 

 immediately ^wote a card to the edi- 

 tor,saying that I must apologize to Mr. 

 Faylor, and giving the results of my 

 measurements, asking the editor to 

 make a postscript to that efl'ect to my 

 article, if the article was not already 

 printed. As it was a private note, not 

 all intended to be printed, I suppose 

 the editor, in the kindness of his heart, 

 wanted to let me down as lightly as 

 possible, and merely gave the results 

 of my measurements. So, under the 

 circumstances, I can only thank the 

 gentleman for replying as courteously 

 as he has. 



As to not recognizing his standing, I 

 certainly am at a loss to understand 

 how, but I suspect from the context 

 that it was not in affixing the title 

 " Rev." to his name. Now custom, 

 where I have lived, although it makes 

 an M. D. addressed always as Dr., 

 never as Mr., has the opposite I'ule 

 with regard to the elerg}-, and I never 

 heard the Rev. J. Smith addressed as 

 anything else but Mr. Smith, unless he 



