1894. 



THE . 1 MERIt '. 1 V BEE- KEEPER. 



23 



rape, mustard, and other allied plants, 

 has a tendency to hasty granulation, 

 while all rich and ripe samples will in 

 time result as above mentioned. Auy 

 experienced hand can tell at first 

 Bight the density, condition, and even 

 the colour a granulated sample of 

 honey was while in the liquid state. 

 Poor samples, as a rule, refuse to do 

 more than partly granulate. The 

 more liquid portion rises to the sur- 

 face, and in time will undergo fer- 

 mentation, while the heavier part 

 sinks to the bottom and forms into 

 large, coarse granules, mixed with 

 watery particles. Such honey tends 

 to spoil the market. 



From a commercial point of view 

 the popular prejudice which has -so 

 long existed against granulated hon- 

 ey is a more serious trouble to con- 

 tend with. The inexperienced, in nine 

 cases out of ten, prefer to buy the 

 liquid to the granulated sample, think- 

 ing that, in order to change the honey 

 to the latter form, adulteration has 

 been practiced. Bee-keepers, especi- 

 ally those on a large scale, are aware 

 of this wide- spread notion, and, both 

 in this country and elsewhere, label 

 their jars, stating distinctly that 

 granulation is a sure sign of genuine- 

 ness. 



Notwithstanding this, the public 

 and dealers in honey, the latter of 

 whom might be expected to know bet- 

 ter, prefer to have the honey liquid. 

 Some will go so far as to say that 

 granulation is the outcome of adulte- 

 ration. In proof of this, during the 

 pasl season I have had one such ex- 

 perience. In the early part of the sea- 

 son 1 sold a quantity of honey in jars 

 to a < rlasgow firm. When delivered to 



them, or rather when it was Bent off, 

 it was newly bottled and liquid, and 

 in a few days was granulated hard and 

 solid. They wrote to me announc- 

 ing the fact, stating that they thought 

 it was not pure. 1 tried by every ar- 

 gument to convince them that such 

 was not the case, and at the same time 

 offered to forfeit the consignment if 

 one ounce of what they had got from 

 me was anything but pure honey. 1 

 further suggested that the honey 

 should be analysed, and, if impure, I 

 would pay the expense of analysing 

 it. If, on the other hand, it was what 

 I represented it to be, pure honey, they 

 would have to pay the cost. Accord- 

 ingly, one jar was divided into three 

 parts ; one was sent to the analyst, 

 the firm kept one, and I got the third. 

 In a few days the announcement came 

 back that "the sample consists of pure 

 and genuine honey." This same firm 

 has bought large lots of honey from 

 me for years, but the above incident 

 tends to show the difficulties that bee- 

 keepers have to contend with in sell- 

 ing off their honey crop. Most of us 

 older hands know that it is quite an 

 easy matter to retard, if not altogether 

 prevent, granulation entirely ; but one 

 shrinks from the idea of having to re- 

 sort to this practice, preferring to 

 allow all pure honey to take its natur- 

 al course. — Jl . M . in B. B. J. 



CONSIDEB THE LOCAXJTY. 



There is no question that in a great 

 many cases the prevention of swarm- 

 ing is desirable. In out-apiaries and 

 in the home-apiary when the owner 

 must be away during the middle of 

 the day, there is no doubt of the de- 

 sirability of preventing -warming. 

 Whether more honey will be secured' 



