(ilvEANINOS IN BEE CULTURE. 



321 



THE GRANULATION OF ALFALFA HONEY. ETC. 



LACK OK lUIDY AND rUOPKR M ANII'ULATION 



(ArsK OK gr.\nui..vtion; ai.kai.fa and 



SWKKT CLOVKK THK IIONKV- PliODlCI.Nd 

 ri.ANT.S OF THE FUTUKK 



Bii Emcrgnu Tmilor Ahbntt. 



I have read with considerable interest Mr. 

 Aikin's article on alfalfa honey; but as his ex- 

 perience and mine are not in full harmony, I 

 wish to make a few remarks on the subject. 



There are some things which occur under the 

 operation of what we call natural laws with 

 that unerring certainty which enables us to say 

 positively that they are so and so. but the gran- 

 ulation of honey is not one of them. The read 

 er will more thoroughly understand what I 

 mean when I say that I now have in my posses- 

 sion alfalfa honey of last year's crop which has 

 shown no signs of granulating. I have had al- 

 falfa honey from the same party. Mr. Oliver 

 Foster, of Los Animas, Col., for a number of 

 years, and my experience with it has been in- 

 variably the same. 



I know that, generally speaking, alfalfa 

 honey granulates very quickly; but 1 am in- 

 clined to think that this is due more to the way 

 the honey is handled that\,to any inherent ten- 

 dency in the nectar of the alfalfa plant. I am 

 well aware that there is a wide variation in the 

 body and appearance of the honey found in the 

 open market which is known as " alfalfa." I am 

 not inclined to think this difference results from 

 the locality in which the nectar is produced. I 

 think it was Dr. Miller who offered the sug- 

 gestion that alfalfa from different localities 

 might show different characteristics; but I 

 hardly think this is true if the honey is abso- 

 lutely pure alfalfa, and is handled in the same 

 way. I think that the variation in color is due 

 almost, if not entirely, to the fact that the nec- 

 tar of other flowers has been mixed with that of 

 alfalfa. The " body" and flavor of the honey is 

 due largely to the method of handling it. Es- 

 pecially is this true of the "body," a very im- 

 portant factor in the make- up of a fine quality 

 of extracted honey. I am also of the opinion 

 that the tendency to granulation is largely due 

 to a 1 ck of "body." This is strikingly illus- 

 trated in the basswood honey of my own State, 

 when it is thrown out of the combs beforeit has 

 been thoroughly ripened by the bees. In a 

 word. I incline to the opinion that the great 

 tendency to granulate shown by extracted alfal- 

 fa honey is due to improper manipulation, and 

 I would advise the other extracted-honey pro- 

 ducers of Colorado to take a few lessons from 

 Mr. Booster, and to work for qiudity rather than 

 quantity, and then they will not say that all al- 

 falfa honey will granulate In a very short time. 

 I know from experience that it will not. 



I do not think there is any finer honey in the 

 world than extracted alfalfa when it is properly 



handled from start to finish. It is the only 

 honey that I have ever seen that can be used 

 for general sweetening purposes without spoil- 

 ing the flavor and desirable qualities of some 

 articles of food into which it is put. Especially 

 is this true of all drinks, such as tea or coffee, 

 which, by the way, I seldom use. 



I look upon alfalfa and another member of the 

 same family, sweet clover, as the honey- produc- 

 ing plants of the future. The honey produced 

 from the nectar of these two plants is very 

 much alike, as is also their habit of growth, 

 even though one is a biennial and the other a 

 perennial. Opinions seem to differ about as 

 widely as to the merits of sweet-clover honey as 

 they do as to alfalfa; and I am inclined to think 

 that this also results from a mixture of the 

 nectar of other flowers with that of melilot. 

 All of the pure sweet-clover honey that I have 

 ever seen (and I have had considerable experi- 

 ence with it) has been uniformly of the best 

 quality. My experience has been confined en- 

 tirely to the honey from the white variety. 

 There may be some difference in the honey pro- 

 duced from the yellow or blue varieties. The 

 former runs wild in Great Britain, and we are 

 told that the "herbage is relished by cattle." 

 The latter is a native of Africa, but is cultivat- 

 ed in Europe, and is used in Switzerland for 

 flavoring a certain kind of cheese. 



I apprehend that the two plants are some- 

 times confounded, as there is also a yellow- 

 flowered variety of alfalfa, which is a biennial 

 the same as melilot. The name, Bokhara clo- 

 ver, being applied to it, tends to confirm me in 

 this opinion, as lucerne is extensively cultivated 

 in that country, and I find no mention of sweet 

 clover as one of its products. 



St. Joseph, Mo. 



[The alfalfa honey that has been produced 

 for us by W. K. Ball, of Reno, Nev., has been 

 no more inclined to granulate than any other 

 honey. In fact. I believe I should have said 

 that it was less so. The honey that we have 

 received has been of heavy body and of extra 

 tine quality.— Ed. J 



SUPPOSED GRANULATION OF ALFALFA COMB 

 HONEY. 



THOSE HONEY CARAMELS OF DR. MILLER'S; 



CREATING A MARKET FOR GRANULATED 



HONEV. 



By F. L. Thompson. 



On page 11.5 Mr. Aikin braces himself for a 

 thumping. I'm not big enough to administer 

 it, but I'd like to ask a few questions. 



Is it not true that there is a marked difference 

 between early and late honey in this respect? 

 Is it not true 'that early alfalfa comb honey, 

 k^pt in a warm dry place, will generally pass 

 the winter without granulating ? Is it not 

 true that early honey constitutes the bulk of 



