1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



181 



even Ihose of light weight, will usually hold 

 honey perfectly. 

 Grand Junction, Colo. 



[Yes, I remember when you were working 

 and expv rimentini;- with extracted honey; 

 and I rcc ill, too, i^me paper packages that 

 3'ou seut us for inspection. At the time, we 

 (father and I) considered them a f^reat ac- 

 quisition, and we thought they would make 

 quite a furore in the bee- keeping world; but 

 perhaps, as is the case with so many other 

 things, the times were not then ripe for it, 

 and it had to go over till the present. 



We have put up candied honey ourselves 

 that was as drj' and hard as any Colorado 

 product I ever saw; but, nevertheless, it is 

 a fact th it a good deal of the honey in the 

 E-ist is not solidifitd entirely. An exami- 

 nation of the bottled honey on the grocery 

 she ves will show this. Then it is true that 

 Eastern honey does not have quite the ten- 

 dencj' to granulate as does the ordinary al- 

 falfa honey of Colorado; and it should, 

 therefore, be handled with some degree of 

 caution. 



We have been putting up candied honey 

 in paper very successfully during the past 

 month; but we find it belter to allow the 

 honey to granulate in a large can so it is 

 about as thick as soft mush, but not so 

 stiff that it \\ill not rua out of a large 

 gate into paper bags. It is allowed to 

 stand in a cold place for about two weeks, 

 when it will be nearl}' as hard as a brick. 

 We have lots of candied honey put up in 

 Aikin paper bags on our shelves, that look 

 as perfect and nice as any put up by iriend 

 Aikin himself. 



The two points that you emphasize, of 

 having well-ripened honey, and then hav- 

 ing it partially candied before being fin.dl- 

 ly put up in receptacles, are very, very im- 

 portant. The same things are emphasized 

 in the symposium in our last issue. 



By the way, friend Green, I wish you 

 would let your light shine as it once did in 

 years gone by. I am sure you are constant- 

 ly picking up new ideas, and the bee-keep- 

 ing world would greatly appreciate it if you 

 wou'd write as you used to do when you 

 held forth in Illinois. I used to count J. A. 

 Green, whea I took editorial charg'e of this 

 journal, as long ago as 1885, as one of the 

 reliable standard writers. I used to put 

 him on a level with Dr. Miller, G. M. Doo- 

 little, and others I might name. I would 

 like to put him in the same honorable crowd 

 now if he would favor us with his presence, 

 even if only on paper. I am sure that a 

 dry climate like that of Colorado can not 

 have dried up all his ideas. — Ed.] 



winter we used three, five, and ten pound 

 lard-pails painted in various bright colors, 

 and stenciled. The honey here nearly al- 

 ways candies; and when it candied, we 

 generally sold most of it that way, pinning 

 on the handle of each bucket one of your 

 honey-leaflets, with price and kind of hon- 

 ey written on it, and also sticking on one of 

 your little "Take Notice" tickets, telling 

 how to liquefy the honey. 



But the pails did not just suit us for can- 

 died honey. We wanted something that 

 would mold the honey into a good shape, 

 and when we first read of the bags we 

 said they were just what we had been 

 wishing for; so we sent to you for a lot 

 of them, and thej' are a grand success. 

 People who like candied honej- say they are 

 the nicest thing they ever saw; "like it 

 better than comb honey;" "didn't know 

 candied honey was so good," and many 

 are learning to use it that way who never 

 used it before. 



One lady in the South, who has honey 

 that does not candy, to w-hom I sent some 

 of the small bags, saj^s, "The houej^ is su- 

 perb; esthetic sweetness; beautiful to the 

 eye, the touch, and the palate; better than 

 the best cream candy." 



The sm iller sacks are used whole on the 

 table. The larger ones people slice right 

 off through the paper, and then peel only 

 the slice, so the rest keeps nicely in the 

 sack. This winter we sell liquid honey 

 only in buckets and cans, and candied hon- 

 ey by the sackful, and we doa't know 

 whether there is anj^ one else now living 

 who can invent nicer packages for extract- 

 ed honey. But our honey candies perfectly 

 dry and hard — not a drop of liquid, sticky, 

 inferior portion to it, and so it doesn't need 

 any draining or refining or purifying; and 

 if we heat it no scum will rise. We make 

 the bees do all that work, and ripen it up 

 to 12 lbs. to the gallon. Our ripest and 

 thickest honey always candies first; and 

 this year we had to hurry to get it into the 

 sacks before it should get too thick to run; 

 and by Oct 22 we had honey by the sack- 

 ful on the market. Mrs M. A. Shepard. 



Barry, Ills. 



[This emphasizes the point made by Mr. 

 Green, that the honey must be thorughly 

 ripened. We should be glad to hear from 

 othtrs who have used the bags. — Ed.] 



BAGS FOR CANDIFD HONEY "a GRAND SUC- 

 CtSS;" EASTKRN HONhY ENTIRELY SUIT- 

 ED FOR THE PURPOSE. 



For years we have been putting up ex- 

 tracted honey mainly in glass in summer — 

 pint and quart Mason jars (sometimes with 

 a piece of comb in also), and in fall and 



HONEY THAT DIDN'T CANDY IN A ZERO 

 TEMPERATURE. 



While liquefying honey this winter out of 

 sixtj'-pound cans to put up in small pack- 

 ages, two cans were neglected and left out 

 in a woodshed where the temperature ran 

 10 below zero. One can of the first extract- 

 ing and one of the last, to my surprise, 

 were not the least bit candied, while all 

 that were kept in a warm room were can- 

 died. Thin I divided both cans, putting 

 half in a warm room and the rest back in 

 the cold. What I put in the warm room soon 

 candied, while that left out in the zero tem- 



