1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



591 



MARKETING HONEY. 



An Address Given by R. F. Holtermann, Brant- 

 ford, Ontario, at the Bee-keepers' Con- 

 vention Held at Syracuse, 

 N. Y., Jan. 14, 1904. 



A good article for sale is more than half 

 the battle in marketing. An article spoiled 

 in production can, with difficulty only, get a 

 market, and which it can never hold. 



It is better to know how to get an article 

 in proper shape for market than to know 

 only what to do to bring it before the atten- 

 tion of the buyer. Both, however, are of 

 great importance. Honey must be in the 

 right condition, and then distributed in the 

 right way. To give to the people in each 

 market what they want sounds well to the 

 unthinking man; but to carry this policy out 

 means to stop all so-called world's progress. 

 Better methods are desirable, and any way 

 of marketing which can be shown to be to 

 the advantage of the trade and the consum- 

 er should be brought forward, and the pub- 

 lic educated to see the advantage. 



At present, honey generally is produced in 

 about as unsystematic a way, and with 

 about as poor results, as butter was twenty 

 or more years ago— here a few pounds and 

 there a few pounds, without uniformity in 

 production or handling, and much of it 

 injured; for in its various stages its quality 

 can be affected as much as butter. Too 

 much of it leaves the hive when it is really 

 not yet honey, but when it is still in the 

 stages between nectar and honey. Again, 

 that grand quality in desirable table honey, 

 aroma, which helps to hold and develop our 

 market, is practically lost sight of by our 

 bee-keepers. Their method of handling, 

 and the lack of speaking of it, proves this. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF EXTRACTING AND BOT- 

 TLING SOON AFTER TAKING FROM 

 THE HIVE; FROTH OF NO 

 CONSEQUENCE. 



I have 400 colonies of bees, and out of one 

 county alone last season I took some 30,000 

 pounds of honey; yet with all our rush we 

 extract; and before the honey has lost the 

 warmth of the hive we strain out any par- 

 ticles of wax and the like, and then immedi- 

 ately store the honey in vessels which can 

 be tightly sealed as soon as filled. If any 

 one asks me about the froth, let me answer, 

 froth on well-ripened honey is only, to 

 honey, what the beaten white is to the 

 white of an egg. They are the same, and 

 produced in principle in the same way. 



Next, honey contains formic acid. This is a 

 valuable medicine, and retards and even 

 destroys the growth of unwholesome germs. 

 In storing, this should be considered. Honey 

 can never remain long in contact with tin 

 without this acid acting on the metal. The 

 percentage of formic acid varies. 1 have 

 had samples of honey analyzed, "finding 100 

 per cent more in some samples than others. 



THE DANGER OF INJURING THE FLAVOR OF 



HONEY BY HEATING, EVEN IN 



LIQUEFYING. 



Inferior goods not only hinder the sale of 

 similar goods, but they injure the demand 

 for a good article. One becomes an opponent 

 of the other; one neutralizes the effect of 

 the other, and of this phase of the market 

 we can say, a house divided against itself can 

 not stand. So far as I know, all (or almost 

 all of our northern honey has the peculiar 

 characteristic of becoming solid, crystalliz- 

 ing, or, as it is commonly called, granulat- 

 ing. The more delicately flavored honey 

 such as clover, even in expert hands, rarely 

 goes through the process of liquefying with- 

 out perceptible deterioration in its delicate 

 flavor and aroma. This may be disputed by 

 those of less sensitive palate, yet remains 

 true, and will stand the test. None of us, 

 however, are likely to deny that, when the 

 average retailer with little or no experience 

 in this direction, undertakes to liquefy 

 honey, evil results are almost a foregone 

 conclusion. It may be fairly good, but too 

 often the "bloom" has departed. That the 

 change which honey undergoes by overheat- 

 ing is important, the polariscope proves. 

 Long-heated honey not granulating tends 

 also to show that the nature is changed; its 

 color, flavor, and aroma, as we know, may 

 also be lost. Perfectly grained honey is also 

 a safeguard against adulteration. Under 

 the circumstances a system of marketing 

 extracted honey which would overcome the 

 necessity of passing honey through the dan- 

 gerous stage of liquefying would be an ad- 

 vantage. In the production of honey we 

 should guard against the mixing, in extract- 

 ing, of inferior and better grades of honey. 

 In almost every case it results in a reduced 

 total return of dollars. Second-class honey 

 should be sold as such, and kept separate. 



THE NATURE OF HONEY; THE IMPORTANCE 

 OF RETAINING THE AROMA. 



To produce and sell honey intelligently we 

 must understand its nature. Honey is more 

 than a sweet. Sole leather and beef-steak, 

 with our present knowledge of chemistry, 

 are alike, yet it would be a difficult matter 

 to convince even a hungry man of that fact. 

 Within the last two years Prof. Shutt, of 

 the Dominion Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 

 Canada, has discovered that the past meth- 

 ods of analyzing honey are faulty, and we 

 may reasonably hope that the stage of per- 

 fection has not yet been reached. Honey 

 has, in addition to water, saccharine matter, 

 and formic acid, a volatile oil distilled by 

 the blossom which secretes the nectar. The 



