1186 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



there was room above in which to store the 

 surplus honey that was brought in, giving 

 her practically all the space below; and I 

 would, therefore, suggest that you proceed 

 with the view of getting only honey in the 

 extracting-combs, endeavoring to keep the 

 queen in the lower hive. In this way you 

 keep down increase, and at the same time 

 get both comb and extracted honey.— Ed.] 



CANDIED HONEY. 



Cutting Up Large Chunks of Honey into Bricks 



Not a Success; a Fancy Article Not 



Wanted. 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



When I read of your success with brick 

 honey last spring 1 decided to experiment 

 on a few cans of granulated alfalfa honey, 

 which I had carried over to supply my local 

 trade. I bought some butter- wrappers, and 

 with the help of my father we went to work 

 to reduce those solid blocks of honey to a 

 more desirable shape. One wire, with a 

 strong lever, was too slow and dauby, so we 

 fastened several wires to a strong stick just 

 under the work-bench. The wires were 

 passed up through a crack in the bench. 

 The loose ends of the wires were fastened 

 to a strong 2X4 cross-piece. About twenty 

 inches apart, under the bench, we attached 

 the ends of two strong levers about five feet 

 long, and to these we attached the cross- 

 piece. Next we made a grooved (or, rath- 

 er, slotted) board on which to place the 

 block of honey. We cut the can from a six- 

 ty-pound block of honey, placed the honey 

 on the slotted board, adjusted the wires and 

 slotted spacers and applied the pressure to 

 the levers, but it did not cut. 



Next we attached a grain- sack full of 

 stones to each lever, and patiently waited. 

 If we had done no more we might have been 

 waiting yet. The wires cut a little way into 

 the upper corners of the honey. Finally we 

 added our own weight to tfie levers, and the 

 wires that did not break at last went through 

 the honey. But such a sticky, messy job! 

 First, taking off the can mashes some hon- 

 ey; then the wires mash some, not leaving 

 a clean-cut surface as does the Aikin bag 

 when removed from our honey; then the 

 paddle to separate the cakes does more dam- 

 age, and then the wrapping. 



If you have alfalfa honey that is so easily 

 cut with that $50 machine it must have 

 qualities different from ours. I'd rather 



{)our the honey into the 20-oz. cartons and 

 et it harden there. Wouldn't that be the 

 easier and better way, for the producer at 

 least? 



But our home market will not pay a fancy 

 price for a fancy article of honey — not one 

 in one thousand. Aikin bags, tin cans, etc., 

 sell best here. I still have a few bottles 

 left, and have to sell fancy bottled honey as 

 cheap as in bags or cans, and that means a 

 loss. 



As to the filthy method of setting up a 

 block of honey in a grocer's window, and 

 cutting off chunks with a wire— think of the 

 unwholesome dust (tobacco, consumption, 

 etc.) it must gather; nor will oitr merchants 

 go to any such trouble. Almost every thirg 

 eatable is in cans or cartons or glass, and 

 the trade in bulk goods in open barrels or 

 boxes is rightly becoming a thing of the 

 past. 



Meridian, Idaho. 



[It is barely possible that your Idaho al- 

 falfa is not adapted to cutting up into 

 bricks, but I hardly think so. We have cut 

 up Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada 

 alfalfa with equal facility. Of course, it is 

 well to bear in mind that some alfalfa can- 

 died honey is too soft and some too hard. It 

 should be as hard and firm as cold butter. 

 When of the right consistency honey will 

 cut up into nice bricks, which, when wrap- 

 ped in paraffine paper, look decidedly appe- 

 tizing and attractive. 



Pardon me, friend Atwater; but from a 

 reading of your article I do not think 3 ou 

 followed directions. In the first place, you 

 can not use any thing but the very best pia- 

 no wire of 20 gauge. If the wire is much 

 larger than this it will mash the honey; if 

 smaller it will break. 



In the second place, a home-made extem- 

 porized arrangement, such as you describe, 

 would hardly give you opportunity for a fair 

 test. While you can cut up a can of alfalfa 

 honey with a single wire by hand, yet the 

 results are more satisfactory when we use a 

 regular butter-cutter that is made especially 

 for the dairy trade. These are made of 

 heavy cast iron, with all the moving parts 

 very carefully machined. The wires can be 

 stretched to the right tautness by means of 

 adjustable screws, and right here is a very 

 important point. I feel satisfied that, if 

 you will try it again, using a regular dairy 

 butter-cutter, you will succeed. But you 

 must go at it, not with the idea that you are 

 going to fail, but that you will have suc- 

 cess. If you do not care to go to the ex- 

 pense of buying such a machine outright, 

 rent one and we will pay any reasonable 

 rental price providing you will send us a re- 

 port of the experiment. 



The Aikin honey-bags are all right, and 

 for a certain class of trade they are the 

 thing; but for the fancy trade, honey put up 

 in brick form in gilded cartons is "the 

 thing" also. Our bricks sell in the cities 

 at 30 cts. apiece, and there is good money in 

 them.— Ed.] 



»«»»« 



CAN ANY WAX-PRESS GET ALL THE WAX 

 OUT OF SLUMGUM? 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



In the advertisements of the Root Com- 

 pany's wax-press it is said that it secures all 

 the wax. May I be permitted to express my 

 dissent from that claim? No compression 

 will force from a mass of such material as 

 that of old combs all the fluids contained 



