THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



745 



extractors were made, and the work- 

 ing of the same. Mr. Ilayhurst said 

 that wax would harden at 90^ or less, 

 before it cakes ; or, in other words, it 

 will not form into a cake unless it is 

 warmer than 90^. 



Mr. Thome insisted that it takes 

 pressure to get all the wax out of old 

 combs, and nave them well warmed 

 up at that. He thinks that a cider- 

 press does the work properly. 



Mr. Leahey washes the cappings, 

 making vinegar of the water, and 

 melts the wax by steam. 



" Is it best to produce comb honey 

 over new colonies with new combs, or 

 over old combs y" 



Mr. Conser could see no difference. 



A. A. Baldwin said that produced 

 over new combs is two shades lighter 

 than that produced over old combs. 



L. W. Baldwin thought that bees 

 colored or soiled the honey in sections 

 by traveling over the old combs to 

 reach the sections. Mr. Gates and 

 Mr. Thorne thought the same. Others 

 thought the bees ought to be taught 

 to wipe their feet before going into 

 the sections, using a door-mat honey- 

 board. 



" Is it best to use combs in the sec- 

 tions, that were built out full in the 

 sections the year before ?" 



Mr. Conser said that it induces the 

 bees to go to work sooner in the sec- 

 tions in the spring and fall, but other- 

 wise he does not think well of it. Mr. 

 Lane favors it somewhat. 



L. W. Baldwin is completely sick of 

 using any more old combs in sections 

 or any old sections, as it will pay 

 better to throw them away completely 

 if more than about half built out. 



J. A. Nelson would melt all old 

 combs in the sections if more than 

 half built out, and burn the sections. 

 If we want to get all first-class honey, 

 although we may not get quite so 

 much honey, it will be of a better 

 quality and bring more money than 

 the larger quantity would in old 

 combs and sections that were carried 

 over. 



EXTRACTED HONEY. 



President Hayhurst would extract 

 the honey when about two-thirds 

 sealed, or even more. The longer the 

 honey stays in the hive the better it 

 is until it is thoroughly ripened. He 

 thinks it still ripens after it is all 

 sealed, if left on the hive, which 

 opinion was generally concurred in. 

 Extracted honey will granulate, and 

 customers want it liquid. He keeps 

 some melted at all times to supply the 

 demand. 



STORING COMB HONEY. 



L. W. Baldwin built a house 12xlG 

 feet, and 10 feet high, two windows 

 curtained, the room ceiled all around 

 and overhead, and he thinks it would 

 be better if it was plastered. He in- 

 tends to paper it with heavy paper 

 inside in the spring. Such a room 

 will not do for severely cold weather, 

 as freezing will crack the combs and 

 cause them to leak. ITis room has 

 screen windows and doors. Comb 

 honey should be kept in a dry, frost- 

 proof room, but not in a cellar, as it 

 will draw dampness. 



Mr. Thorne, who seemed to be the 

 only one who had any Carniolan bees, 

 said that they are quite different from 

 the brown bees in appearance. He 

 does not think that they are much 

 better than the Italian bees. They 

 are hardier, fly earlier and later in 

 the day, but he has not had enough 

 experience with them to speak very 

 positively in regard to the matter. It 

 is quite easy to distinguish them from 

 the black bees. 



No one present had tried open-side 

 sections, but Mr. Coleman had seen 

 some in the city which came with 

 crated honey from Iowa. He thought 

 that the honey appeared to be better 

 built out to tne wood than the other 

 sections were generally. We have 

 honey produced in the neighborhood 

 that cannot be excelled for perfection 

 in all points, and not in open-side 

 sections either. 



The statistics of the honey crop for 

 1886 were taken, and 20 members rep- 

 resented ] ,290 colonies, spring count, 

 and 2,028, fall count ; 59,290 pounds 

 of comb honey, and 30,135 pounds of 

 extracted; and 598 pounds of bees- 

 wax. The largest amount reported 

 was that of L. W. Baldwin, being 

 18,000 pounds of comb honey from 212 

 colonies, spring count. 



The convention udjourned at 5 p.m. 

 until the spring meeting, the time to 

 be arranged by the executive com- 

 mittee. Jas. a. Nelson, Sec. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Taste and Oilor Of Honey. 



J. p. H. BROWN, M. D. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, in answer to 

 Query, No. 313, on page 613, says : " I 

 think this matter needs investiga- 

 tion. I should look about and see if 

 some one had not been careless with 

 the peppermint bottle. We have large 

 peppermint plantations in Michigan, 

 and I have never heard such a state- 

 ment here." 



I do not wish to contradict or take 

 issue with Prof. Cook in regard to the 

 flavor and odor of the honey from the 

 Michigan plantations of peppermint; 

 for the location, the atmosphere, and 

 the soil may be such as to prevent the 

 mint-aroma from being apparent in 

 the honey ; but from an experience of 

 30 years of close observation of mel- 

 liferous plants and their nectarious 

 secretion, I take the aflSrmative of 

 the question, and contend that there 

 are localities where the honey not only 

 takes its flavor and odor from the 

 flowers from which it is gathered, but 

 it also does, to some extent, imbibe 

 the medicinal and toxical (if any) 

 properties of the tissues of the plant. 



The study of these questions can 

 be more successfully prosecuted in a 

 country where there is a variety of 

 honey-producing plants in sufficient 

 quantities to afford the respective 

 varieties of honey large enough to 

 enable the experimenter to arrive at 

 correct conclusions. Therefore I 

 shall confine my remarks to the honey 

 produced in the South. In this re- 

 spect our Southern country is rich in 



such plants, and my data are drawn 

 from familiarity and experience in 

 handling such honey. Hence, in this 

 matter theory is entirely laid aside, 

 and only naked facts presented. 



To prove that the flavor and aroma 

 of honey is dependent upon bloom, I 

 will cite the horse-mint honey of 

 Texas— the goat-mint of Florida and 

 Georgia. In this honey the mint- 

 odor of the plant is very strong, so 

 strong that it is unpalatable to many 

 persons. The poplar honey of the 

 South— from the tulip tree— when first 

 gathered is rank with the perfume of 

 the flower. While it gradually loses 

 its rankness, there is always sufficient 

 left to distinguish the bloom. The 

 same is true of the honey of the bay — 

 magnolia glanca. It is stamped with 

 the odor of the bloom, and its flavor 

 is accordingly individualized. Some 

 kinds of plants impart their odor and 

 flavor more lastingly to the honey 

 than others. After honey granulates 

 and is again reduced to a liquid con- 

 dition, the original odor and flavor is 

 to some extent lost. But all this does 

 not affect the truth of the proposition 

 in question. 



That some few plants impart to the 

 honey, besides the flavor, their me- 

 dicinal and toxical properties is a 

 fact, although denied by a few api- 

 arists whose observation only extends 

 to the familiarity with honey gath- 

 ered from a few plants, such as white 

 clover and basswood, and probably a 

 few others. Illustrations : Helenium 

 tenuifolium (I have heard it called dog- 

 fennel by some persons, but it be- 

 longs to a different order of plants. 

 Dog-fennel is another thing.) is a 

 weed, supposed to be an exotic that is 

 found in places in the South along 

 roadsides. It commences to bloom 

 about the first of August, and keeps 

 on until frost. The leaves have a 

 bitter nauseating taste, and the ex- 

 tract, in the shape of tea, was used to 

 some extent during the war as a sub- 

 stitute fo» quinine in the treatment 

 of chills and fever. The old fields in 

 my neighborhood are covered with it, 

 and in some seasons considerable of 

 this honey is gathered. It is as bitter 

 as the plant, and possesses all the 

 medicinal properties. Of course I 

 cannot sell it, but it does for breeding 

 purposes. 



The yellow jasmine [Oelsemium seni- 

 pervirens) is a climbing, trailing vine 

 which grows in many portions of the 

 South. Thousands of these vines 

 grow within a radius of a mile of my 

 apiary. It has a yellow, trumpet- 

 shaped flower which "blooms in Feb- 

 ruary and early March. The whole 

 plant, including the flower, is poison- 

 ous. A few years ago a neighbor of 

 mine lost a child that was poisoned 

 by chewing the flowers. It died with 

 all the symptoms of gelsemium pois- 

 oning. "The honey possesses all the 

 toxical properties of the tissues of 

 the plant. Fortunately it is only in 

 rare seasons that it yields honey to 

 amount to much. It comes so early 

 that what little is gathered is con- 

 sumed in bleeding, to the detriment 

 of the young bees. The effects of 

 this honey, when eaten, are so well 

 known by old bee-keepers living in 



