80 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



do not mean to say that extracted honey 

 should be without color, like water, for it 

 usually has an amber tint, or it may be 

 quite yellow ; but it should be clear, so that 

 you can read print without trouble, through 

 a jar of it. After it has candied, if it does 

 candy, it should be hard and free from any 

 liquid portion, like that in unripened hon- 

 ey. This thin liquid portion, is the part 

 that usually changes and gives it the bad 

 taste. In fact, if the liquid portion be 

 drained off, as directed under candied 

 HONEY, the solid portion may be melted, 

 and it will be found very nearly like that 

 ripened in the hive. 



HOW TO SELIi EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Get it well ripened, as I have just told 

 you, and then strain it into clean tin cans, 

 into barrels coated with paraffine, or bees- 

 wax or into some utensil that you know 

 will not taint it in the least. Honey is 

 very easily damaged by anything that T\ill 

 mar its pure flavor, or clear transparent 

 appearance to the eye. If you are going 

 to retail it, you can keep it in a tall can, 

 with a honey gate at the bottom. Set it up 

 at a convenient height, and have a pair of 

 cheap scales directly under the gate, on 

 which you can set the bowls, pitchers or 

 pails, that your customers may bring. You 

 can by this means weigh it out to a fraction, 

 without any dripping or daubing. If it is 

 to be sold in honey jars, set your jars in a 

 basin, under the gate. I say in a basin, for 

 unless you are more careful than people 

 generally, you will get some over the sides, 

 or run a jar over, and it is much pleasanter 

 to have it in the basin, than on the table or 

 floor. I have given the preference to the 

 self sealing quart fruit jars, because every 

 body has use for these, and will be likely to 

 keep them. If the jars are purchased by 

 the gross, they can be retailed with the 

 honey, at a slight advance on ttrst cost, full 

 enough usually, to pay all expenses of 

 handling, and a good interest on the use of 

 the money invested. The Mason jar which 

 we generally use, costs $1-5.00 per gi'oss, 

 and we charge for them with the honey, 

 12c. A quart jar holds about 3 lbs. One 

 lb. jars, sell rather better, but we have to 

 sell three times as many and consumers 

 have little or no use for the jars when 

 empty. I think it will be well to keep 

 both kinds on hand, as well as some half lb. 

 tumblers or jelly cups, for the multitudes 

 who want "just a little" for one reason or 

 another. If you commence giving a little 



without any charge, now and then, you will 

 find the demand a severe task on yom- time 

 as M'ell as honey, and if you have these 

 small packages all ready at hand, for 10 or 

 1.5c., you will find a great many will be sold 

 in the course of a year. 



If you wish your honey to keep from can- 

 dying, seal it up hot like fruit, as directed in 

 CANDIED HONEY. The self-sealiug fruit 

 jars need no directions, but the bottles with . 

 corks will have to be made tight with melt- 

 ed bees-wax. Dip the corks in melted wax 

 until they are perfectly coated on both 

 sides, and then push them in place while 

 the mouth of the jar is hot, and perfectly 

 dry. If it is wet, or has the least particle 

 of honey on it, you can never make it air- 

 tight. To make a neat job of it, you can 

 dip the mouth of the jar carefully, in some 

 bright nice yellow wax, and then you will 

 have it, as far as possible, protected from 

 the air, with a capping of wax, precisely as 

 the bees do it. 



This thin, watery honey, when heated to 

 melt the candied honey, with which it may 

 be commingled, even if it is exposed to a 

 heat much less than the boiling point, will 

 tiu'n a dark reddish color, and the flavor is 

 something as if the honey was burned 

 slightly. I, at first, was inclined to blame 

 my wife for overheating it, when I desired 

 her to make the experiment, but as the 

 honey was Avhite when this liquid portion 

 was entirely drained off, I finally guessed at 

 the truth. We can get some beautiful pure 

 ripe honey, out of a very bad lot, by di-ain- 

 ing the candied portion for several weeks, 

 and then melting it. 



To give you an idea of how extracted hon- 

 ey sells in our cities, I give you a few notes 

 from a friend on the Cleveland market, to 

 whom we have sold several barrels of honey 

 during the past six months. The honey was 

 put lip in Muth's 1 lb glass jars. Each jar 

 was labeled, wrapped in a sheet of clean pa- 

 per and packed in sawdust, in the same box- 

 es that the jars came in. To prevent the 

 boxes from being "dumped," we nailed strips 

 of wood to each side of the box, rounded off 

 the projecting ends to make convenient han- 

 dles, and shipped them as freight. The R. 

 R. employes, I suppose looked at the smooth 

 handles, knowing at once what they were 

 for, read the label that kindly asked them 

 not to "dump,"" and the consequence is, not 

 a single bottle has ever been reported injur- 

 ed. Were you a "R. R. man,"' you would 

 probably do as R. R. men do. Here are the 

 letters. 



