^^fm:^^^^:'W^^^m'. 



34 



THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



air and it does not granulate. I have it here with me in my 

 room. I think it is thoroughly ripened; it is just like wax, 

 but there is no granulation. I took from my honey-house 

 last spring a number of frames of honey that I had stored 

 away for use among the bees in the spring, 30 or 40 of them, 

 and not one of them that passed through zero weather, gran- 

 ulated. That prompted the question whether thoroughly- 

 ripened honey will granulate. I think that that was thor- 

 oughly ripened. 



Mr. Niver — To explain my question. I have had a good 

 many calls for honey that will not granulate. I would be very 

 glad to be able to get it. I was told that the Cuban honey did 

 not granulate. I sent there for 500 pounds of it. I was want- 

 ing it to supply the patent medicine trade. Their trouble is 

 to get honey that will not granulate, but I found that Cuban 

 honey in our country will granulate as any other honey. If 

 Mr. Whitney has any way to keep it from granulating, or 

 bees that produce honey like that, he struck something good. 



Mr. Abbott — The honey made from " Mexican Spanish- 

 needles doesn't granulate for me. I have had some for three 

 years and it has never granulated any; but I have never got- 

 ten any Spanish-needle honey that did granulate. 



Mr. Niver — How are you keeping it? 



Mr. Abbott — It is just in the cans. I suppose it is no 

 trade secret. I mix alfalfa with it, half and half, and I can 

 keep honey in the stores the whole season through without 

 granulating. 



Pres. York — That's the kind of "adulterating" or mixing 

 that the bee-keeper is permitted to do. 



Mr. Abbott — I supposed so, or I wouldn't have told it 

 publicly ! I don't know that that is characteristic of all 

 Spanish-needle honey, but I had noticed that, and it never 

 granulated on my hands. 



Dr. Miller — To answer that very fully there ought to be 

 some modification, possibly, of the question. The question 

 might arise, What do you mean by thoroughly ripened? Will 

 it granulate? Some would say, and I think very fairly, if it 

 doesn't granulate within a year we say it doesn't granulate, 

 yet it may granulate in two or three years. I want to sug- 

 gest in the first place that there is no question but what 

 there is honey that doesn't granulate. There are two or 

 three samples right here. There are samples of honey that 

 do not granulate, and I am quite a little of the opinion that 

 almost any honey that' you or I have may be made non- 

 granulating, simply by ripening for a very long time. By 

 keeping it warm enough, long enough. Those two things — 

 warm enough, long enough. I saw some samples of comb 

 honey in two places, one in Pennsylvania and one out in this 

 State, that had been kept over the winter in a zero place, that 

 were not granulated and the comb not cracked, and I don't 

 know any reason why it might not have kept for years in that 

 way ; and all the secret was, the honey had been kept during 

 the summer season up in one of those hot garrets where 

 you can hardly breathe, and you wish you could g§t eut. If 



