

36 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



vents honey from granulating in the comb. We found that 

 when years ago I was rearing queens, I would unite nuclei 

 in the fall and lots of combs would have unsealed cells, and 

 we would naturally think that that honey wasn't ripened, be- 

 cause it was not sealed. That would be in the very warm 

 weather. In the winter those combs would hang there with 

 the honey in the unsealed cells all winter long and not gran- 

 ulate. There may be some point in the granulation of honey L 

 we haven't gotten onto yet. 



Mr. Josephson — Why do we want to teach the people to 

 buy liquid honey? I was born in Sweden. In that country 

 we consume a good deal of honey, but can never sell liquid 

 honey. They want granulated, and considered liquid honey 

 unfit to eat. They said it wasn't ripened. We are teaching 

 the people to buy liquid honey here. Why don't we teach 

 them to buy granulated honey, and we get out of all that 

 work? 



Pres. York — Perhaps we had better ship our honey to. 

 Sweden ! 



Mr. Starkey — I have had the same difficulty in my ex- 

 perience in handling honey. The fact is, that my trade wants 

 liquid honey, and we find that out when we try to teach them 

 to use something else. My experience is that honey that is 

 once brought to the proper temperature that drives out the 

 moisture, evaporates the water particles, if kept so that water 

 does not again get into it, it will not granulate. But this 

 gentleman's question would conflict with that. Small par- 

 ticles of honey, as in a cell exposed- to the air, will not ab- 

 sorb moisture so that it will contain it long enough to cause 

 granulation, but if you want to prevent your liquid honey 

 from granulating after it is once ripened, then it must be kept 

 scaled, or else this bulk of honey will absorb sufficient mois- 

 ture to again bring about granulation. That is my experience. 

 I believe we can answer the question, the reason his does 

 not granulate, that is, exposed to the moisture, is that the 

 smaller quantity will not contain it sufficiently but will 

 evaporate exposed to the air as it is. But to prevent larger 

 quantities it is necessary to keep it sealed. You can keep it 

 indefinitely if you will bring it to the proper temperature and 

 then seal it in glass. 



Pres. York — What is the proper temperature? 



Mr. Starkey — I would say from 150 to 160 degrees, if 

 quickly. If a slower process, lower temperature will do it, 

 but it takes longer time; as in Dr. Miller's suggestion, an at- 

 tic is an ideal place if the honey is left there long enough 

 to ripen thoroughly. Speaking again of the Spanish-needle. 

 In 1879, when I began in Missouri, that was my main honey 

 crop, and I sold hundreds of pounds in the market and in the 

 stores, or anywhere they kept it, and I never knew it to 

 granulate. I kept it in sealed jars. I was selling there two or 

 three years, and I never knew any of the merchants to have 

 any of it candy on their hands, 



