10 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 



Formerly the general public was suspicious of granulated honey, 

 in the belief that it contained cane sugar, but, fortunately, it is now 

 generally understood that pure honeys will granulate in time, and 

 this crystallization is generally considered as a test of purity. The 

 education of the purchasing public has so far progressed that now- 

 some bee keepers prefer to sell their honey in a solid granulated con- 

 dition, it being cut up into bricks and wrapped in oil paper. 



In bottling honey, or in putting honey from any large receptacle 

 into smaller ones, it is necessary to liquefy the entire quantity com- 

 pletely before the operation is begun. This may be done by im- 

 mersing the receptacle in water which has been heated to 160 or 

 170° F., and letting it remain until the honey is all liquid and free 

 from crystals. Honey should never be liquefied by direct applica- 

 tion of heat, and it is extremely important that it should not reach 

 a temperature of more than 160° F. It is well known to almost all 

 bee keepers that honey heated to higher temperatures w T ill become 

 darker in color and lose flavor, and, consequently, they are generally 

 very careful on this point. There is, however, a very much more 

 important reason for avoiding high temepratures. When honey is 

 heated to 180° F. and more, the higher alcohols which give honey 

 its aroma are driven off and, more than that, a decomposition of cer- 

 tain of the sugars takes place; this is what gives the darker color 

 to the honey. Of all the various substances used for the adulteration 

 of honey the one most nearly resembling pure honey is invert sugar, 

 of which Herzfelt's artificial honey is one of the best illustrations. 

 In the detection of adulteration, one of the tests for the addition of 

 invert sugar is based on the presence of decomposition products due 

 to heat. These decomposition products in invert sugar are probably 

 identical with the decomposition products in overheated honey; at 

 any rate, honey which has been heated to more than 180° F. for any 

 considerable time gives the test for invert sugar and would, there- 

 fore, be declared to be adulterated if this test were applied by a 

 chemist. A bee keeper might argue that he was not infringing on the 

 pure-food law in overheating his honey, since he had added nothing 

 in the way of an adulterant. If, however, he changes the chemical 

 composition of his honey by injudicious treatment it is no longer 

 pure honey, and he has no right to sell it under that name. 



It is very much safer to liquefy honey at a temperature of about 

 140° F. and thus avoid any clanger of decomposition. If this lower 

 temperature is used it is of course necessary to keep the honey at this 

 temperature for a considerable time, but the safety of such a pro- 

 ceeding makes the extra time well worth while. 



Two or three of the most widely circulated American text-books 

 on bee keeping advocate the drawing off of the liquid portion of 

 granulated honey, particularly in the case of honey which was not 



