TESTING HONE^ FOR RIPENESS. 



My former experience as a honey-merchant brought me into contact 

 with all sorts and conditions of beekeepers, and all sons and conditions 

 of honey — in its qualities of ripeness and unripeness. I then realised 

 the need there was that beekeepers should have some simple but reliable 

 metlioci of testing honey for its ripeness before putting it up for the 

 market. It was frequently very difificult to decide whether honey was 

 ripe or not while it was in liquid form; and to-day the same difficulty 

 obtains, deinanding every effort to remove it. 



It is beyond the accomplishment of the average beekeeper to determine 

 the exact amount of moisture a given sample of honey contains, neither 

 is it necessary, as we shall be able to arrive in time at the knowledge we 

 require by -very simple means- -that is, through the density or specific 

 gravity of the article. A very great number of testsi must be carried 

 out before anything approaching a reliable standard of the specific gravity 

 for ripe honey of different varieties can be established. 



SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF HONEY. 

 Previous to carrying out, recently, a series of tests of a number cf 

 samples of honey (which I shall explain directly) I consulted several 

 works in hope of getting some assistance from them, but was disappointed. 

 The British Bee Journal for December, 1885, contained the only item 

 on this matter in all my bee literature. The then editor, in reply to a 

 correspondent, gave figures from different works representing the specific 

 gravity of honej^, ranging from r261 to r450, and then suggested taking 

 the mean of these figures — viz., 1'355 — " as a conventional standard for 

 ripe honey," admitting, at the same time, that "clover honey in a dry 

 season is found to be 1'370." This was a very haphazard way of deciding 

 so important a question. Thorpe's work, already referred to, gives, on 

 page 287, a range from 1"4:39 to 1"448 as the specific gravity of honey; 

 another equally well-known work gives from 1'4:25 to 1'429 for " virgin 

 honey " — whatever that may be — and from 1'415 to 1'422 for " honey 

 from old bees"('!); and the " Encyclopfedia Britannica " gives r410. 

 The foregoing figures, instead of affording any assistance, are, on the 

 contrary, rather misleading with regard to the actual density of ripe 

 honey. 



TESTS MADE. 

 Some little time since I purchased from grocers in the ordinary way 

 twenty tins of different varieties and grades of honey, and tested them 

 very carefully for their specific gravity with a Twaddel's and a Fletcher's 

 hydrometer. Before testing, the condition of each sample was noted, in 

 order to compare the specific gravity with its appearance. Eleven 



