484 HONEY HANDLING. 



vessel, and this in aiiother large vessel containing water. 

 This heating au bain-marie, as the French call it, is resorted 

 to by cooks, confectioners and others, whenever there is 

 any danger of scorching the substance heated. 



836. The increase of honey production has been so great, 

 in a few years, that the consumption has barely kept pace 

 with it. But it will soon take its rank among necessities, 

 like butter or syrups ; and change from a luxury to a staple. 



836. Our first crops of extracted honey, were sold read- 

 ily at wholesale, and at good prices ; for it was then that 

 the wholesale dealers and manufacturers were making the 

 largest profits, by mixing the honey, which they bought 

 from bee-keepers, with cheap substances, like glucose, 

 which kept the honey from granulating, and by putting it 

 up in tumblers, with a small piece of comb honey in the 

 center. This honey, or rather mixture at honey, was sold 

 by them usually at lower prices than they had paid for the 

 pure honey. But ready sales in this way did not last long ; 

 for, after a year or two, the markets were crowded with this 

 drug ; and we were left to market our honey alone ; if we 

 did not want to sell it for little above nothing. 



Should our readers ever come across suspicious-looking 

 honey, they will find the following a cheap recipe to recog- 

 nize adulteration: 



"Put in a small vial about one ounce of the honey to be 

 tested, fill the vial with pure cistern water, shake thoroughly, 

 to dissolve the honey ; then add to the mixture about a thimble- 

 ful of pure alcohol. If the honey is pure the solution will remain 

 unchanged, hut if adulterated with glucose, it will be turbid and 

 whitish. 



" This is the means used by the honey dealers of Paris, to detect 

 adulterated honey." — {Annates de la Socim d' Apiculture de VAube.) 



The present low prices have put an end to adulteration, 

 for, a fair grade of Southern or California honey can now 

 he bought as cheaply, at wholesale, as the vile, unhealthy 



