COMB HONEY 
225 
South, and where bulk honey is sold, very 
little comb honey in sections is produced. 
Bulk comb honey has the advantage that 
it does not require as much skill to produce 
it as the ordinary comb honey in sections; 
neither is it necessary that every piece of 
comb be as perfect as to capping, filling, or 
shape. In localities where there is any sus¬ 
picion of manufactured comb honey, bulk 
comb honey is readily sold. Generally 
speaking, its sale is confined to the south¬ 
ern States—Texas and the Southwest, while 
in the North, and practically all the rest of 
the United States, comb honey is put up in 
sections. 
The time may come, however, when con¬ 
sumers everywhere will learn to appreciate 
bulk or chunk comb honey, especially after 
they learn that it costs less to produce and 
at the same time retains nearly all the fine 
eating qualities of the article in sections. 
It may also come to pass that cut comb 
honey wrapped in paraffin paper, and fur¬ 
ther protected with a neat carton, will take 
the place of section comb honey. There is 
no doubt that such honey will ship better 
than comb honey built solid in sections. 
The greatest objection to the use of bulk 
comb honey in the northern States is the 
danger of the liquid portion granulating. 
When this takes place the whole will have 
to be melted up in a wax-extractor, even 
tho the comb honey is not candied. 
When the extractor was first invented, 
in 1865, it was supposed that nothing 
but honey out of the comb would be sold 
for the reason that it could be produced 
more cheaply. But our best connoisseurs 
now know that even our very best extracted 
honey seldom has the fine delicate aroma of 
honey that is held in the comb, just as 
nature gives it to us. Comb honey holds 
the flavor and the delicate aroma of the 
individual flowers from which it was gath¬ 
ered much better than after it is removed 
from the comb. The flavors of honey, it is 
said, are made up of ethyl alcohols that are 
very volatile. It follows that, when the 
honey has been removed from its original 
container, on exposure to air, it loses some 
of its flavor, especially if it be heated to 
prevent granulation. (See Extracted 
Honey, Bottling Honey, and Granu¬ 
lated Honey.) If ever a majority of con¬ 
sumers prefer comb honey, it will be be¬ 
cause to them it has more flavor, and be¬ 
cause, probably, the crushing of the deli¬ 
cate cells in the mouth gives the eater a 
certain degree of satisfaction since he 
has something to “chew.” Extracted honey 
on the other hand is swallowed, while comb 
honey is masticated, or “chewed,” as food 
should be. Of course the little pellets of 
wax, after the honey mas been eaten, are 
generally expelled. To some this very ac¬ 
cumulation of wax in the mouth is an ob¬ 
jection, and many will be found who pre¬ 
fer extracted honey, because they prefer 
to have something they can chew on bread 
and butter and biscuit, without having 
wax mixed with the food. 
Comb honey has been determined by 
Professor Hawk, the great food specialist, 
to contain vitamines. By referring to the 
article, Vitamines in Honey, it will be seen 
that these are an inscrutable something 
that makes life and growth possible, with¬ 
out which the average animal or man 
would die in a comparatively short space 
of time. While it has not yet been proved 
that extracted honey contains vitamines, it 
has been shown that comb honey does. For 
a fuller examination of the subject, see 
Vitamines in Honey, at the (dose of this 
book. 
Unfortunately of late years, many honey- 
dealers have refused to handle comb honey 
because of the amount of breakage and 
leakage and the tendency to granulate after 
cold weather has set in. The result is that 
the demand for extracted has increased 
