EXTRACTED HONEY 
307 
ture, which has now passed the experimen¬ 
tal stage, will lead to the planting of thou¬ 
sands of trees, which will offer a bee pas¬ 
ture of extraordinary richness. If the nec¬ 
tar production of these immense planta¬ 
tions equals expectation, the possibilities of 
bee culture in California can hardly be 
overestimated. It is, however, unfortunate 
that the blue gum, which financially is the 
most promising species, should yield a 
honey of inferior quality. For descrip¬ 
tions and illustrations of the more impor¬ 
tant species of eucalyptus and the methods 
of cultivation see Bulletins No. 196 and 
No. 225, Agriculture Experiment Station, 
Berkeley, Cal., and Circular 59 of Forest 
Service, United States Department of Ag¬ 
riculture. 
EXTRACTED HONEY. —Up to the year- 
1865 all liquid honey obtainable was 
pressed and strained from the combs— 
hence the term “strained” honey. Such a 
product is generally full of sediment owing 
to particles of wax, pollen, propolis, and 
dirt. The more modem product of liquid 
honey is extracted from the combs by cen¬ 
trifugal force. A reel holding two or more 
combs and revolving inside of a cylinder 
or can, throws the liquid honey from the 
cells, leaving the empty combs intact for 
the bees to fill up again. (See Extract¬ 
ing.) The honey so obtained is called “ex¬ 
tracted.” It is free from impurities—more¬ 
over, it is not impaired in flavor by bits of 
pollen and propolis. Practically all the 
liquid honey on the market today is sep¬ 
arated from the combs by the use of the 
extractor, and is, therefore, extracted hon¬ 
ey. Occasionally there is a honey—for ex¬ 
ample, the far-famed heather honey of 
Scotland—that is so thick that it cannot be 
readily separated from the comb by centri¬ 
fugal force, unless it is placed in a warm 
room for twenty-four hours before extract¬ 
ing. 
There are as many varieties and flavors 
of honeys as there are of apples and other 
fruits. Extracted honey may be divided 
into two general classes, one suitable foi 
table use and the other for manufacturing 
purposes. Among the first named are the 
light-colored honeys, such as the clover, 
basswood, alfalfa, sage, orange, tupelo, 
palmetto, and raspberry, all of which are 
of fine body and flavor, and of course suit¬ 
able for use on the table. While it is not 
invariably true, yet generally the light-col¬ 
ored honeys are mild and delicious. The 
darker honeys are nearly always stronger 
in flavor and must be marketed in a locality 
where the consumers are accustomed to the 
flavor, or they must be sold for baking pur¬ 
poses. Hundreds, yes, thousands of car¬ 
loads of dark honeys are used by the large 
baking concerns, for no artificial product* 
that has ever been produced quite takes 
the place of honey for keeping cakes soft 
and moist for months. Some cakes, like 
honey jumbles, contain a larger percentage 
of honey than others. Honey is also often 
used along with molasses and cheaper syr¬ 
ups in baking. See Honey as a Food. 
As is pointed out under Comb Honey 
there is some difference in flavor between 
comb honey and extracted, owing to the 
fact that the latter, especially if improper¬ 
ly handled, loses some of its aroma and 
because it usually has to be heated one or 
more times, as explained under Bottling. 
Overheating, even for a very short time, 
impairs the flavor of honey. Moreover, 
some producers, in their eagerness to obtain 
all the honey possible, extract it from the 
combs before it is fully “ripened.” Honey 
when it is first stored in the cells is thin 
and watery, and does not have the exquisite 
flavor that it has when evaporated and 
changed chemically by the bees and sealed 
over. Honey which has been allowed to 
stay in the hive some time after it is sealed 
acquires a body and a richness that honey 
only partially sealed does not have. Some 
producers, who use specially constructed 
evaporating tanks maintain that unripe 
honey may be evaporated by artificial 
means and made just as heavy in body as 
that evaporated by the bees. If an exten¬ 
sive equipment is used this is probably 
true, but the flavor is not as rich as tho 
the honey had been left on the hive, fully 
evaporated and capped over by the bees 
before being extracted. Most beekeepers 
who have tried to ripen honey artificially 
have not succeeded, and the thin honey 
which they attempt to sell not only lacks 
in flavor and body, but in many instances 
* Invert sugar, when it is cheaper than honey, 
is sometimes used as a substitute, hut it lacks flavor. 
See Invert Sugar. 
