granulated honey 
427 
liquid for a year or longer. Ordinary comb 
honey in sections, if well ripened, will usu¬ 
ally remain liquid as long as the weather 
is warm. After that time, especially if it 
has been subjected to cold, there are likely 
to be a few scattered granules in each cell. 
These gradually increase in number until 
the comb, honey, and wax’ become almost 
one solid mass. In such condition it is un¬ 
suitable for the market, the table, or for 
feeding back, and should be treated by 
the plan described farther on. See Comb 
Honey, to Produce. 
IS GRANULATION A TEST OF PURITY? 
In the eyes of the general public, granu¬ 
lated honey is not pure, many thinking it 
has been “sugared,” either with brown or 
white sugar. But the very fact that it 
granulates solid is one of the best proofs 
of its purity. If honey granulates only 
partially, in streaks, it may be evidence 
that it has been adulterated with glucose. 
But even pure honey will assume this con¬ 
dition, while honey that is nearly two- 
thirds or three-quarters glucose granulates 
very little. Here, again, it must not be 
taken as positive evidence that, because 
honey refuses to granulate, or does so only 
slightly, therefore it is adulterated. The 
purity of any honey can usually be deter¬ 
mined thru the taste by an expert bee¬ 
keeper who has tested various grades of 
honey and knows their general flavor. But, 
again, even taste must not be considered as 
infallible. Doubts can be removed only by 
referring a sample or samples to an expert 
chemist. See Adulteration of Honey. 
CAUSE OF GRANULATION. 
As already stated, the primal cause of 
granulation is alternation of cold and warm 
weather. During any very cold tempera¬ 
ture, prolonged for days, honey probably 
would not candy at all, but chill into a 
hard waxy mass, readily softening again 
in a warm atmosphere. Honeys that con¬ 
tain a larger amount of dextrose granulate 
more readily than where the reverse is 
true. Stirring or violent agitation hastens 
granulation; and if some granulated honey 
is mixed with ordinary liquid extracted, the 
action is likewise hastened; for when honey 
once starts to cloud, the process goes on 
very rapidly, altho it may take from ten 
days to six months for the honey to pass 
entirely from the liquid condition into 
solid. 
Under Bottling reference is made to the 
method of preventing from granulating 
by the use of heat. For full particulars 
regarding this, see Bottling Honey. 
THE SCIENCE OF GRANULATION. 
While no one knows very much as yet 
about the theory of honey granulating, yet 
it is known that, while the nectar of flow¬ 
ers may be, chemically, cane sugar, yet 
after it has been stored in the hive by the 
bees, and partially digested or worked over 
as explained under Honey elsewhere, it 
becomes an invert sugar. Ordinary honey 
is a combination of dextrose and levulose, 
in approximately equal portions, with a 
little water. “Honey candies upon stand¬ 
ing,” says Dr. Headen, of the Colorado 
Experiment Station at Fort Collins, “be¬ 
cause of the ability of its dextrose to as¬ 
sume a crystalline form much more readily 
than the levulose.” At the Colorado State 
beekeepers’ convention some years ago he 
showed samples of free dextrose and levu¬ 
lose. The former looked like very nice 
light-colored brown sugar; the latter ap¬ 
peared like a cheap grade of dark-colored 
molasses. The doctor explained that, if 
granulated honey were subjected to a suf¬ 
ficient pressure, the greater portion of the 
levulose could be obtained, leaving the 
solid mass largely dextrose. The levulose 
of honey candies slighty, but is very dif¬ 
ferent in appearance from its dextrose con¬ 
stituent. 
freaks of honey-granulating. 
This problem of honey-granulating is 
very interesting. It sometimes happens 
that of two lots taken from the same barrel 
or can, and placed in two self-sealing pack¬ 
ages, the honey in one will soon granulate 
while in the other it will remain liquid, 
notwithstanding that both packages have 
been subjected to the same temperature and 
general conditions. If this happened in 
the case of sealed packages only, it might 
be inferred that the sealing of one pack¬ 
age was less perfect than the other; but 
that the candying does not depend on the 
sealing altogether is shown by the fact that 
the two lots of honey may not be sealed at 
