Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
June,  1879. 
California  Honey. 
321 
honey  thoroughly  by  stirring.  Then  add  alcohol  of  8o°  until  a  turbid- 
ness  is  formed,  which  does  not  disappear  on  shaking.  If  glucose  syrup 
is  present  in  the  honey,  soon  a  heavy  deposit  of  a  gummy,  milky  mass 
will  form,  while  with  pure  honey  there  will  be  only  a  very  slight  milky 
appearance  observed." 
The  same  writer  says  that  California  honey  taken  in  May  generally 
candies  in  a  few  days  after  it  is  extracted.  Later  in  the  season,  when 
the  air  is  less  humid,  the  honey  gathered  is  white,  very  thick  and  heavy, 
weighing  12  to  12J  lbs.  per  gallon  of  231  cubic  inches,  and  does  not 
candy  so  readily,  as  some  samples  have  been  kept  three  years  without 
any  symptom  of  change.  A  different  class  of  pasturage  comes  on  in 
August  and  continues  through  the  fall  months;  the  air  becomes  more 
humid  as  the  rainy  season  approaches,  and  the  honey  gathered  is  thinner, 
has  more  color  and  candies  very  soon,  differing  from  April  and  May 
honey  in  flavor.  In  the  Atlantic  States  all  honey  made  through  the 
entire  season  candies  upon  the  approach  of  winter;  and  a  large  dealer 
in  Cincinnati  says  all  good  honey  becomes  candied  during  the  winter  in 
that  climate. 
The  San  Francisco  dealers  rule  that  candied  honey  is  reduced  in 
value  from  1  to  3  cents  a  pound;  yet  of  samples  of  California  honey 
sent  to  France,  complaint  was  made  that  it  was  not  candied,  as  no  other 
could  be  readily  sold  there.  The  magnitude  of  the  California  honey 
trade  may  be  judged  from  the  circumstance  that  over  300  tons  of 
extracted  honey  was  produced  last  year  in  Ventura  county  alone.  A 
large  part  of  this  crop  was  shipped  direct  to  Liverpool  for  the  English 
market.     Of  this  shipment  the  writer  above  quoted  says: 
" Knowing  our  honey  to  be  pure  and  good,  and  knowing  the  char- 
acter of  the  shipping  merchants  who  are  transacting  our  business,  we 
have  an  abiding  faith  that  our  product  will  be  allowed  to  fairly  compete 
in  these  markets  with  like  products  from  other  parts  of  the  civilized 
world.  We  wait  with  patience  the  results.  We  have  the  climate,  the 
pasturage  is  abundant,  our  bee-keepers  are  energetic,  industrious  and 
economical  men;  are  determined  to  push  our  products  into  all  the 
markets  of  the  world,  and  we  warn  all  men  who  are  engaged  in  the 
production  of  honey  elsewhere  that  if  they  cannot  produce  large  quan- 
tities of  the  article  that  is  first  class,  and  do  not  put  it  up  in  an  attrac- 
tive form,  more  so  than  we  do,  they  had  better  stand  aside  and  admit 
'the  survival  of  the  fittest'  is  a  fixed  fact." — Set,  Amer.,  Mar.  15,  1879. 
