BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
For shipping honey in small packages, Mr. Aug. Christie, a large producer of Iowa, puts it up in soldered cans. But the honey must be very ripe, or else must be previously heated, for the least fermentation would burst the can.
**S44.** In every case when honey is sold, it should be neatly labeled with the name and address of the producer, which is, in itself, a guarantee of its quality.
When you go into a strange groeery, where you are unknown, the immediate answer of the groeer, to your mention of honey is: "I don't want any honey; I have no sale for it, and I don't like to handle it." Should you then take your leave and go, there would be but little hope of increasing your sales. You have to study, and learn to imitate the eunning and peiseverance of the traveling agent, and quietly talk it out. You first have to assure the grocer that you only wish to show him your goods and your prices at his leisure, and that he can then refuse to buy, if he chooses. You must show him why he has no sale for honey. You tell him that pure honey is one of the best sweets in the world, to which he readily agrees. You then explain that honey, not being a staple, his customers never come on purpose to buy it, but that when they see it, they are tempted to buy; that, for this reason, it should be put up with large and showy labels, and placed in a conspicuous position, so that it will readily catch the eye.
**S45.** White honey in nice sections will generally sell at sight, unless the grocer has had some leaky packages, which dripped honey on the counter, left a sticky reminisence of their presence, and attracted flies and bees. But if your honey is put up carefully, according to directions given, the first sale alone will be difficult. In selling extracted honey it may be necessary for you to explain the facility with which granulated honey may be liquefied.
With grocers that were unaequainted with us, we usually hean by supplying them with yellow honey, such as buckwheat, or heartsease, or golden rod. This honey, strong in flavor, sells better to the inexperienced, who are afraid of getting sugar, or glucose. It is only after one or two years that we venture to offer to such grocers our whistel clover and hass-wood, which, though of superior flavor, are objected to, on account of their very beauty and quality. In every ease we try to furnish some good reference to the groeer, and we give him a full guarantee of satisfaction, with an agreement to take the honey back, if it does not prove altogether as we represent it. When a dealer is well satisfied that the merchandise which he sells is pure, his customers are quite likely to have confidence in it themselves; but, on the other hand, if he is in doubt as to the quality and purity of it, he will have but little chance of selling it, unless he does not care for the satisfaction of his patrons.
**S16.** We must therefore spare no pains to fully convince our grocers of the quality of our goods.
After the first sales have been made, the demand always becomes larger and easier. Of course, occasional objections are made, by persons who are unacquainted with the properties and qualities of good honey; but these are easily overcome, when you have once gained the confidence of the dealers.
Extracted honey is usually sold at between half and two-thirds of the price of comb-honey. It ships better, leaks less, and keeps more easily than comb-honey; and its lower cost of production will sooner or latcr make it the _honey for the masses._
Uses or Honey.
**S17**. The traditions of the remotest antiquity show that honey has always been considered a pleasant and healthy food. For several thousand years, it was the only sweet known.
Now that the sap of the cane, or the beet, converted into sugar, or the cheaper corn syrup, made by boiling corn starch with sulphuric acid, have become a necessity in every family, let us see what place honey may oeeupy in our diet. not only as a condiment like sugar, but as food, drink, and medicine.
_As Food._
**Honey as food is very healthy.** It is admitted that those who use honey freely at meal time, find in it health and long life.
"It is Nature's offering to man--ready for use, distilled drop by drop in myriads of flowers, by a more delicate process than any human laboratory even produced."--(T. G. Newman, "Honey as Food and Medicine.")
The following extract from the work of Sir J. More, _London_, 1707, will show the estimate which the old writers set upon bee-products:
"Natural wax is altered by distillation into anoy! of marvellous vertue; it is rather a Divine medicine than humane, because, in wounds or inward diseases, it worketh miracles. The bee helpeth to eure all your diseases, and is the best little friend a man has in the world...Honey is of subtil parts, and therefore doth pierce as oyl, and easily passeth the parts of the body; it openeth obstructions, and eleareth the heart and lights of those humors which fall from the head; it purgetth the foulness of the body, cureth phlegmatick matter, and sharpenth the stomaeh; it purgetth those things which hurt the clearness of the eyes, breedeth good blood, stirreth up natural heat, and prolongeth life; it keepeth all things uncorrupt which are put into it, and is a sovereign medicinement, both for outward and inward maladies; it helpeth the grief of the jaws, the kernels growing within the mouth, and the squinancy; it is drank against the biting of a serpent or a mad dog; it is good for such as have eaten mushrooms, for the falling sickness, and against the surfeit. Being boiled, it is lighter of digestion, and more nourishing."
**S4S**. When Augustus-Julius-Casar, dining with Pollio-Rumilius on his hundredth birthday, inquired of him how he had preserved both vigor of body and mind, Pollio replied: "_Intrits melle, exterius oloo."_--Internally by honey, externally by oil.
Honey is in daily use on our table, and we find that eihiloren prefer it to sugar. The only cause of its not being in general use in place of "vile syrupis" is the high price at which it was formerly sold.
Mr. Newman in his little pamphlet above quoted, says:--
"It is a common expression that honey is a luxury, having nothing to do with the life-giving principle. This is an error--honery is food in one of its most concentrated forms. True, it does not all so much to the growth of the muscles as does beef-steak, but it does impart other properties no less necessary to health and vigorous physical and intellectual action! It giveswarmth to the system, arouses nervous energy, and gives vigor to all the vital functions. To the laborer it gives strength--to the business man, mental force. Its effects are not like ordinary stimulants, such as spirits, &c., but it produces a healthy action, the results of which are pleasing and permanent--a sweet disposition and a bright intellect."
**S19**. As a condiment it can be used in many ways. In candies it may finally replaee the unhealthful glucose of commerce. The confectioners who now use it, increase their trade every ycar.
In France, "\(pain\)-\(d\)'\(epice\)," "ginger bread," is sold in immense quantities at the fairs. The best makes are sold at the most important fairs through the country. It keeps an indefinite length of time, and farmers' wives are wont to buy enough to last for months. The following is the recipe:
**S50**. "Dissolve 4 ounces of soda, in a glass of warm skimmed milk. Take 4 pounds of flour and pour in the milk and enough warm honey to make a thick dough, flavor with anise and coriander seeds, eloves, and einnamon, all powdered fine. Knead carefully, as you would bread. Let it rise two hours in a warm place, spread in pans and bake in a moderately warm oven. Ten or twelve minutes will do, if the eakes are thin. As soon as the cake resists to the touch of the finger it is done. Before baking, it may be decorated with almonds, preserved lemon peel, etc. Wheat flour makes good 'pain-\(d\)'epice,' but some prefer rye flour. Fall honey is preferable for it, on aecount of its stronger taste.'--L'Apieulteur.
The spices may be varied according to taste. Some ada powdered ginger, or grated lemon or orange peel.
**S51**. Crisp ginger bread can be made by mixing in it a quantity of broken almonds, blanched by dipping in boiling water, hazel-nuts, English walnuts, etc. The same dough, in skilled hands, with different seasonings, will make a variety of dainties, all with honey.
Instead of lard or butter, artistic cooks use olive oil to grease the pans; in America, cotton seed oil takes its place, and is good. The Italians sometimes use \(pessea\).
**852. Alsatian Ginger Bread: ''Take, yellow honey 1 pound, flour 1 pound, baking soda!?= ounce. Dissolve the soda in a tablespoonful of brandy, heat the honey and put in the flour and the soda. Knead the whole carefully, and eut in lumps bcfore putting in the oven.**
''This mixture can be kept in the cellar for months and can be used to make the ''Leckerli: Add to the dough, chopped almonds!?= lb., pcrcrvel orange peel 2 drams, ditto l'mon 1 dram, cinnamon?= dram, and 20 eloves, all finely powdered. Mix well and bake.'' (Denuler, ''Honey and Its Uses.'')**
**853. Honey Cake: Warm half a glass of milk with %= pound of sugar in a stew pan. Put in?= of a pound of honey and boil slowly. Then add 1 pound of flour,!?= dram of soda, and kneal, spread on a pan and bake for an hour.''**
**S54.Italian ''Croceante Di Mandorle'': ''Blaneh two pounds of almonds, by dipping in boiling water. Slice them with a knife. Add the yellow peel of a lemon cut fine, some powdered vanilla, and a few lumps of sugar flavored by rubbing them on orange peel. Boil 2 pounds of good honey with an ounce of olive oil or good unsalted butter, till it is reduced to thick syrup. Then add the almonds, lemon, etc., a little at a time, mix well, pour in a buttered tin pan and press the mixture against the sides with a lemon peel. It should not be more than half an inch thick. When cool take the crisp cake out of the vessel by warming it a little.'' (Sartori & Rauschenfels, L'Apieoltura in Italia.)**
**855. Muth's Honey Cake: 4 quarts of hot honey and 10 pounds of flour, with ground anise seed, eloves and cinnamon to suit the taste. This is made into a dough and left to rest for a week or two, when it is rolled out in cakes and bakcol. The longer the rest, the better the eokes.**
**Fruit jellies with honey: Take: the juice of'currants or other fruits, and after adding a like quantity of honey, boil to a jelly. Put in small tumblers, well sealed, in a dry room.**
**S56. Honey-vinegar is superior in quality to all other kinds, wine vinegar included.**
It takes from one to one and a half pounds of honey to make one gallon of vinegar. Two good authorities on honeyvinegar, Messrs. Muth and Bingham, advise the use of only one pound of honey with enough water to make each gallon of vinegar. We prefer to use a little more honey, as it makes stronger vinegar, but the weaker grade is more quickly made. If the honey water was too sweet, the fermentation would be mueb slower, and with diffeulty change from the alcoholic, which is the first stage, into the acetic. This change of fermentation may be hurried by the addition of a little vinegar, or of what is commonly called vinegar mother.
If honey water, from cappings, is used, a good test of its strength is to put an egg in it. The egg should float, coming up to the surface at once. If it does not rise easily, there is too little honey. As vinegar is made by the combined action of air and warmth, the barrel in which it is contained must be only partly filled, and should be kept as warm as convenient. It is best to make a hole in each head of the barrel, about four or five inches below the upper stave, to secure a current of air above the liquid. These, as well as the bungr hole, should be covered with very fine wire screen, or with cloth, to stop insects.
A very prompt method consists in allowing the liquid to drip slowly from one barrel into another, as often as possible during warm weather.
As we make vinegar not only for our own use, but also to sell to our neighbors, we keep two barrels, one of vinegar already made, the other fermenting. When we draw a gallon of vinegar, we replace it with a gallon from the other barrel. This keeps up the supply.
Vinegar should not be kept in the same cellar with wines, as its ferment would spoil the wines sooner or later.
\[Honey\,\,\,as\,\,\,Medicine.\]
**S57.** In Denmark and Hanover, the treatment of Chlorosis, by honey, is popular. The pale girls of the cities are sent to the country, to take exercise and eat honey. The good results of this treatment have suggested to Lehman the theory that the insufficiency of hepathic sugar is the cause of Chlorosis, which thus explains the curing effect of honey. (Jacoud, as quoted by the _Reeue Internationale d'Apiculture_.)
Honey, mixed with flour, is used to cover boils, brasises, bums, etc.; it keeps them from contact with the air, and helps the healing. Beverages, sweetened with honey, will cure sore throat, coughs, and will stop the development of diphtheria, especially if taken on an empty stomach, at bed time. A glass of wine or cider, strongly sweetened with honey, is advised in _L'Apiculture_, as a eure for eolds. (1886.)
Suekling babies are cured of constipation, by a mixture of bread and honey given them, tied in a "sugar teat."
A constant use of honey, at meal time, cures some of the worst cases of piles.
"According to Mr. Weiblet, washing the hands with sweetened water will kill warts. Having heard of the healing he put honey plasters on the hands of a child who had a large wart in the palm of the hand, and after a few days of treatment the wirt disappeared."--Bertrand, (Revue Internationale d'Apiculture.)
Beeswax, and its Uses.
_Melling_ \(\check{\Pi}ax\).
**S5S.** We will now describe the different processes used by bee-keepers to render the eombs into wax. To melt every eomb, or piece of comb, as it is taken from the hive, would increase the work, and, as it is preferable to choose our time for this operation, we have to preserve them from the ravages of the inoths (**S02**) by some of the methods that we have given (**S12**).
**S59.** The eappings (**772**) after extracting, are allowed to drain in a warm place for several weeks; very nice honey being obtained from them. They are then washed in hot water, and the sweet water obtained can be used for eider, cr wine, or vinegar (**S56**). These eappings, as well as the broken pieces of white comb in which brood was never raised, should be melted apart from the darker combs, for, not only are they easier to melt, but the wax obtained being very bright in color, is unsurpassed for making comb-foundation (**674**) for surplus boxes.
**S60.** When the eombs are blackened by the dejections of the worker bees (**7S4**), or of the drones (**40**), and by the skins and eoeoons of the larva (**167**), it is so difficult to render the wax, that many bee-keepers think it is not worth the trouble. We advise washing these combs and keeping them under water for about twenty-four hours. Then the co-coons and other refuse being thoroughly wet and partly dissolved, will not adhere to the wax. This will be lighter colored, if the combs are melted with eider water and not with the water already darkened by the washing.
But as this method always leaves some wax in the residues, for some of it goes into the cells during the melting, and it is impossible to dislodge it, a better result is obtained by crushing the combs before washing them. But this pulverizing can be done only in Winter, when the wax is brittle.
**S61**. The combs should be melted with _soft or rain water_,
the boiler kept about two-thirds full, and heated slowly, to prevent boiling over. If the floor, around the stove, is kept wet, any wax that may drop will be easily peeled off.
During the melting carefully stir till all is well dissolved.
Then lower into the boiler a sieve made of a piece of wire cloth, bent in the shape of a box, from which the wax can be dipped as it strains into it. If the whole is thoroughly stirred for some time, very little wax will be left in the residues. This is the cheapest and best method of rendering wax, without the help of a specially made wax-extractor.
**S62.** To obtain as much wax as possible from the combs, the large wax manufacturers of Europe empty the contents of the boiler into a bag, made of horse-hair or strong twine, and place the bag under a press while boiling hot. All the implements used, as well as the bag, are previously wetted, to prevent their sticking..
Several implements have lately been devised for rendering beeswax. A. French wax-bleacher, Mr. Kuhn, devised a kettle, described in the American Bee Journal, which permits of stirring the eombs while they are held under water. In this way the wax is permitted to escape. To make it still more easy for the wax to come to the surface they use salt water, which is heavier than ordinary rain water and its greater density causes the wax to float more readily.
But the ultimate method for getting all the wax out of the "slum-gum" or residues is the use of a press.
The German press does goni work, if not too great a quantity of residue is rendered at one time. Mr. Hershiser of Buffalo has devised a press in which he uses screens between several layers of beeswax. These screens allow the wax to escape from the center of the mass, much on the same plan as the large eider presses of Illinois, in which the apple cheese is separated by cloth in a dozen different layers. The different presses must be used over steam or water, so as to keep the mass hot all the time.
**S63.** Carpings from the extracting and small pieces gathered from time to time, may be rendered during the summer, by the use of a sun-extractor, wherever the sun is sufficiently powerful. At this latitude, the 42\({}^{\circ}\), sun-extraetors can be efficiently used during the months of May, June, July, and August. The sun-extraetor requires no labor from the Apia-rist, other than filling it with combs and removing the melted wax.
**S64**. The dealers in France buy, from the bee-keepers, for little or nothing, the residues of their melted combs. They dissolve them in turpentine, press the pulp dry, and distill the liquid, to separate the turpentine. As the wax is not volatile, it remains in the still. It is said that, when wax was dearer than it is now, large profits were realized by this operation.
**S65.** To cleanse bees wax from its impurities, we melt it carefully with cistern water and pour it into flaring cans (wider at the top than at the bottom) containing a little boiling water. This wax is kept in the liquid state, at a high temperature, for twenty-four hours. During this time, the impurities drop to the bottom and can be scraped from the cake when cold. Some wax can be obtained from this refuse, but some of it is always left in the dregs, as is proven by the impossibility of dissolving them by exposure. Nothing can destroy beeswax, except fire, or the ravages of the bee-moth. Exposure to the weather does not affect it, but only bleaches it.
To prevent the eakes of wax from cracking, it should be poured into the molds or cans when only 165\({}^{\circ}\) Fahr. and should be kept in a warm place to cool slowly.
Sulphuric acid is used by bleachers and foundation manufacturers in rendering beeswax out of the dark residues. Some writers have recommended this method to the bee-keeper. We wish to warn them against it. No acid is necessary in separating the wax from the impurities of the combs and if it is used, the beeswax loses its fine honey and bee flavor andsmeell. There would be but little harm, if the aeid (oil of vitriol) was used sparingly, but beginners often use enough in rendering a hundred pounds, to serve for a thousand pounds or more. The only utility of it is in rendering residues of the worst quality in large establishments.
**S66.** The utmost care is necessary not to spoil wax in melting it. If heated too fast, the steam may disaggregate it. Then its color is lighter, but very din; the wax having lost its transparency, resembles a cake of corn meal. When it is in this condition, water will run out of it if a small lump is pressed between the fingers. The best way to restore it is to melt it slowly in a solar wax extractor (fig. 229). We have succeeded also by melting it with water, and keeping the water boiling slowly till all the water contained between the particles of wax had evaporated. But this work is tedious and cannot be aecomplished without the greatest care and a skillful hand. Whatever the means used, you may rely on more or less waste.*
Footnote *: Whenever heeswax it melted in water, even with the utmost care, some small portions of it are water-damaged and settle to the bottom of the cake with the dregs. Tbis water-damaged beeswax has often been mistaken for pollen residues.
Wax-bleaeters draw wax into small ribbons which are exposed to the rays of the sun for several weeks, or melted with chemical acids; but wax-bleaeling is beyond the purpose of this book.
\[Uscs\ \ of\ \ Wa.c.\]
**S67**. Before the invention of parchment, prepared as a material for writing, from the skins of goats, sheep, calves, etc., tablets covered with a light coat of wax were used. A style\(-\)an instrument sharp at one end to engrave characters in the wax, and broad and smooth at the other end to erase them\(-\)was used in place of a pen. The Latin poet Horatius, born sixty-five years before Christ, probably used these tablets, for, in his adnouition to poets, he writes: "_Saejic stillum__vertas."--"turn often your style;" thereby meaning: "Carefully correct your writings."_
Several nations of old, having noticed that beeswax does not rot, used it to embaln their dead. Alexander the Great was ensublmed with wax and honey.
**S6S.** Beeswax is largely used by the Catholic churches, for lights, during the eerennies, for it is prescribed to priests to use exclusively _wax produced by bees._
**S69.** In several countries of Europe the floors and stairs, instead of being covered with carpets, are rubbed with wax and carefully scrubbed with a dry brush every day till they shine. In Paris, floor scrubbing is a business which supports many working families.
Beeswax is used also by the sculptors and painters to varnish their work, to model wax figures; by dentists to take imprints of jaw-bones. It is retained in small lumps and used to give smoothness and stiffness to thread for sewing. The casting of bronze status and works of art _a cire perdue,_ has been largely practieed in France since the Renais-sance. This process is mentioned in _Harpers' Monthly_ for September, 1886.
**S70.** Beeswax forms part of a great many medicines, and ponades for the toilet. Here are a few recipes selected among hundreds of others:
1. _Salve or Cerate for Infrared Wounds._
Beeswax...................1 part
Sweet almond oil...................4 parts
Dissolve the wax in the oil and stir well till cold. Sweet almond oil can be replaced by olive, or cotton seed, or linseed oil, or cven by fresh unsalted butter.
This cerate, may be used as a vehicle by the endemic method--we mean by frictions on the thin parts of the skin --to introduce into the blood several substances, such as qquinine, against fever; surphur, for itehes; camphor, henbane, opium, as sedatives; iodine, as depurative; and so on, the only care being to have the drugs carefully mixed.
2d. _Turpentine Balm for \(\_\)Itonic Wounds,_ (without inflammation):
Yellow Beeswax.
Exenee of Turpentine.
Equal parts.
Melt the wax, add the turpentine, then the essence.
3d. _Salve for the \(Lips\):_
one part
Sweet Almond Oil
Add a small quantity of Carmine to color it, strain and add, when melted again and half cold, some volatile Oil of Rose.
4th. _Adhesive Plaster for Cuts_ (sweet-sented):
Colophony
40 parts
45 "
Elemi rosin
Melt and add:
Oil of Bergamot.
5 parts
Oil of Cloves.
Oil of Lemon.
5th. _Growth Plare for Corns:_
Yellow wax
4 parts
White pileh
Venice Turpentine
Sub-acetate Copper (finely powd.).
Melt the wax and the white pitch, add the acetate of copper well mixed with the turpentine, and stir till cold. If too hard to be spread or small pieces of cloth, add a little olive, or cotton seed, oil.