10 SEPTEMBER 1921, Page 15

BEE WINE.

(To THE EDITOR OF TEl " SPECTATOR.") Sut,—The country folks about my home in Maryland sometimes say that they make "bee wine." What it is I cannot say, but when I was a boy and, together with another boy, kept several colonies of bees, he and I learned to make a sort of Asti spumante from honey. As well as I remember the process, after the lapse of nearly forty-five years, we put a cupful of strained honey in a quart bottle, added a little yeast and enough water to fill the bottle, and then tied in the cork as a cork is tied in a bottle of champagne. After a few warm days sweet, sparkling " bee wine " was found in the bottle, unless the pressure of the gas burst the bottle, as it did sometimes.—