1883.] BEE-KEEPING. 171 



actly the same as the juice from a flower. It has a certain 

 amount of water that the bees always separate from it. It is 

 separated in going through the honey sac, and the juice is 

 then deposited the same as honey gathered from a flower. 



Mr. Gold. That does not quite answer tlie question. We 

 admit that the honey possesses the peculiar aroma of the 

 plant from which it is extracted ; but the bee takes the juice 

 of the grape, which is not honey, by any means, and, as you 

 say, after depriving it of a portion of its water, deposits it in 

 the cell, and then it is honey. What is done with the acid 

 properties of the grape ? That is not quite clear to my 

 mind. 



Mr. Jeffeey. If that juice is extracted from the comb, 

 and that extract subjected to the same treatment that it would 

 go through for making wine, it will contain its fermenting 

 properties, which show the presence of acid just as much as 

 if squeezed right from the grape. My reason for saying that 

 is, that in 1878 I had three or four stocks of bees from Avhich 

 I had extracted the honey. There were some apples lying in 

 a pile not over fifty feet from the hives, and the bees worked 

 on those apples very industriously. I extracted the juice 

 from the combs, gave it a chance to ferment, and it fermented 

 just the same as apple juice from the cider press. 



Mr. Burgess. May I make one suggestion ? We should 

 remember that the bees use the saccharine or sugary part of 

 vegetation only. I think some of us forget that fact when 

 we ask this question, — that bees do not like the acidulous 

 qualities of vegetation as they do the sugar. 



Dr. RiGGS. I would like to inquire if the Italian bee is 

 able to take the honey from the red clover ? I have heard it 

 stated that it could not. 



Mr. Jeffrey. To answer that question, I will give you a 

 statement from a gentleman who never saw an Italian bee 

 until this season. His name is William R. Keeler of Bantam, 

 Conn. There was a stock of Italian bees taken to his place 

 some time in June, this year. He was sick at that time, but 

 as soon as he became convalescent he went out to a clover 



