REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 



Sir: I bave the honor to submit herewith a report on the operations 

 of this division during the past year. 



In this report will bo found a r6sum6 of the principal work carried on 

 by the division, divested of such merely technical information as might 

 be of use to the professional chemist but not to the agriculturist. 



In the preceding year a considerable amount of wor]^; was done by the 

 division in the analysis of dairy products, having for its object the de- 

 termination of a standard of good milk and butter and the detection of 

 the extent of the adulteration which these substances are subjected to. 

 It was hoped that this work might be continued during the year which 

 has just passed, but the magnitude of the work required by the ex])eri- 

 ments in the manufacture of sugar rendered this plan impossil^le. Nev- 

 ertheless the importance of the study of food adulterations in general 

 appears to bo of so great importance that it has been continued by an 

 investigation of houey and its adulterations. It is the purpose of the 

 division, in accordance with your suggestions, to extend such investi- 

 gations so as to include all the more irai^ortant varieties of food. 



hoin^et and its adultbeations. 



Pure honey is the nectar of flowers passed through the organism of 

 the bee and stored in a comb. Adulterated honey is any compound or 

 preparation known or sold as honey, which has not been formed in the 

 manner described. Chemically considered, therefore, pure honey con- 

 sists of tho substances gathered by the bee from flowers, subjected to 

 such modifications as they may undergo in the insect laboratory through 

 which they i^ass. 



The saccharine exudation of flowers consists of a mixture of various 

 sugars, containing in the form of pollen a small quantity of nitrogenous 

 matter. The exact number and kind of sugars in the nectar of flowers 

 has never been determined. Wilson* estimated the reducing sugar and 

 sucrose in the nectar of certain flowers. All the sugars, however, reduc- 

 ing copper, were classed as glucose. In general, the total quantities of 

 such sugars were greater than the sucrose present. In the iiower of the 

 red clover the glucose was three times as much as the sucrose. Since 

 in pure honeys there is very little sucrose, it follows that the chief change 

 which the nectar undergoes before it appears as honey is in the inver- 

 sion of sucrose. 



During the last year several samples of honey have been examined, 

 some of which were known to be genuine and others of unknown origin. 



• Chemical News, vol. 38, p. 93. 



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