a94 



THB BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



change, and the cane sugar is trans- 

 formed into two other sugars — grape 

 sugar and fruit sugar. This transforma- 

 tion is brought about through the action 

 of a secretion produced by glands situ- 

 ' ated in the head of the bee, and is similar 

 in operation to saliva in a human being. 

 I might say, parenthetically, that, later 

 in the day, after the reading of this 

 paper, the discussion of feeding sugar for 

 winter stores came very near precipitat- 

 ing a discussion of that old, tabooed sub- 

 ject sugar-honey. One man, even in the 

 face of so good an authority as Mr. 

 Cowan went so far as to assert that sugar 

 syrup fed to bees remained sugar syrup. 

 "It is sugar when you feed it to them," 

 said he, "it is sugar when they store it, 

 and it is sugar when they eat it. It is 

 sugar from the first chapter to the last." 

 Farther along in his paper Mr. Cowan 

 said: "We prize honey not because it 

 consists, as the chemisjt would say, of 

 sugar and water, but because it possesses 

 a delicate aroma and flavor, which is 

 always absent from, and can not by any 

 known means be imparted to, any arti- 

 ficially made syrup. Glucose, and even 

 cane sugar that has been given to bees to 

 store in the combs, are totally devoid of 

 the aroma of honey." 



One of the principal methods of detect- 

 ing adulteration of honey is by the use of 

 the polariscope. The chit of the whole 

 matter is contained in the following 

 paragraph : — 



"The rotation of the polarised ray to 

 the left of levulose is greater than the 

 rotation of the same quantity of dextrose 

 to the right. Therefore, when mixed to- 

 gether, as they are in honey, the polarised 

 ray is twisted to the left side. .\11 other 

 sugars turning to the right, it is clear 

 that whatever saccharine admixture is 

 made to honey, the mixture must polarise 

 to the right, thus possessing perfectlv dis- 

 tinct optical properties, distinguishing it 

 from genuine honey." 



Mr. Cowan gave descriptions of how 

 the different adulturations may be de- 

 tected bv the use of chemicals, but there 

 is not room to copy them here, and the 

 descriptions can not be condensed. 



EXTRACTED. 



DKVELOPING SHORT-TUBED CLOVER. 



Some of the Pifficulties Experienced by an 

 Experimenter. 



When the discussion regarding longer 

 tongued bees and shorter tubed clover 

 blossoms was begun my mind at once re- 

 verted to an interesting experiment with 

 clover made years ago by my old friend, 

 E. E. Hasty, of Richards, Ohio. One 

 of the most interesting articles that he 

 ever wrote was his account of this' experi- 

 ment. If I remember correctly, it ap- 

 peared in the Bee-Keepers' Exchange, 

 published at that time by J. H. Nellis. It 

 was one of those first articles that Hasty 

 wrote; and it attracted my attention at 

 once and gave me a liking for the author. 

 I wish that I could now find and repro- 

 duce that article, but I might hunt for it 

 half a day and then not find it. lam not 

 entirely disconsolate, however, as our 

 friend Hasty has recently written on the 

 same subject in Gleanings, and he is now 

 able to give us some conclusions that he 

 was unable to put into the first article. 

 Here is what Mr. Hasty says: — 



"FrieJid E. 7\. Roof: — You call me out 

 on the clover-developing proposition. Yes, 

 I was in that effort quite a long time — 

 grew cold at length, and let the multiplic- 

 itv of other thinfs cause me to drop out. 

 Perhaps the indifference of the bee public 

 helped me a little in getting cold; and if 

 Dr. Miller's call for renewed effort gets 

 lots of volunteers I may wake up and 

 "tag on." 



.\nd what can T tell to the new volun- 

 teers which will be to their profit? Per- 

 haps not ver}' much. I'll advise them to 

 keep distinct in their minds the three 

 kinds of work to he done. Call them, if 

 vou please, A work and B work and C 

 work. The A of it is to go into the fields 

 and select short-tubed clovers. Better 

 take plentv of time and do lots of this, as 

 this is likely to be the most encouraging 



