lSt)3 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



11 



These are facts: Honey is tlie stored li(iuid 

 product of bees; and, as shown above, this is 

 usually digested cane sugar. In case bees feed 

 on glucose or iioney-d(>\v, which is. very likely, 

 glucose, and so needs no digestion, tlien it would 

 be stored without translornuilion or digestion. 

 The nectar, which honey coni(>s from, is very 

 varied. It is usually lu'ctar from plants, mostly 

 from Howers: it may be from sap of stubble or 

 maple-trees: then it is cane sugar, jusi what 

 we feed in feeding cane sugar syrup: it may be 

 from fungi, as ergot: it (piite often is from 

 lioney dew. and may be in such cases excellent, 

 or raiiU and bitter. Thus no man can ever cer- 

 tify that his honey is pure floral honey. In 

 very many cases this would b(> false. 



Honey from cane-sugar syrup, then, is honey. 

 No other position, it seems to me. is possible, 

 else we never know that we have any pure 

 honey. Floral honey is digested nectar plus a 

 trace of formic acid. ;itid possibly other ele- 

 ments from the digested liquid, (tins a slight 

 trace of organic eleuK'nt from the flower which 

 gives the peculiar flavor of each kind of honey. 

 This is very slight and mild in clover honey: 

 pronounced in bassvvood. and sharp and pun- 

 gent in buckwheat. It is not always desiiaiile. 

 We should be glad to miss it in buckwheat 

 honey. Honey from cane sugar syrup is the 

 same as the above, except that the last element 

 is wanting. I have shown that this is honey. 

 I had three excellent chemists aiuilyze it, and 

 they could not distinguish it frctm the best 

 clover and basswood honey. Forty of my stu- 

 dents tested it and pronounced it honev of ex- 

 cellent quality. Two of our ablest Michigan 

 bee-keepers, Messrs. .James Heddon and T. F. 

 Bingham, pronounced it hon(>y, at our associa- 

 tion last week, and honey that is reputed first- 

 class. Read my article, friend Root, and you will 

 see that I did not say that they could not dis- 

 tinguish it from linden houi'y. though Mr. Hed- 

 don pronounced it just that. Tlie chemist 

 could not do that, for tlVe aromatic flower ele- 

 ment, even in basswood. is very slight in quan- 

 tity. We see, then, that it is good; it pleases 

 the palate; it will sell. Peo[)h^ will not object 

 to it. for they will have no reason to object. 

 Again, it is wholesome. We feed it to bees, and 

 they like it, and often thrive better on it for 

 winter food than on other honey. Some honey 

 from flowers is not wholesome for people or 

 bees. So we may safely say that this is better — 

 more wholesome— than some floral honey. 



Yoit say. friend Root, that we add honey to 

 (xnie-siKjitr sijmp to prevent granulation. Cer- 

 tainly we add it to cane-sugar syrup, not cane- 

 syrup honey. Cane syrup does crystallize very 

 readily; but cane-syrup honey does not. There 

 is some before me, side by side with basswood 

 honey. They have been together all winter. 

 The basswood is wholly candied, but the other 

 would run out of the bottle. Your experience 

 is not mine. Cane-sugar syrup is changed to 

 honey, and does not readily granulate, while 

 the syrup does crystallize quickly, and so we 

 add acid or honey to prevent it, else our feeders 

 are crusted over with the crysl:ils, and our bees 

 often suffer seriously by being stuck up or 

 coated with the sugar crystals. 



IJut why produce sugar-syrup honey V and 

 why say any thing about it? First, we have 

 found that we can not always produce any 

 other. Such has been practically the case in 

 Michigan for the last thrive years. Now, if the 

 bee-keeper can secure honciy — good honey — 

 despite the season, is it not good to know it? 

 Surely it is, if it can b(* done at a profit. The 

 experiments here and in Mr. Hutchinson's 

 apiary th<' past year se(>m to prove that it can 

 be. by the expert apiarist. I believe I can i)ro- 

 duce fine comb honey in this way at a good 



profit. To my mind, the objections are not 

 valid ones. The arguments for— bread and but- 

 ter for our loved ones— are blessed ones. 



"But," says one, "it wil' simply make honey 

 cheaper, and so be really no advantage." Ch(>ap 

 honey means honey for everybody. Isn't that 

 a pleasant thought? Again, cheap articles sell 

 w liere (expensive ones hang to the owner. 

 Cheap articles are far more ready to become 

 staples. Thes(> two aids appeal with th<> fact 

 of certainty to my ideas of right and l)lessing. 

 (Jranting that hom-y (.s cheapened, it will not 

 come at once; and in the mean time all who 

 can produce this honey profitably will reap a 

 double benefit. 



Again, to feed at a prolit reipiires skill, and 

 will make better bee keepers, and will reward 

 hard study and effort. Now. friend Root, let 

 us throw aside \isionary troubh^s. our " doubts 

 and fears." and all work for what tlu^ tfuth 

 and fact urges as our right and privilege. 



I have no doubt that sugar syrup honey will 

 be produced largely next year. If it is genuine- 

 ly good, as I fully believe, and feel sure it will 

 prove, then I have no fear of a market. If it 

 can be produced at a profit, then it will be pro- 

 duced. No om^ will be wronged, but I believe 

 our whole fraternity will be helped. I know of 

 no class whom I should like to see prosper, with 

 more sincere satisfaction. A. .1. Cook. 



.Agricultural College, Mich., Dec. 10. 



[The following is the article that appeared in 

 the Bee-keepers' Reiiiew. and which, at the 

 request of Prof. Cook, we publish:] 



WHAT IS HONEV V SOMETHING IN DEFENSK OK SU(!AK 

 HONEY. 



It is not always that our dictionaries are to be 

 iclied upon to it'll us the truth. This is illustriited 

 l)y our latest, and, so far as 1 know, our best, the 

 Century. In it honey is deti nod as " tlie sweet sub- 

 stance of tiowers, ti'iithered l>y the liees." It takes 

 but very little iiivestifjution to actually prove that 

 this is iui error. It seems to tiie tliat tlie hest defl- 

 nitiou we can possibly give is tliis: Honey is digest- 

 ed nectar. Ex'ery one understands that honey is 

 the liquid product of bees which they store in the 

 cells of their comb. This substance has been known 

 from time immemorial as honey. Tlie merest <-hild 

 and the unlettered rustic, as well as the scholar, 

 agree to this last statement. It is a truism too evi- 

 dent for ctxitradiction, too generally recognized to 

 require any argument. 



The other dettiiititm, that honey is digested nec- 

 tar, is just as true, though not as evident to the 

 unleai'iied. The detliiition offends the tastes and 

 sensitive notions of many good people, and espe- 

 cially bee-keepers, who dread to see any— even an 

 imaginary- stigma cast upon tlieir v>ets or the prod- 

 uct of the apiary, bet me urge that any such state- 

 ment, if truth, need distpiiet no one. We all should 

 desire the truth should willingly dig for it, scatter 

 it when found, and defend it at all hazards, espe- 

 t-ially so if we have to ilo with nature's secrets, for 

 these are God's own truths. But why should any 

 one be ofl't nded at this detinition '/ We all know that 

 honey iscariied in t he lioriey-stomacli and i>inptied 

 from" it into the cells of the comb. I think it must 

 come from a wrong notion of dfgestion. Digestion 

 is simply changing our food so that it ean be ab- 

 sorbed. ' It nia\ he simply liquefaction, though 

 many sul)staiices. like lilood - albumen, the albu- 

 minous material of milk, and cane sugar, may be in 

 solution or in a licpiid stale, and yet must t)e chang- 

 ed digested bc^fore absorption can take place. 

 These sulistances can not pass rapidly— possibly not 

 at all, from the stomach tlirougli to the blood, ex- 

 cept that they are digested. Digestion makes them 

 no less clean," no less wholesome, no less nutritious. 

 It simply makes them available, practically useful. 

 Meld in" the stomach, t hey would be heavy indeed, 

 (.'hanged hy t he digest ive feiments, they pass rap- 

 idly and eiisily into tite lilood, and hasten on to 

 nourish the tissues. If we eat cane sugar, we have 

 to digest it : if we eat honey, it has already been di- 

 gested. Therefore it may be true, as some i)hysi- 

 cians have argued, that honey is a safer food for 

 those with weak and delicate stomachs than is our 



