1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



785 



the top a perfect mass of pink blossoms; and 

 over this sea of bloom the bees swarm by tens 

 of thousands, from morning till night, for six to 

 eight months in the year. Its attraction for the 

 bees is wonderful. I have stood, with watch in 

 hand, and counted 37 bees in 5 minutes seel\ing 

 nectar out of the same flower. I have done this 

 several times, and found the average to be a 

 fraction over 5 bees a minute. I believe this is 

 ahead of all other record'* of the kind, and 

 marks the Antigonoii leptopus as foremost 

 among honey-plants, in point of attraction for 

 the bees, by the bountiful secretion of nectar 

 and duration of period of bloom. 



James K. Duke. 

 Orlando, Fla., Sept. 22, 1893. 



iYou will find the bee-hawk mentioned under 

 Inemies of Bees," in the ABC of Bee Cul- 

 ture, and also in " Cook's Manual."' We do not 

 often hear of their depredations, however, and 

 we understand they can easily be driven away. 

 Regarding the self-spacing frames with pro- 

 jections on one side, we would say that we ad- 

 vertised them for sale, but there was very little 

 call for them. The trade is wholly for projec- 

 tions on both sides. There is no difficulty in 

 handling either kind, so far as propolis is con- 

 cerned, when you once know how ; and the 

 many advantages they possess over the non- 

 spacing kind place them clear at the head.] 



CAN HONEY BE CORRECTLY TESTED 1 



EXAMINATIONS BY DIALYSIS, ETC. 



The adulteration of honey has for a long 

 time been a question of great interest to all 

 bee-keepers, and a ready means of detecting it, 

 is anxiously looked for by all those having the 

 interest of the industry at heart. In the 

 American Bee Journal of July 4, page 105, 

 Professor Cook gives a summary of the con- 

 clusions he arrives at from the experiments 

 made under his directions at the Michigan 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. The Bulle- 

 tin 9fi, " Honey Analysis," contains experiments 

 made with about Go samples of honey by Prof. 

 H. W. Wiley, of the Agricultural Department 

 at Washington, by Prof. M. S. Scoville, of Ken- 

 tucky Agricultural Experiment Station at Lex- 

 ington, and by R. C. Kedzie. Chemist at Mich- 

 igan Agricultural College. These experiments 

 show that professional "'chemists can easily 

 distinguish honey adulterated with glucose," 

 and that they detected two samples which 

 were adulterated "purposely." 



This is certainly so far very satisfactory; but 

 had the analyses been made from some of the 

 spurious honey, said by some to be on the 

 market, and the source of the adulteration 

 detected and exposed, it would have been much 

 more to the purpose. Chemists are. no doubt, 

 able by laborious processes to detect adultera- 

 tion in almost any thing; but what bee-keep- 

 ers, and those interested in pure honey want, is 

 some ready method by which a person of or- 

 dinary intelligence can detect adulteration for 

 a certainty, never mind the source, when this is 

 ascertained; then the chemist can be applied 

 to for confirmation and details.Vc 



EXAMINATION OF HONEY' BY DIALYSIS. CU 



Dr. Ihienle, of Strasburg, has experimented 

 with various samples of honey, and has given 

 the public the benefits of his research. He 

 describes the process, and the apparatus 

 required, and appears to think that dialysis is 

 a sure and simple method by which the purity 

 of honey can be ascertained. That the process 

 Is simple will readily be conceived when we 



find his fee was only two marks (50 cts.) for the 

 analysis of a sample of honey sent him. This 

 honey had been purposely adulterated, and in 

 his report he says, "There is an adulteration of 

 23 per cent with glucose." This was practical- 

 ly correct, I believe. 



But chemists generally do not accept his pro- 

 cess, as will be seen from the following, taken 

 from the C Jiemiker Zeitung: .-"ZD 



REPORT OF TH. WEIGLE, OF NUREMBUBG, ON "THE 

 DIALYTIC EXAMINATION OF HONEY," PRESENT- 

 ED AT LINDAU AM BADENSEE, AUGUST, 1893, 

 I 'AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AS- 



_ SOCIATION OF BAVARIAN REPRESENT- ZDj^IS 

 C^; ATIVES OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY, ^^^j,- 



Weigle concludes from various experimeiits con- 

 ducted by him, in an apparatus made at Strasljurg, 

 precisely aecoiding- to Hienle's instructions, with 

 careful observation of tlie conditions given by tlie 

 hitter in his lidok, that tlie dialytic examination of 

 honey is applicable only in cases in wliich there has 

 been considerable adulteration with impure starch 

 syrup (glucose); and even then, only when the ab- 

 sence of coniferous honey is assured, as this 

 behaves dialytically in essentially the same manner 

 as honey ndulterated with Impure starch syrup. 

 Additions of cane sugar, or invert sugar, as they 

 occur at present in the market under the names of 

 fruit sugar {Frucht-zitckcr), or honey sugar (Zucker- 

 honig) are not to be detected by dialj'sis. 



A quantitative determination by dialysis, of the 

 extent of the adulteration witli impure starch 

 syrup, is, according to Weigle, quite impracticable. 



Weigle concludes that tlie dialytic process does 

 not, under any conditions, possess any such de- 

 cided significance as attributed to it by Haenle— a 

 view which was unanimously joined in by the 

 association. 



After this report of Weigle's, and the consen- 

 sus of opinion expressed by a large body of the 

 Bavarian association, experts in applied chem- 

 istry, bee-keepers can hardly accept H*nle's 

 process as conclusive; and the simple plan by 

 which we can with certainty detect spurious 

 honey has not yet been made plain to us. 



John M. Hookek. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 15. 



[We think there is a simple way of detecting 

 glucose; see Gleanings, p. 103, for particulars, 

 this year; also pages 254, 275. J 



WATER-CURE, GRAHAM BREAD, ETC. 



HOAV TO MAKE GENUINE GKAHAM GEMS. 



I have often felt a desire, as the years have 

 come and gone, to thank you for the outspoken 

 words of Gleanings in behalf of water-cure. 

 It is nearly fifty years since Henry C. Wright, 

 an American, a public speaker and a co-worker 

 with William Lloyd Garrison, lost the use of 

 his voice. He placed himself under the care of 

 Pressnitz, the founder of water-cure, at Graf- 

 fensburg, (Jermany. During his stay at this 

 wonderful cure (from which he returned home 

 with health and voice restored), Henry C. 

 Wright wrote letters weekly which were pub- 

 lished in Tlte Liberator, the paper then publish- 

 ed by th(i immortal Garrison. In all the years 

 since the initial education of the American 

 people in water-cure by those letters in the 

 Liberator I have taken a quick and increasing 

 interest in it. Water-cure implies letting alone 

 all manner of pills, big and little, as well as all 

 sorts of bottle stuff. It embraces good air and 

 wholesome food. 



I should like to tell you about graham flour. 

 It is the product of the whole wheat. Dr. 

 Graham, in " Science of Human Life," devotes 

 forty pages to bread-making, where he tells the 

 reasons why the whole-wheat flour is better. 

 That which is made at Akron, and sold by 

 grocers everywhere, is not to be compared with 



