1917 



AMERICAN BF.I- JOURNAL 



.33.3 



1 had tlic entire super; you Iiad not. 



"How many years have I argued 

 that goldenrod honey was white? 1 

 have been disputed many times. I 

 knew it to l)e as white, nearly, if not 

 quite, as white clover honey. But all 

 others, for the most part, said it was 

 not white, but anywhere from a light 

 amber to dark. They told mc that 

 what I called goldenrod honey was 

 aster honey. 



"Now you come along in one of 

 your 'Answers' and say tliat aster 

 honey is dark. 



"Where is a poor man to put up at, 

 anyway? 



"As usual, I shall have to put up at 

 this statement : I am right ; you are 

 all wrong. 



"Last season was peculiar here. 

 Sumac, my old reliable, failed. White 

 clover, the fickle, gave a crop. Then 

 along in August two of my apiaries 

 got in touch with an alsike field. How 

 the honey rolled in for a few days, 

 till the field was hayed! Strong colo- 

 nies filled two supers and started a 

 third. No more honey came till gol- 

 denrod began to bloom. The bloom 

 was very profuse and the bees de- 

 serted everything for goldenrod. I 

 have not seen such a flow for some 

 fifteen years. Well, sir, those strong 

 colonies that had started the third 

 super of alsike finished it with gol- 

 denrod. If you have eaten that sec- 

 tion of honey you doubtless got the 

 flavor of the goldenrod near the sides 

 and bottom, and the clover from the 

 middle. 



"I have many sections and some 

 much better illustrations, showing 

 plainly where the two varieties of 

 honey ended and left off in the cap- 

 pings, there being a distinct ridge or 

 line between the two. I had saved 

 three such to send away, but a thief 

 broke in and ran off with those very 

 sections, confound him. Now mark, 

 I could tell wdiere one began and the 

 other left off by the comb, but not by 

 the color of the honey. Only by tast- 

 ing could I tell the difference in the 

 honeys. 



"I have often explained why so 

 many people think goldenrod honey 



is dark. It is simply because a little 

 dark honey will color a lot of white 

 honey. A lot of white honey will not 

 whiten even a little dark honey. Few 

 people have ever obtained the golden- 

 rod honey in its purity. It is more 

 often dark with me than pure white. 

 The same is true of apple-blossom 

 honey. This honey is not quite as 

 light as clover, bcinfi a more decided 

 straw color. But it is not at all 

 dark, not even amber. Only last 

 night I was taking supper with a 

 friend. He said he had got a few 

 sections of apple-blossom honey and 

 brought on two of them. It was de- 

 licious. I had not seen a section for 

 fifteen years. It was very light in 

 the center of :he section, where the 

 honey had come in pure, but the 

 outer portions were amber, being 

 tainted with huckleberry honey. 



"Give my love to the ladies and 

 grant forgiveness for trying your 

 good patience. I appreciate your 

 trials in the question box. 



"Aster honey is as colorless as 

 water, and when candied, and it will 



candy before you can get it to run 

 ihrougli fine cheese cloth, the result 

 is as white as the driven snow. Now 

 will you be good? 



"Most sincerely, • 



"ALLEN LATHAM." 



Now, what am I to do? People 

 ask me all sorts of questions about 

 things of which I have no personal 

 knowledge, and parrot-like I repea't 

 what other people say. For instance, 

 aster and goldenrod honey. Plenty of 

 aster and goldenrod here, but seldom 

 a bee seen on them. Just flies and 

 wasps. How do I know what the 

 honey is like? Everybody — well ev- 

 erybody but Allen Latham — says the 

 honey is dark. How am I to tell? 

 Possibly it may turn out that some 

 localities have it light and some dark. 

 I think heartsease honey is generally 

 rather dark, yet I'm pretty sure I've 

 seen it as light as clover. 



The section in question, so far as 

 looks are concerned, would readily 

 pass for white clover. More than that, 

 the flavor is good. I'm glad if friend 

 Latham gets a whole lot of it. 



oi Fr\ \ \l 



L. LEATH. CORINTH, MISS. 



J. E. MARCHANT'S QUEEN-REARING APIARY 



Like enough Mr. Latham has struck 

 the explanation when he says a little 

 dark honey colors a lot of light. A 

 spoonful of ink will darken very per- 

 ceptibly a cup of water, while a 

 spoonful of water will not percepti- 

 bly change the color of a cup of ink. 

 — C. C. M. 



(May the Editor put in a word, too? 

 We do not know of our own knowl- 

 edge of the color of goldenrod 

 honey, for the bees very rarely work 

 upon it in this locality. But aster 

 honey is very white here. We know, 

 for we have had barrels of it har- 

 vested by the bees when there was 

 nothing else to be had. 



Perhaps, probably, there is a dif- 

 ference in the color of honey from 

 similar bloom in different places, es- 

 pecially when they are as far apart 

 as Illinois and Connecticut. — Editor.) 



