GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



L. G. Saiigier 



M. G. Dadant C. P. Dadant H. C. Dadant 



DADANT & SONS. SKE EDITORIAL. 



L. C. Dadant 



and other like trees, and consequently, in 

 addition to being of a dark color, almost 

 black, its taste is almost disagreeably rank 

 and strong; yet with this honey the Italian 

 cook prepares many very delicious dainties. 



The honey of England as a whole is in- 

 ferior to that of the south of Europe, both 

 in hue and taste, and contains much more 

 wax, though in districts where buckwheat is 

 cultivated it is much better, the improve- 

 ment arising from the flowers of that plant. 

 One does not include in this, of course, cer- 

 tain noted tracts where certain flowers 

 flourish especially. 



But the honey of all honeys is found far 

 a-sea. It is not the much-boasted and very 

 inferior honey of Hymettus in Greece, but 

 that obtained in the island of Bourbon, a 

 dependency belonging to France, north of 

 the Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. 



It as far surpasses Narbonne as Narbonne 

 surpasses the other honeys of Europe. Its 

 color is a light green ; and owing to the 

 heat of the climate it must be kept, owing 

 to its liquidity, in black wine-bottles or in 

 stone jars. It is not obtained from the 

 domestic bee, but is found in the woods, in 

 hollow trees, where it is deposited in such 

 quantities that from three to four hundred 

 pounds are often taken from the same 



trunk. Its extraordinary rare flavor arises 

 from the great variety of aromatic flowers 

 which fill the forests and sparse woodlands 

 of Bourbon. The Mauritius, Rodrigaies, and 

 Reunion Islands, though also growing many 

 varied nectars for the bee, do not produce 

 this particular kind of honey — the green 

 honey of Bourbon. 



In flavor, a beautiful kind of honey found 

 in Georgia, Asia Minor, comes close to the 

 Bourbon, but it is of a different substance 

 wholly. Deposited by the bees in the clefts 

 of rock, it crystallizes and becomes hard. 

 This honey is not viscid, but is like the 

 white sugar-candy exported from China in 

 its very finest and purest erj^stalline condi- 

 tion. If kept a long time, it takes on a 

 yellow tinge. It is rich in saccharine, but 

 contains no mucilage, and will, therefore, 

 not ferment spontaneously. In Constanti- 

 nople it is considered a great rarity, and 

 by the natives of Persia it' is considered to 

 be the true nectar, giving sweetness and 

 roundness of flavor to their favorite honey- 

 ed sherbet. 



At the present time it is worthy of note 

 that one of the finest honeys in Turkey is 

 that produced by the bees from the aromat- 

 ic labiates so abundant on the now blood- 

 drenched peninsula of Gallipoli. 



Rayleigh, Essex, England. 



