1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



549 



against spring feeding because they were 

 counter to his notions. Suppose, again, he 

 were to hold back all others of the same 

 character — clearly he would be molding his 

 journal to his own notion of orthodoxy, and 

 in time Gleanings would be a one-horse 

 publication. 



These remaiks on the policy of Gleanings 

 are dictated by the one who has been longer 

 at the editorial helm than any other person 

 on the force — namely, E. R. R. We are her- 

 alding no new policy, but an old one that 

 has been undergoing a slight revision. 



U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE BULLETIN NO. 

 110: CHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND COMPO- 

 SITION OK AMERICAN HONEY, BY 

 C. A. BROWNE AND W. J. 

 YOUNG. 



Mr. N. E. France, General Manager of 

 the National Bee-keepers' Association, placed 

 on exhibition before the convention that was 

 held in St. Louis during the year of the ex- 

 position 100 samples of honey which he had 

 obtained from members in various parts of 

 the country. A larger and more representa- 

 tive collection of American honeys has prob- 

 ably never before been obtained. These, ap- 

 parently, were subsequently placed on ex- 

 hibition in the great exposition where they 

 could be further seen and studied. 



To Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, in charge of apiculture, belongs 

 the credit of procuring these samples for the 

 government. These were assigned to the 

 Bureau of Chemistry, the head of which is Dr. 

 Wiley, himself a sugar chemist, who in turn 

 placed theru with Dr. C. A. Browne, anoth- 

 er accomplished and skillful sugar chemist, 

 who subjected ihem to a long and searching 

 investigation. Forty more samples were se- 

 cured from elsewhere, notably from the Ha- 

 waiian Islands, where abnormal honeys are 

 common. The pollen in the different sam- 

 ples was examined by Mr. W. J. Young, as a 

 means of further identifying the source from 

 which the nectar came. 



Taken all together, we have as a result a 

 brilliant contribution to the subject of Amer- 

 ican honey analysis, equal at least to that 

 possessed by any other nation. Hereafter 

 we have a guide to the subject that is safe, 

 scientific, and authoritative, for Prof. Browne 

 has so well done the work assigned to him 

 that there is little left for others to do, though 

 the author thinks he could have extended 

 the investigation still further. It is to be 

 hoped he will be allowed to do so. 



With the data so carefully collected and 

 tabulated, the pure-food authorities of this 

 country are now in position to do justice to 

 all the claims of the American bee-keepers. 

 Some of the latter were just a little afraid 

 the "big stick" might be applied to them, 

 when, as a matter of fact, they were quite 

 innocent of any wrong-doing. In this book 

 the information is tabulated ready for use, 

 such as a court of law requires in a pure- 

 food case. Hitherto such information was 

 unobtainable. In this way justice will be 



promoted, and the interests of bee-keepers 

 protected. 



Some of the facts elicited by the investiga- 

 tion are quite new; for example, 20 per cent 

 of the samples showed no signs of granula- 

 tion. This is surprising. The two most im- 

 portant of the non- granulating honeys are 

 tupelo and sage, both southern honeys of 

 high purity and quality. 



Evidently honey-dew is easily detected, for 

 the report says, "The presence of much hon- 

 ey-dew in a sample could usually be detected 

 by the very marked molasses-like odor and 

 flavor." This looks simple enough, and yet 

 it may be quite an accurate test. 



It is almost unnecessary to say that an ex- 

 tended inquiry of this kind elicited a number 

 of new facts; for example, on page 42 we 

 find the following: 



"The statement is sometimes made, that a 

 pure honey will rarely polarize more than 

 -20° V. at 20° Cent., and that a higher read- 

 ing than this, while not conclusive evidence 

 of adulteration, may well be looked on with 

 suspicion. This statement is hardly borne 

 out by the analytical results given in the 

 table, where 16 of the 100 honeys examined 

 polarized more than -20°, the results going 

 as high as 24 6° in a tupelo honey and 24.8° 

 in a mangrove." Tupelo honey had an in- 

 vert polarization of -28.38° at 20° C, and 

 yet contained 7.24 per cent of non-sugars. 



It is very evident from this that tupelo 

 honey is of very high quality, and yet it must 

 be admirably suited to the purposes of the 

 baking trade. For a long time bakers have 

 preferred southern honey for their uses, and 

 it is evident they have a good rjeason for so 

 doing. One result of the publication of this 

 book will be to raise the selling price of tu- 

 pelo honey. It is clear that it has been un- 

 derestimated. 



Errors in present-day methods of analysis 

 were detected by the author. For example 

 he says, "The error resulting from a neglect 

 of the phenomenon of birotation in the cal- 

 culation of sucrose in honeys by Clerget's 

 formula has already been mentioned. Anoth- 

 er very serious error is that due to the change 

 in the specific rotation of the levulose of the 

 honey after the inversion by hydrochloric 

 acid. This error in sugar analysis has been 

 so thoroughly studied by Lippman and oth- 

 ers that no detailed study of it need be un- 

 dertaken here Folman, who has recently 

 made an investigation of this error, shows 

 by analysis that many honeys which, when 

 analyzed by the Clerget method, appeir to 

 contain cane sugar, contain in reality none 

 at all, the errcr in many cases exceeding 1 

 per cent." Adding his own experience, Dr. 

 Browne arrives at the following decision: 



" On account of numerous errors just cited 

 in connection with the Clerget method, and 

 the difliculty of introducing any correction 

 for these errors, the determination of sucrose 

 in honey, when accuracy is required, should 

 be made only by the gravimetric method. A 

 neglect of this precaution might cause injus- 

 tice to the producers. Honey No. 23, for ex- 

 ample, had been found to contain 8.95 per 



