650 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MatI 



cent sucrose by the Clerget method, a larger 

 amount than that allowed by the standard 

 (8 per cent)." This is an important deci- 

 sion for a government chemist to arrive at. 



It may be well right here to state that the 

 United States standard for honey is as fol- 

 lows: "Honey is lievo-rotatory, contains not 

 more than 25 per cent of water, not more 

 than 25 per cent of ash, and not more than 

 8 per cent of sucrose." Most sugars deflect 

 a ray of light to the right when subjected to 

 polarization in a polariscope, but honey de- 

 flects it to the left as much as 24 degrees, 

 hence it is termed lajvo-rotatory, • or left- 

 handed This action is due to lajvulose su- 

 gar in the honey. Honey also contains dex- 

 trose, but the Ifevulose seems to be the more 

 powerful, and deflects the ray to the left. 



The author made one very important dis- 

 covery, one which is likely to be of far-reach- 

 ing importance in the future determination 

 of adulterations in honey. He says: "In 

 other words, 50 per cent of the honeys ex- 

 amined gave a constant * ranging from 26 to 

 28°; 80 per cent from 25 to 29°, and 95 per 

 cent from 23 to 30°." He here refers to hon- 

 eys which have been "inverted" by means 

 of strong hydrochloric acid and then tested 

 in the polariscope." 



It is clear that a honey that does not come 

 in between these figures is suspicious to say 

 the least. This discovery is worth a good 

 deal to the bee-keepers of America. He says: 

 ' ' It will thus he seen that we have a constant 

 for honey which will be as valuable in analyt- 

 ical work as the Reichart-Meissl number is 

 in the examination of edible fats.'" 



As regards moisture in honey, the average 

 amount was 17.90, with a range of from 12.42 

 to 26.88. This shows that American honey 

 is 3 per cent dryer than German honey, and 

 German honey is dryer than British. This 

 is due to our dryer climate; but honey-buy- 

 ers ought to note this, and act accordingly. 

 Nevada honey is dryer than that of Missouri, 

 for the former had only 14 61 per cent of 

 water, whereas the "show me" State had 

 19.57 per cent. It is a truism to say the lo- 

 cality having the highest rainfall has the 

 highest percentage of water in the honey 

 produced. 



As we might expect, very careful consid- 

 eration was given to the subject of honey 

 adulteration in all its relations. From what 

 we glean, it is abundantly clear that our 

 greatest danger arises from adulteration by 

 the use of syrup made from invert cane su- 

 gar. Glucose is easy of detection. The au- 

 thor thinks that, if bee-keepers were more 

 careful in naming the source on the label, it 

 would greatly facilitate the detection of adul- 

 teration, and that is undoubtedly so. He 

 says bee-keepers are exceedingly careless, 

 and apply the name of almost any flower, 

 thinking that they keep within the require- 

 ments of the law so long as their product is 

 pure honey. This is a mistake, and more 

 care would assist the bee-keeper as well 



* Constant in this case refers to a certain range of 

 reading allowable in honey on the scale of the polar- 

 iscope. 



as the pure-food oflieials. For example, 

 if a sample of honey is labeled tupelo or 

 sage, the ofiicial chemists could tell very 

 quickly if it was by its behavior in the po- 

 lariscope, as they know just what to look 

 for at once. 



A feature of the report is the examination 

 of the honey-dew honeys of the Hawaiian 

 Islands. There, almost the only pure honey 

 comes from the mesquite, which was intn^- 

 duced there many years ago. In localities 

 where it is common, mesquite yields largely 

 of the very best quality of honey; but in the 

 sugar-growing districts the bees feed on the 

 exudations from the sugar-cane, caused by 

 insects. This results in honey-dew honey, or 

 right-handed honey. It will be remembered 

 that Uncle Sam has refused to allow this 

 honey to be sold as normal honey. If sold 

 at all it must be denominated "honey-dew 

 honey." 



There ia quite a list of methods given for 

 discovering different kinds of adulteration. 

 These will be extremely useful to food chem- 

 ists everywhere, and it is in this the chief 

 value of the work lies. Food chemists who 

 are not particularly well versed in the latest 

 modes of examining honey will find here 

 just what they require, and no doubt this 

 was the object of Prof. Brown's studies. We 

 say this because some might think this is a 

 book for bee-keepers, which it is not. 



As a further means of detecting adultera- 

 tion in honey, Mr. W. J. Young was detail- 

 ed to examine the samples to discover the 

 origin of the pollen in them. Almost all the 

 samples contained several kinds of pollen. 

 For example, catclaw honey from Texas con- 

 tained, in addition to catclaw pollen, rosace- 

 ous, hop, mesquite, labiate, coniferous, eve- 

 ning-primrose, cruciferous cactus, magnolia, 

 cotton, composite (three kinds), ellipsoidal 

 (four kinds), and subtriangular types were 

 also found. Goldenrod honey from Maine 

 contained five kinds of pollen of the compos- 

 ite type, probably including dandelion, gold- 

 enrod, and aster. There was also white and 

 red clover, cruciferous ellipsoidal (probably 

 willow), basswood, rosaceous (raspberry), 

 and ericaceous types. The subject of pollen 

 is well illustrated. Possibly, in some cases, 

 examination for pollen may be the quickest 

 method of detecting fraud. 



At the end is given an excellent bibliography 

 of all the chemical literature of honey from 

 1892 to 1907. This is a valuable feature. 

 These are mostly from German sources, but 

 several are by Americans and Canadians. 

 Not one is written by an Englishman. There 

 are 89 monographs mentioned, so that the 

 literature of honey is not small by any means. 

 We note, also, that some French work of re- 

 cent date is not mentioned in the list, prob- 

 ably because we go to Germany for our chem- 

 ical knowledge. All together this is an ex- 

 cellent contribution to our knowledge of 

 American honeys, highly creditable to all 

 concerned. It may be purchased from the 

 Superintendent of Documents, Washington, 

 D. C, at the price of 30 cents. Five cents 

 more to foreign countries. w. k. m. 



