American Hee Journal 



(tartaric acid), a reduction is obtained 

 called inversion, and the result is /«-, 

 verted sugar, composed of two sugars 

 differing from cane sugar: f,'lucose and 

 lei'iiiuse (Ch H12O6 ). 



This artificial honey is therefore 

 made entirely of inverted sugar, and 

 its manufacture has been so perfected 

 that it is difficult, even for a well-in- 

 formed chemist, to find the difference 

 from pure honey, except tlirough spe- 

 cial chemical reactions. 



Another preparation is made of a 

 mixture of pure honey with sweet sub- 

 stances, such as the glucose syrup of 

 commerce (crystal syrup, corn syrup) 

 or inverted sugar above described. This 

 may contain 10 to 50 percent of pure 

 honey. 



These products are currently sold in 

 commerce, and the sales are authorized 

 by law if the goods are properly labeled. 

 Unfortunately, in the hope of a consid- 

 erable profit, some makers do not hesi- 

 tate to label those mixtures " pure 

 honey," and it is easy to appreciate the 

 great damage done to honest honey 

 producers. I have often had the task 

 of making chemical e.xperiments, as 

 official chemist of the " Societe Cen- 

 trale D'Apiculture," and of the"Syn- 

 dicat de Defense de I'Apiculture Fran- 

 caise." These tests are very delicate 

 and require great attention, but with a 

 little practice one succeeds in uncov- 

 ering the fraud. 



Another class of adulteration which 

 is rarely found is produced either vol- 

 untarily or involuntarily by the api- 

 arist by feeding sugar syrup to the bees. 

 The analysis of this product is ex- 

 tremely difficult. Luckily this sort of 

 adulteration is not sufiiciently profit- 

 able to be much practiced. 



When Mr. C. P. Dadant called at my 

 laboratory for the second time on Oct. 

 8 last, I had the pleasure of making be- 

 fore him several reactions of honey, to 

 establish the difference between this 

 and adulterated goods. Although there 

 is perhaps less fraud in the United 

 States than in Europe, we have thought 

 that it would be interesting for the 

 readers of the American Bee Journal 

 to make simple acquaintance with the 

 chemistry of honey. We say in French: 

 " Cn homme avcrti en vaut deux": or 

 in English, in shorter words, " For- 

 warned, forearmed." 



I will show, in my next contribution, 

 the methods now in use to make the 

 most simple trials of honey adultera- 

 tion. 



Meanwhile permit me to state that I 

 should be very glad and thankful to 

 receive, from American beekeepers, by 

 parcel post, samples of honey of their 

 crops. I would gladly send them in 

 return copies of the tracts which I 

 have published. My address is: :i3, 

 Rue Du Docteur Blai:che, Paris, France. 



The Ontario Honey Crop and 

 Prices 



BY R. F. IIOI.TERMANN. 



I HAVE READ the timely remarks 

 of J. L. Byer, under the heading of 

 "Canadian Beedom," and an item 

 under the New York State Bee- 

 keepers' convention report by F. 

 Greiner, in which Mr. S. D. House is 



reported as stating "that in Canada 

 they had successfully settled the ques- 

 tion as to " setting and maintaining the 

 price of honey." 



I am in entire accord with Mr. Byer's 

 statement that " a curtailment of pro- 

 duction should be the slogan rather 

 than efforts to produce more honey." I 

 have seen for quite a time what matters 

 were heading up to — a crash. Bee- 

 keepers' associations have allowed 

 themselves to be tools for the produc- 

 tion of more beekeepers, individuals 

 have allowed their best reports to be 

 used to illustrate what profits could be 

 made from beekeeping and — I speak 

 advisedly — individuals have given out 

 untrue reports of their profits from 

 bees, the education and training a bee- 

 keeper needs have been minimized, and 

 the gross returns and net profits were 

 very closely related. I have undertaken 

 in the Canadian press, to hoist danger 

 signals, but they have gone unheeded. 

 It is by no means the first time that I 

 have pointed out mistakes in connec- 

 tion with the industry, and I have been 

 ignored for a time, then the path I had 

 pointed out had to be followed, and the 

 same is true again. They laugh best 

 who laugh last, is an axiom well worth 

 remembering. I said that I could stand 

 present developments just as long as 

 the rest, and I did. 



At present there is a large quantity 

 of honey in Canada unsold. The West 

 has carloads and carloads of honey 

 which has been shipped to it, unsold. 

 The Ontario Beekeepers' Association 

 which undertook to sell beekeepers' 

 honey, sold a few carloads. By what 

 line of justice and equity some of the 

 beekeepers' honey was disposed of, 

 and others had theirs left on their 

 hands I know not, but the great ma- 

 jority either have their honey still on 

 their hands or had to dispose of it 

 themselves as best they could. 



A man called at my house recently 

 who sold half of his honey, some 11,000 

 pounds, at a cent less per pound than 

 the price set by the association, and 

 was lectured for so doing, and told he 

 had just thrown away a cent a pound 

 on that portion of his crop. He could 

 then not even sell it at the cent less 

 which he had refused on the advice 

 given him. I could give more such 

 illustrations. The fact is that with a 

 very light honey crop reported by the 

 association for eastern Ontario and 

 Quebec, there has been an over produc- 

 tion. Hard times have reduced the pur- 

 chasing power of the people, and honey 

 sales have decreased. 



The Ontario association seeing that 

 it cannot handle the honey crop has 

 dumped that responsibility on county 

 associations; in other words, it has 

 brought to birth a child (a large honey 

 crop) and laid it at the dooi of another 

 house to be taken care of and brought 

 up, county associations selling it. 



As to Mr. House's statement that in 

 Canada we have solved the problem of 

 setting and maintaining the price of 

 honey, let me tell him no, we have not. 

 The comb honey markets have gone all 

 to pieces. Instead of getting $3.00 a case 

 for comb honey as recommended, it 

 has gone down as low as $1.75 per 

 dozen for No. 1 comb honey, and is 

 not bought at that price, and in the 

 West I have some 1500 dozen fancy 

 and No. 1 mixed comb honey which I 



am trying to sell at ,$2.40 a dozen to 

 the retailer, and have been for (i weeks, 

 and that price is not making much im- 

 pression on the dealer and consumer. 



The Honey Committee has no doubt 

 helped to make prices stable, but, after 

 all, what made the prices has been the 

 demand for the goods and the limited 

 supply; in other words, what makes 

 prices is " supply and demand." The 

 demand has fallen off, and the price 

 fixed by the committee has not been 

 maintained. 



Some may quote prices from various 

 papers. Let me say such things do not 

 fool me — I have been at the game too 

 long to be blinded. The dealers are 

 filled up with stock; they are not pre- 

 pared to sacrifice, and they give these 

 prices. But let the beekeeper try and 

 sell at anything like such prices and he 

 will soon find out the value of such 

 quotations. 



In fixing the price of honey much 

 more has to be considered than the 

 honey crop ; perhaps some important 

 items have not received the considera- 

 tion they merit. There is one thing 

 quite sure, andthat is thatwith the way 

 the honey market has gone of late; it 

 leaves matters in a very bad shape for 

 the opening of the market after the 

 honey crop is harvested for 1914 — if we 

 get any crop. 



Brantford, Ont. 



Encouraging Beginners 



BY THE OrTlMIST. 



SHALL WE ENCOURAGE begin- 

 ners ? Certainly, why not ? Mr. 

 Byer, in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal for January, says we should 

 not, because in any line there is 

 Buch a thing as overproduction, and 

 In Ontario at least honey production 

 has reached this point. I wonder if 

 Mr. Byer is not just at present making 

 plans to increase his number of colo- 

 nies in 1914 so that he can himself 

 increase the amount of honey pro- 

 duced? 



To my mind there might be two or 

 three reasons why we sfiould not en- 

 courage beginners besides the one 

 which Mr. Byer has advanced. First, 

 if the country is already overstocked 

 with boes, then of course it would be 

 useless to encourage more beekeep- 

 ers and simply increase the number of 

 colonies and correspondingly de- 

 crease the production per colony. 



Secondl.v, beginners should not be 

 encouraged if the business of beekeep- 

 ing docs not pay. In other words if 

 the beginner cannot have the assur- 

 ance that his bees if properly man- | 

 aged will give returns which will 

 justify time and money expended, 

 then he should under no condition 

 be encouraged to embark in the busi- 

 ness. 



A third reason which might bo ad- 

 vanced would bo that the danger from 

 spread ( f beo diseases would be 

 greatened by the addition of beginners 

 to the beekeeping ranks. 



The first of these three reasons I 

 think we can dismiss at once, as I 

 do not think that any one will claim 



