168 



THE; M'mMMlGMM MMW JO^OICMMEf. 



a section looks, the more attractive is 

 its appearance, and my experience is. 

 that after a section has gone through 

 the process of being filled — no matter 

 how smooth it may have been sand- 

 papered — when put upon the market 

 it does not look any better than those 

 which were steamed and sliced ; for, 

 if anything, a polished section against 

 it is ready for market, is more suscepti- 

 ble to stain, and does not look any 

 fancier or better to sell the honey for 

 enough more to make up the diflerence 

 in cost. 



Honey-producers may as well recog- 

 nize the fact, that the time has gone 

 by for obtaining fancy prices for honey, 

 as it has become a staple rather than 

 a luxury in our city markets. The 

 least expense we incur for fixtures in 

 the apiary, and in sliipping its products 

 to market, the better we will be pre- 

 pared to meet competition, and make 

 the industry a paying and profitable 

 l^ursuit. 



BEE-SCIENCE. 



What is Honey i It is Sot 

 Digested Xectar. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY U. JIILLAKD. 



Science, saj's Webster, is knowledge 

 reduced to system ; knowledge which 

 gives a positive statement of truth. An 

 analysis of science would be expressed 

 somewhat thus : Fact, 99 ; system, 1 — 

 total, 100 ; just system enough to hold 

 the facts together. 



Facts are deduced from theory, and 

 are tested by time and practical ex- 

 perience, and any theory that cannot 

 evolute itself up through this test, must 

 remain a theory. Presumptions, sur- 

 mises and probabilities are only crude 

 theorj- — not an atom of science about 

 them ; and apicultural science, to be a 

 science, should have no exceptions to 

 the above rtile. 



In the preface to a little volume 

 called " Cook's Manual of the Apiary," 

 edition of 1879, the author says: "I 

 make no apology for insertingso much 



of science in the following pages 



I am convinced tliat the people are 

 mentally hungry fur just such food." 

 Yes, and I ate of it myself, M-ith avid- 

 ity, and for years I have clierished a 

 high respect for that author and his 

 writings. 



On page 104 of that " Manual," the 

 author says : 



And what is honey? We can onlj' say 

 that it is a sweet substance, gathered from 

 flowers and other sources, by the bees. We 

 cannot, therefore, give its chemical compo- 

 sition, which would be as valid as the source 

 from which it comes. We cannot even call 

 it sugar; for it may be, and always is, com- 

 posed of various sugars; and thus it is easy 



to understand why honey varies so much 

 in richness, color, flavor, and efl'ect upon 

 our digestion. In fact, it is doubtful if 

 honey is a manufactured article at all. It 

 .seems most likely that the bees only collect 

 it and store it up, that it may admin- 

 ister to their and our wants. 



To be sure, some writers contend that it 

 undergoes some change while in the bee's 

 stomach; but the rapidity with which they 

 store, and the seeming entire similarity be- 

 tween honey and sugar fed to them, and 

 the same immediately extracted from the 

 combs, has led lue to believe that the trans- 

 ferring power of the stomach is very slight 

 — if it exists at all. 



In the foregoing, the writer does not 

 take positive grounds, yet his views 

 upon the subject appear to me to be 

 just as consistent with known facts of 

 to-day, as they did ten years ago. 



ACID FOUND IN HONEY. 



But as bee-culture advanced, and 

 honey came more into general use, its 

 chemical properties became better un- 

 derstood by many who discovered 

 what was previously known by a few — 

 that honey proper contained an acid 

 that did not exist in nectar as secreted 

 by the flowers — a fact not mentioned 

 by Prof. Cook in his " Manual," but 

 one which has for the last few years 

 caused much speculation as to its origin. 



At the convention held in Detroit, in 

 1885, Prof. Cook said: "No one 

 knows how or when the acid gets into 

 honey ;" thus assuming that it is in 

 some way added. It was then and 

 there stated as a belief that formic 

 acid was placed there by the bees dur- 

 ing the capping process, which was 

 carried on by the use of their tails, the 

 stings being the best polishiug-tool. A 

 statement from Father Langstroth 

 made there at that time, about the 

 ripening of honey, should be read and 

 remembered by every honey-producer 

 in the land. 



Some three years ago I inserted an 

 empty comb in a hive during a honey- 

 flow ; in about two hours it was taken 

 out, and the newly-gathered honej', 

 shaken out into a cup, into which I 

 introduced a coil of polished steel wire, 

 and after an exposure of over an hour, 

 it showed no perceptible signs of cor- 

 rosion. The same placed in a cup of 

 old honey, blackened in a very short 

 time, thus proving the presence of 

 acid in the ripened honey. 



The litmus paper test will prove the 

 same thing ; but neither test proves 

 how it gets there. Acid is a natural 

 inheritant of all vegetable sweets. 

 Nectar is a vegetable sweet, and the 

 only source of pure honey. 



THE RIPENING OF HONEY. 



If nectar could be gathered from the 

 flowers as fast as secreted, and imme- 

 diately subjected to a temperature of 

 150'^, Fahr., it would be converted into 

 cane sugar, or nearly so ; but this the 



bees are unable to do — they can sub- 

 ject it to no higher degree of heat than 

 the interior of the hive. This they do, 

 and at the same time it is excluded 

 from sunlight : for when evaporated 

 at a low temperature, sunlight hastens 

 fermentation, which increases the pro- 

 portion of acid ; so that the process is 

 in part that of a slow evaporation, and 

 partly a curing process similar to that 

 of wine-making, differing in that the 

 material is more dense, and, as the 

 density increases, fermentation de- 

 creases until it reaches its equilibrium; 

 it is then in a condition to cap ; so that 

 the process is a combined one, properly 

 called "ripening." 



HONEY NOT MADE FROM SUQAR. 



Sugar syrup fed to bees will be 

 acted upon in precisely the same way, 

 the length of time required varying 

 proportionately with the density of the 

 material and the degree of heat. Dur- 

 ing the process it is confined to the 

 inner atmosphere of the hive; in close 

 proximity to, or mixed in, the cells 

 with honey and pollen, and all warmed 

 by the heat of the bees' bodies ; it be- 

 comes, in a measure, assimilated to 

 honey, t. e., it has a similar taste and 

 odor ; but easily distinguished bj' any 

 one familiar with pure honey. 



Sugar syrup, or honey digested in 

 the bees' stomach, would be assimi- 

 lated to the bee's body, and converted 

 into chyme, to be used as such, or 

 further converted into blood to form 

 tissue. 



Maple sap exposed to sunlight and 

 a warm atmosphere, will soon sour ; 

 but if taken fresh from the tree, and 

 rapidly evaporated at a high tempera- 

 ture, it will make good sugar that will 

 granulate, whereas in the first case it 

 would only make a syrup that might be 

 called " maple glucose," i. e., it would 

 have a maple flavor, but could not by 

 any process be convertible into sugar 

 that would granulate. Much of the so- 

 called maple syrup found in the mar- 

 ket is of that kind — purely maple, but 

 not properly produced. 



In Prof. Cook's article on page 647, 

 of the American Bee Journal for 

 1889, he fails to make any discrimina- 

 tion between a degree of heat that 

 would only induce fermentation, and 

 one that would rapidly evaporate ; 

 neither does he mention any difference 

 in the results. By making sepai-ate 

 tests, and a proper continuation of the 

 two degrees of heat, followed bj' cool- 

 ing, maple sap would be converted into 

 sour sap, or granulated sugar : cider 

 into vinegar, or a dense substance 

 known as " boiled cider ;" sugar syrup 

 into sour syrup or granulated sugar ; 

 nectar into sour nectar, or cane-sugar ; 

 or, if fermentation be stopped at the 

 proper stage by excluding the atmos- 



