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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



specimen of the usual work of the bee — 

 that it is to all intents and purposes an 

 "alien," and not to be "naturalized" 

 and classed with honey — the proper pro- 

 duct of the hive. In that case, no stigma 

 which we can cast upon the spurious 

 article will have any tendency to throw 

 disrepute upon that which is of real and 

 precious value. 



To put honey-dew on the market as 

 honey, in my opinion, will do, and has 

 done that very thing, for the disgust 

 awakened by the former on the part of 

 the consumer, not aware of the fraud, 

 must cling more or less to the latter. In 

 using the term " fraud," I do not mean 

 to insinuate fraudulent practice on the 

 part of him who sells the article, but I 

 do mean that honey-dew is essentially a 

 spurious honey. 



But the Secretary says that honey-dew 

 only differs from honey in that it is ex- 

 uded by the aphis, and falls upon the 

 leaves, while honey and wax are exuded 

 by bees in the hive. There is a very 

 essential difference. Honey-dew, if the 

 work of aphides, is a secretion of that 

 insect. Certainly both of the articles in 

 question are alike secretions of the bee, 

 if either one is. In fact, both are gath- 

 ered by the bees and conveyed to the 

 hive in the honey stomach, where it is 

 regurgitated. The honey we eat or sell 

 has never entered the true stomach. 

 The honey stomach is simply a sac de- 

 signed for the use of the bee in carrying 

 food, nectar, etc., to the hive. The 

 aphides feed upon the sap of the leaves, 

 which digests in the stomach, enters the 

 blood, and is secreted in glands like 

 milk. Hence, if there is not a radical 

 difference between the two articles, I 

 cannot talk English. 



WHAT IS HONEY ? 



Mrs. Harrison rather agreed that 

 honey-dew is as really honey as any 

 other, and Mr. E. E. Hasty argues in 

 the December Bee-lCeepers' Review that 

 sugar syrup fed to the bees becomes 

 honey. Now, I tell folks that honey is 

 the nectar from flowers, but that it un- 

 dergoes some slight chemical changes in 

 the honey stomach. Webster says that 

 honey is " a sweet juice collected by 

 bees from flowers, and deposited in comb 

 in the hive." Prof. Cook is my other 

 principal authority. Are they correct, 

 or shall we call any sweet liquid (sor- 

 ghum molasses, for example) honey, that 

 the bees may carry into the hive? 



A VAIvUABLE FACT. 



One more point : Mrs. Harrison, in 

 her excellent essay, called attention to a 



most valuable fact. It is this : Mature 

 abhors self-fertilization. When the 

 pistils of the apple blossom, for example, 

 which contains the organs of both sexes 

 in one, are ready to receive the fertiliz- 

 ing powder, the anthers of that flower 

 have not opened, while by the time they 

 are burst the pistils are past that stage. 

 It therefore becomes necessary to trans- 

 fer the pollen from one flower to another. 

 Now it is that nature spreads a feast of 

 delicious, fragrant nectar which entices 

 the bees to those flowers. From blos- 

 som to blossom they flit, gathering the 

 pollen-grains from one flower and drop- 

 ping them into the open stigmas of 

 another. This is cross-fertilization, and 

 in fertilizing fruit-bloom bees are the 

 principal agents, inasmuch as they are 

 the only insects that have survived the 

 Winter in any great numbers. 



Now we often teach the use and neces- 

 sity of bees in the fructification of blos- 

 soms in a general way, but we fail to 

 give the tvhy and how. Here we have 

 them. A member of the Legislature or 

 a fruit-grower not posted as to facts, 

 may well be skeptical, and sharply in- 

 quire why ? how do you know ? or re- 

 ject the teaching altogether. But if the 

 above data are properly spread before 

 them, they are enough to convince any 

 reasonable man. General assertions 

 have of themselves but little power. The 

 potency of truth is in the details — the 

 proofs. It will do us but little good, I 

 fear, to skirmish around the truth in 

 this case. We should open the matter 

 to the core, and show that truth in its 

 nakedness. 



Mechanicsburg, Ills. 



Halliniaiiilj Oiit., Conyentlon. 



E. C. CAMPBELL. 



The Haldimand bee-keepers held their 

 annual meeeting at Cayuga, Ont., on 

 Saturday, Jan. 30, 1892. Israel Over- 

 holt, President, in the chair. The min- 

 utes of last meeting were read and 

 approved. 



The following officers were elected for 

 the current year : 



President — Israel Overholt. 



Vice-President — Robert Coverdale. 



Secretary and Treasurer — E. C. Camp- 

 bell. 



Directors — Jas. Armstrong, F. A.Rose, 

 Owen Fathers, M. Richardson and W. 

 Kindree. Auditors — James Jack and 

 Alex Stewart. 



Mr. Rose asked whether colonies of 



