710 



ITHU MMERICSP« ®B® J©^MIfMI^. 



§m 



HONEY-PLANTS. 



Ooldcn-Rod — CoiiiparUoii with 

 Other Hoiiey-Producers. 



Written for the American Bee JoumaX 

 BY Z. T. HAWK. 



I have beea greatly interested in 

 I'eading the reports regarding the value 

 of golden-rod as a honey-plant. In 

 the pleasant evenings of the past sum- 

 mer, a good many informal bee-con- 

 ventions met on my veranda in Deni- 

 aon, Iowa ; and the one absorbing 

 question was, " What are the resources 

 of our range ?" 



The willows and early spring flowers 

 gave our bees an excellent start in 

 brood-rearing, and fruit-bloom tided 

 them over to the opening of white 

 clover. But day after Any our hopes 

 sank lower, for the " off days" of the 

 clover were so many that the bees 

 barely lived. We watched the bass- 

 wood with great anxiety, and July 1 — 

 the date on which the first petals 

 opened — was a greater day with us 

 than the Fourth. M3' 26 colonies be- 

 gan work in supers enough to give me 

 500 pounds of honey, had they com- 

 pleted them, but that was not to be. 



A large pasture of Alsike clover car- 

 ried them through the starvation 

 period of two or three weeks that 

 always follcrvvs the blooming of bass- 

 wood, and, during this interval, it be- 

 came evident to me that the large 

 weed, Oaura biennis, is coming to the 

 front in our vicinity as a bountiful 

 yielder of both honey and pollen at a 

 time when it is much needed. 



This weed is of comparatively recent 

 introduction in Western Iowa, but it is 

 spreading with great rapidity, and fast 

 monopolizing waste places on rich 

 bottom-lands and favorable situations 

 on uplands. From early morning un- 

 til 9 or 10 o'clock, it yielded nectar in 

 astonishing quantities, the drops at the 

 base of the stamens being as large as 

 small bird-shot, and a branch suddenly 

 shaken would wet the hand with the 

 stick}' liquid. 



The earlier sources of surplus hav- 

 ing failed us, our discussions turned 

 upon the fall flowers, and their rela- 

 tive value to the bee-keeper. The fact 

 was developed that our " club " had 

 only a wavering faith in the golden- 

 rod, though I am inclined to think 

 that we owe more of our fall surplus to 

 it than is at first apparent. Tlie odor 

 of this flower is not to be mistaken, 

 and I have yet to see the September in 

 Iowa — unless it was this year — that 

 the merest novice, in going among my 



bees, would not sniff the air and say, 

 "golden-rod." 



Our bees are usually busy in the 

 sections until frost comes, and it fre- 

 quently happens that there are few 

 flowers besides golden-rod in bloom so 

 late in the season ; yet I am compelled 

 to acknowledge that it has been on 

 rare occasions only, that I have seen 

 bees at work on it in large numbers. 

 It yielded well in 1886, but in 1887 

 there were only two days that the bees 

 paid any attention to it— at least so far 

 as I was able to determine. But those 

 were two good days, for the meadows 

 and pastures fairly roared with bees 

 from morning until night, and every 

 yellow head and raceme seemed to 

 have three or four excited little work- 

 ers contesting possession witli tlie black 

 beetles. 



In 1888 I had no opportunity to ob- 

 serve the golden-rod, but this year I 

 noticed the bees quite busy on the tall 

 racemed variety, three days early in 

 September. Possibly they worked 

 some on it later, but I had no oppor- 

 tunity to see them. I onlj- know that 

 it yielded no surplus. 



There are four varieties of the plant 

 here, and the bees usually work on all 

 alike. I am inclined to rank heart's- 

 ease as the best of our autumal plants 

 for honey, and golden-rod second, with 

 a large element of uncertainty about 

 it. The asters are very plentiful here, 

 but I am satisfied that they cut abso- 

 lutely no figure in this locality as 

 honey-plants. After seven years of 

 close observation, I have failed to see 

 a single bee visit them. 



Audubon, Iowa. 



HOlfeY. 



Some Facts Pertaining to tlie 

 Prodiietion of Honey. 



Written Sor the American Bee Journal 

 BY DR. J. W. M'KINNEV. 



I do not wish to make a " surprise " 

 party of the little " honey discussion" 

 incidentally fallen into with Prof. 

 Cook, but sincerely I am "surprised " 

 at the pertinacity with which the Pro- 

 fessor adheres to the dogma of honey 

 being " digested nectar." 



On page 647, he says th.at he " be- 

 lives no scientific authority teaches 

 other than that nectar is cane-sugar, 

 and honey, for the most part, reduci- 

 ble sugar Now there are two 



ways that the cane-sugar can be 

 changed to honey — either by boiling 

 with acid, or by animal ferment ;" and 

 he goes on to say, " As the bees can- 

 not do this in the first way, they must 

 do it in the second." 



To avoid a lengthy article, I will 

 just say the eminent chemist,Maumene, 



has found that cane-sugar undergoes 

 the change into uncrj'stallizable sugar 

 when kept for a long time in aqueous 

 solution, as well as when heated with 

 acids. Saubeiran admits the cliange 

 of uncrystallizable into grape sugar, 

 but attributes it to a molecular trans- 

 formation of the sugar, independently 

 of the action of an acid ; as according 

 to his observation the conversion takes 

 place only after rest. In confirmation 

 of his views, this chemist states, " that 

 he found the same to be produced by 

 boiling sugar with water alone.^^ 



For want of a better term, we might 

 be permitted to say that the acid, to 

 which the Professor refers in the pro- 

 duction of honey, exists isomerically in 

 the juices of fruits, in all saccharine 

 juices, and in nectar as well. That is 

 to say, that the acid, or its equivalent, 

 exists in these substances, and it is not 

 at all necessary to call in the aid of 

 the honey-bee, or tax its energies to 

 furnish an acid for the manufacture of 

 honej'. 



In support of this matter of the pre- 

 existence of acids in saccharine juices, 

 etc., I will simply quote what Prof. 

 Franklin Bache says, when speaking 

 of the manufacture of cane-sugar. He 

 says : 



" The acids naturally existing in the 

 saccharine juice, have the effect of 

 converting the cane-sugar into un- 

 crystallizable sugar, by which a loss of 

 the former is sustained." "The lime " 

 (added in manufacturing sugar) " by 

 neutralizing these acids, prevents this 

 result." "The change in sugar which 

 precedes fermentation, namely, the 

 conversion of cane-sugar into the un- 

 crystallizable kind, points to the neces- 

 sity of operating on the juice before 

 that process sets in ; and hence the 

 advantage of grinding the canes im- 

 mediately after they are cut, and boil- 

 ing the juice with the least possible 

 delaj'." 



Thus we see that not only this 

 formerly emlneut teacher of chemistry, 

 but author as well, recognizes the ex- 

 isting fact of tlie presence of an acid, 

 or acids, or their equivalents in sac- 

 charine juices. 



I can hardly believe for a moment, 

 that any one, much less Prof. Cook, 

 would deny the presence of an acid, or 

 its equivalent, in the grape, as well as 

 in the juices of most other fruits. By 

 what process of reasoning, or chemical 

 demonstration, he arrives at the con- 

 clusion that nectar, a veget.able juice, 

 secreted by the nectaries of flowers, 

 does not possess the acids, or their 

 equivalents, common to all saccharine 

 juices, is very strange. 



If the Professor would take this ra- 

 tional view of the matter, recognizing, 

 as all scientific authoi-ity does, the 

 presence of acids or their equivalents in 



