The American Apiculturist 



% ^anxml latbaUla to BtmxMc aitb IPractiral g^Bke^jptiig. 



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Published Monthly. S. M. Locke & Co., Publishers & Prop'rs. 



VOL. III. WENHAM, MASS., DECEMBER 15, i! 



No. 12. 



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HONEY AND ITS ADUL- 

 TERATIONS. 



5v Prof. H. W. Wiley. 



Pure honey is the nectar of flowers 

 passed through the organism of the 

 bee and stored in a comb. Adulter- 

 ated honey is any compound or 

 preparation known or sold as honey 

 which has not been formed in the 

 manner described. Chemically con- 

 sidered, therefore, pure honey consists 

 of the substances gathered by the 

 bee from flowers, subjected to such 

 modifications as they may undergo 

 in the insect laboratory through which 

 they pass. 



The saccharine exudation of flow- 

 ers consists of a mixture of various 

 sugars, containing, in the form of 

 pollen, a small quantity of nitroge- 

 nous matter. The exact number and 

 kind of sugars in the nectar of flowers 

 24 



has never been determined. Wilson^ 

 estimated the reducing sugar and su- 

 crose in the nectar of certain flowers. 

 All the sugars however reducing cop- 

 per were classed as glucose. In gen- 

 eral the total quantities of such sugars 

 were greater the"' thf sucrose present. 

 In the flower di die red clover the 

 glucose was three times as much as 

 the sucrose. Since in pure honey 

 there is very little sucrose it follows 

 that the chief change which the nec- 

 tar undergoes before it ^^pears as 

 honey is in the inversion of sucrose. 

 During the last year I have had 

 examined by the Division of Chem- 

 istry of the Department of Agriculture 

 a large number of honeys some of 

 which were known to be genuine and 

 others of unknown origin. 



Following is a description of the 

 various samples examined : 

 No. I. Choice golden rod honey from 

 Wm. Thompson, Wayne Co., 

 N. Y. Price 25 cents per lb. 

 No. 2. Choice comb honey from 

 Githuns & Rexamer, Phila., 

 Pa. Price 25 cents per lb. 

 Same as No. 2. 



No, 

 No, 

 No, 



Strained honey marked C. O. 



Perrine, Ind. Price 20 cents 



per lb. 

 No. 6. A very dark honey exhibited 



at Indiana Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation. 

 No. 7. Choice clover honey from 



Charles Israel, N. Y., 25 cts. 



per lb. 

 No. 8. Pure white clover honey, 30 



cts. per lb., marked G.R.X.X., 



Pennsylvania. 



iChem. Xe^vs, Vol. 38, p. 93. 



(265) 



