102 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



b. Lately, here in Vienna, a farmer's wife went 

 about the city asking "who desired to purchase 

 honey ?" A careful housewife, closely examining 

 her honey, exclaimed — "This is no honey, but 

 potato syrup." The farmer's wife frankly re- 

 plied : "Behold, gracious lady, I have sold a 

 great deal of this, but no one discovered that it 

 was not honey ; since, however, you have dis- 

 covered it, I will bring you true honey." That 

 honey is mixed with syrup, has been long known, 

 but that pure syrup should be sold as honey, 

 without the purchasers at once discovering it, 

 one would not think possible, and satisfacto- 

 rily proves how little this merciful source of 

 nourishment and health is used. 



c. Honey has also been mixed with the juice 

 of carrots, which is readily detected by the 

 cloudy, dark color of the honey and its carroty 

 taste. 



' d. Like all other creatures, the bees are sub- 

 ject to disease, among which foulbrood is the 

 most dangerous and malignant ; this disease is 

 also contagious and often destroys whole apia- 

 ries. If the disease becomes malignant, it pro- 

 duces a most contagious odor in the hive, and 

 there is no other remedy but to destroy both the 

 hives and bees. 



Should the honey of such a stock be mixed 

 with that of others, it will carry the contagious 

 matters with it, and whoever feeds such honey 

 to his bees, will bring this sickness into his own 

 apiary ; especially on this account is the honey 

 of Poland, Hungary, Russia and America to 

 be decried, as there all kinds of honey are mixed 

 together in the barrels and sent to market. 



With us there are often foulbroody stock, and 

 is mixed by the purchasers or sellers with other 

 honey, and often, for the purpose of obtaining 

 a higher price, is this disease concealed or de- 

 nied ; hence, it is dangerous to purchase honey 

 for feeding. 



I advise, in the purchase of honey for feeding, 

 that there be no disputing over a kreuzer, when 

 one is purchasing from a trusted, just, conscien- 

 tious person ; since a cheap purchase, especially 

 when the honey comes from a distance, often 

 results in the ruin of the whole apiary. For 

 ordinary use, some may imagine, such honey is 

 without danger ; but who would use the honey 

 of a foulbrood stock ? Not I. 



e. Beebread is the pollen of the flowers, which 

 the bees gather 'from the blossoms of plants, 

 mix with some honey, fasten to their hindlegs, 

 and place it in the cells and cover with wax. It 

 decays readily ; the instinct of the bee teaches 

 it therefore not only to gather pollen continually 

 from the same species of flowei'S (which can be 

 readily seen, if we examine the color of the balls 

 of pollen on the legs of the bees), but they seek 

 to prevent, as long as possible, the fermentation, 

 by covering the top of the cells with honey ; 

 yea, further, should a cell, with gathered bee- 

 bread not be filled by the same species of pol- 

 len, then some honey is put between the two to 

 protect it from spoiling. In spite of all these 

 precautions, the bee-bread will not remain good 

 longer than the following spring. 



What, however, does man do ! he preserves 

 often for months, the combs filled with honey 



and pollen, and then obtains the honey through 

 pressure or heat, whereby much of the sweet 

 material is lost, and is also mixed with various 

 foreign substances, as fermenting pollen, dead 

 brood, dead bees, the rubbish of old cells, the 

 combs mouldy, and perhaps, soiled by the filthy 

 excrements of bees suffering from dysentery, 

 all of which soon develop and spread their dam- 

 aging qualities, and rob the honey of all its 

 health-giving qualities. 



/. " But I," says Mr. B., " have surely not been 

 deceived ! To be entirely safe, I purchased my 

 honey from a tiaie-hearted, honest looking far- 

 mer, and owner of a number of swarms ; and 

 besides, this man assured me that I could no- 

 where obtain such good honey as his." 



O, how often is the admired rural simplicity 

 only a cloak for refined rascality, and many a 

 plain appearing farmer is a worthy follower of 

 Garrick in the art of dissimulation. Would 

 you, dear reader, have believed that this honest 

 farmer most shamefully swindled his purchaser, 

 and gave him the poorest kind of honey? 



This hypocritical dealer truly had a bee hive ; 

 but this was only a decoy, whereby he succeeded 

 in enticing purchasers in selling his mixtures. - 



He' is ignorant of bee-culture, and does not 

 find it to be worth his while to learn, but pur- 

 chased his needed wants from the cake-bakers, 

 or at the market, wherever he could purchase it 

 cheapest. He pays no attention to its quality, 

 but buys the worst, and often sells the most dis- 

 gusting stuff to easily deceived purchasers, and 

 laughs over his skill at deception. Also, the 

 honey offered for sale in the streets of Vienna, 

 by women and children, if it even be honey, is 

 the refuse ware of a neighboring cake-baker, 

 which the deceiving country people give out as 

 their own produce, and thereby do a very thriv- 

 ing business. 



In speaking of the adulterating of honey, I 

 must mention also the products of the cake-ba- 

 ker, as gingerbread, Westphalian rye-bread, &c, 

 and quote what honored Nestor in bee-culture, 

 Pastor Dettl, says: "To all the products of 

 the cake bakery, necessarily belong honey. The 

 same products form sugar, often only made from 

 sugar syrup, are sweet, often, however, stale, 

 often having a nauseous taste, when not palpa- 

 ble, unhealthy. The pleasant healthy honey 

 aroma is wanting." And this is the nvore to be 

 regretted, when it is to be remembered that pro- 

 ducts are so eagerly sought after by the chil- 

 dren, who derive no good from them, but on the 

 other hand, they havo their health injured by 

 them. 



III. 



How can Honey regain its sphere of usefulness ? 

 How shall it be obtained, purified, preserved, 

 and used ? 



Above all, it is necessary to understand bee- 

 culture scientifically, and to advance it practi- 

 cally, aided by the perfected knowledge derived 

 from the teachings of anatomy, chemistry, the 

 microscope, and the discoveries resulting from the 

 movable comb hives of that earnest apiarian, 



