AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



179 



found to be pure fabrications, consist- 

 ing of cane-sugar syrup with about 3 

 per cent, of alcohol. They contained no 

 honey whatever. 



I have thought the members of this 

 Association might be interested in see- 

 ing some of the apparatus and re-agents 

 which are employed in the analysis of 

 honey, and in looking at some of the 

 operations of a chemical nature. I have 

 on the table here the principal appara- 

 tus and re-agents employed in such ex- 

 aminations, and which I shall take 

 pleasure in showing the members. 



(The polariscope and chemical ap- 

 paratus used in honey analyses were ex- 

 hibited and explained to the audience.) 



In conclusiou, permit me to say that 

 the work of the Department has shown 

 that of the liquid honeys on sale, 

 bought in open market, nearly 45 per 

 cent, are adulterated. Every bee-keeper 

 can see at once how greatly enhanced 

 in price the product of his industry 

 would be should such adulteration be 

 prohibited and prevented. It is neces- 

 sary that all should work together in 

 harmony and in earnest to secure this 

 result. The bee-keepers will find the 

 Department of Agriculture hereafter, 

 as heretofore, doing everything in its 

 power to detect and prevent the adul- 

 teration of honey. H. W. Wiley. 



Prof. C. V. Riley — There is such a 

 difference in honey obtained even from 

 natural sources, and it is so difficult to 

 be able to know exactly from what source 

 a sample comes, that I regard it as ex- 

 tremely doubtful if the chemist will ever 

 be able to say positively in regard to the 

 puriiy or impurity of all samples. 



A. N. Draper — Can a person who is 

 not a chemist, by the use of litmus 

 paper, or some chemicals, determine in 

 regard to the purity of honey ? 



Prof. Wiley — No, sir. It requires 

 great skill and training, and the proper 

 apparatus. 



Although Prof. Wiley thought that 

 there was so much adulterated honey on 

 the market, he doubted if it was of a 

 character that was injurious to health. 

 He considered glucose a healthful food, 

 but said that its use robbed the bee- 

 keeper of selling just so much honey. 

 (Continued next week.) 



A New Era in the Production of 

 Honey. 



Written for the A.merir,an Bee Journal 

 BY J. F. LATHAM. 



Webster's Pocket Dictionary we offer 

 as a premium for sending only one new 

 subscriber with $1.00. It is a splendid 

 Dictionary — and just right for a pocket. 



If the conventicle spirit of the times 

 is portentous, it is apparent from the 

 gist of the discussions emanating from 

 some of our "leading bee-keepers," that 

 a new system of honey-production is in 

 process of evolution. Whether it is to 

 result in bee-manipulation, or the ab- 

 sence of "bee-mediation," much depends 

 upon the definition applied to the terms, 

 as the basis of the movement indicates, 

 in a ratiocinative aspect, that a reaction 

 is in progress of inauguration strongly 

 tending to artificial mediation, which 

 may culminate in raising the "scientific 

 pleasantry " to the head of the list. 



Sugar-honey ! Glucosed honey ! ! Is 

 not the lauded " gift of the gods " fall- 

 ing into disrepute ? Then, again, "honey- 

 dew honey " — a newly-coined Anglicism 

 — is placed on the list of honeys as an off* 

 spring Corpus sinepectore ; for mutual 

 adoption by the apiarian world. 



What is to become of the pure nectar 

 from the flowers — Honey — that has re- 

 ceived so much admiration in poetry and 

 prose for more than 30 centuries ? 

 Surely, if the medical qualities alone of 

 honey are a sham, I fear Pluto's domin- 

 ions may not be adequate for the immi- 

 gration to his realm ; and an overflow 

 will be left behind to chant the virtues 

 of sugar-honey. 



But enough of this. Let us stir up the 

 witch's cauldron, and try a survey of 

 the contents. 



First, it may be asked with propriety 

 in what exists the necessity of feeding 

 sugar syrup to bees for the purpose of 

 obtaining honey by the process ? How 

 often we have been told in the bee- 

 papers, by our mentors in bee-knowl- 

 edge, that sugar syrup fed to bees, and 

 stored by them in the combs, will be 

 sugar syrup still. That has been my ex- 

 perience while feeding sugar syrup for 



