1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



169 



ished at the array of samples he found 

 in the honey department. Before that 

 time his idea of houey was a conven- 

 tional one. Honey was houey, if it 

 didn't happen to be something else, 

 and, so far as he knew, there were but 

 two kinds — white clover and buck- 

 wheat honey. The one was light in 

 color, and the other dark. Here in 

 the big wholesale house was a revela- 

 tion. Before him stood a row of glass 

 jars, two dozen maybe, and each con- 

 tained a honey that differed in some 

 important respect from all the others. 

 Then it dawned upon him that honey 

 resembled coffee in one respect. Cof- 

 fee, as has been told in the Sun, comes 

 from at least 100 different parts of the 

 world, and the product of each place 

 has its distinct qualities that the ex- 

 pert can recognize and distinguish ; yet 

 all of it finally finds its way into the 

 household under the name of Java, 

 Mocha, Maracaibo, Rio, or ground 

 coffee. So with the honey. Let it 

 come from whei'e it may, and let it be 

 gathered from whatever blossoms, the 

 careless tradesman, indifferent to all 

 but his own ease in making sales, la- 

 bels it according to the easiest system, 

 and sells the products of north, south, 

 east and west, of flowers of all kinds, 

 under the universal heads clover and 

 buckwheat. Here were honeys from 

 Canada, from New England, New 

 York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Florida; from the Western States and 

 from California. In each jar -was a 

 long wooden stick flattened at each 

 lower end. 



"Try them," said the reporter's con- 

 ductor. 



The reporter was embarrassed as to 

 how this was to be done until his con- 

 ductor gave him some slips of white 



paper and showed him how to drop a 

 sample of the honey on one of these 

 and taste the sample by licking it off 

 the paper. Then he made a discrimi- 

 nating journey along the whole line 

 of the jars. Words can tell but little 

 of the gamut of sweets which he 

 sounded, but there were some differ- 

 ences between the honey that can be 

 described. Some were almost as color- 

 less as water, and these, as a rule, were 

 of the most delicate flavor. Some, 

 again, were yellow, and one a golden 

 hue, while the others were brown, and 

 varying from the lighter shades to 

 that of a good old Bass's ale. Some 

 wer e limpid, and others were heavily 

 charged with granulated sugar. 



"Those with sugar in them are old 

 crops," said the conductor. "Almost 

 every honey will granulate as it gets 

 old, and nothing will stop it. Many 

 persons think that this is a sign of 

 adulteration, but it is just the con- 

 trary. When the honey is all candied 

 be sure it is pure. 



"All these are samples of strained 

 honey," he continued "and the only 

 way in which you could be sure that 

 you would get any of the stock which 

 they represent in a pure state, when 

 you bought it at retail packed in bot- 

 tles, cruets, or tumblers, would be to 

 buy only of the most reputable gro- 

 cers w^hose word is a guarantee that 

 can be relied upon. Glucose is the 

 great adulterant used, and there is no 

 way outside of a chemical test to de- 

 termine its presence. You are liable 

 to get so-called houey which contains 

 anywhere from 10 per cent of glucose 

 to 90 per cent, and nothing but a 

 national pure food law will stop this 

 adulteration. If you want to be abso- 

 lutely sure of the purity of your 



