CHAPIilR IV. 



WHAT BEES COLLECT, AND WHAT THEY 

 PRODUCE. 



Bees collect three different sorts of raw materials, all 

 of vegetable origin : (i) the sweet liquids secreted by 

 plants in the nectaries of their blossoms, or exuded on 

 parts of their leafy structure ; (2) the pollen, or fecundat- 

 ing dust of plants ; (3) resinous matter exuded on various 

 parts of some trees and plants. They produce, on the 

 other hand, honey, wax, bee-bread, and propolis. This 

 distinction must be borne in mind if we wish to be 

 precise both in our ideas and our mode of expression. 



HONEY. 



The raw material of the honey is entirely a vegetable 

 production ; it is excreted or thrown off by the plant, 

 from the superfluity of its saccharine juices, which, 

 when subjected to chemical analysis, are found to consist 

 of nearly the same constituents as all sugars, starch, 

 gum, and other non-nitrogenous vegetable secretions, 

 namely, of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, the two latter 

 in the proportions required to form water. This nectar, 

 therefore, does not contain any of the nitrogenous or of 

 the mineral substances furnished by the soil, and which 

 require to be returned to it, in some degree at least, by 

 the use of manures. Liebig and other chemists have 

 proved that all the elements of the non-nitrogenous 

 vegetable substances are derived from the atmosphere 

 and from rain-water; it is clear, therefore, that no 

 quantity of honey produced in any district can tend to 

 impoverish the soil from which the nectar is collected.* 



* This matter was fully dealt with in the third edition of 

 this Manual, and also in Bulletin No. 18 on Bee Culture, 

 issued by the New Z'ealand Department of Agriculture, 

 third edition, March, 1909. 



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