28 AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



which is gathered by bees. Among- these may be men- 

 tioned hau {Han'tiiiiii tiliaccnin), of Hawaii, cotton, some 

 of the acacias, and conifers. It is a mistake, however, to 

 assume that this is characteristic of the majority of plants 

 from which honey dew is gathered, for the greater part of 

 honey dew is not a plant secretion, but an insect product." 



The United States Government has formulated an 

 official standard for honey, and any product not coming 

 up to the test, whether gathered and stored by bees, 

 or not, must not be sold as honey. Honey dew is below 

 the standard. Though large quantities are sometimes 

 gathered in the United States and other countries, I 

 have never heard of bee-keepers in this part of the world 

 being troubled with it. If they had, it could hardly 

 have escaped my knowledge. 



ADULTERATIOX OF HOXEY. 



Formerly there were large quantities of adulterated 

 honey foisted upon the markets of the world by certain 

 American houses, very largely composed of glucose. 

 It was carried out upon such a gigantic scale that 

 "American Honey" (?) became a by-word for fraud, 

 and an immense amount of harm was done to the bee- 

 keeping industry in that country. Thanks, however, 

 to their pure food laws, and the strictness with which 

 they are now enforced, I believe that there is little, if 

 any, of the fraudulent practice carried on there at 

 present'. Consumers of honey in Australasia who 

 patronise the locally raised honey need have little fear 

 of getting anything but the pure article, especially if 

 it is sold under a reputable brand. 



BEESWAX. 



Until Huber's time it was generally believed that 

 wax was gathered from certain flowers by the bees in 

 the same way as honey is procured, but there must 

 be very few people in the more enlightened nations 

 who do not now know that it is secreted by the bees, 

 so that there is no need to take up space to explain 

 how this was proved. 



