1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



plans to go to work; and it will be glad to 

 receive the names and the dollars of any who 

 are interested in the matter of fighting the 

 glucose evil; and while you and I may have 

 different opinions on these matters, we surely 

 can and will work in harmony in both Unions. 

 -Ed.1 



CAN EXTRACTED-HONEY PRODUCERS AFFORD 

 TO BE HONEST T 



A SIMPLE WAY TO DETECT GLUCOSE IN HONEY. 



By Geo. L. Vinal. 



Mr. Editor:— To illustrate why I chose this 

 subject, I will give a little of my experience in 

 the last two years— not but that I hope all 

 honey-producers are honest. 



Last fall I sold some honey to a friend of 

 mine, one who ought to have known that I 

 would not sell any thing but straight goods (it 

 was extracted honey). About New -Years' day 

 I saw the parties, and they a^ked me what 

 made me mix so much sugar with the honey. 

 It was almost impossible for me to convince 

 them that it was not mixed. 



Another case in a town about four miles from 

 here: I have sold honey to a grocer for four 

 years, put up in pint jars, labeled, etc. This 

 fall he bought at one time a gross, put up in 

 the jars, and at the same time he bought 335 

 lbs. of extracted in bulk and 100 lbs. of comb. 

 (I wish to state I had done quite a business .in 

 peddling in the town, and could generally sell 

 the second time.) As he was the principal 

 grocer, I did not go there to peddle, as he gave 

 me to understand that he was going to retail 

 the honey in the town. About two weeks ago I 

 went there and called at the store. nThe clerk 

 did not know me. I saw, arranged among my 

 labeled jars, jelly-tumbers and some pint jars, 

 unlabeled, filled with honey and a piece of 

 comb about an inch square in each, j I asked 

 the clerk (a lad about eighteen or nineteen 



years old) where Mr. W was. He replied 



he had gone to dinner. I talked about the 

 honey, sampled some of it in the tumblers, and 

 finally got the lad to say it was mixed with 

 syrup of some kind. When the proprietor came 

 in I asked him about it. At first he denied it; 

 but when I told him I knew it was mixed he 

 said, " Yes, it is about two-thirds corn syrup, or 

 glucose." He says it sells better. It does not 

 sugar, and people like it better, for they think 

 when it granulates it is mixed; and as long as 

 it stays liquid they think it is pure: and if they 

 want it that way why not let them have it? 

 He said, " I can make double the money that I 

 can to sell pure honey. "J 



I asked him why he did not melt all of it. 



His reply was, "There^are some people here 

 who have had your honey, and know that pure 

 honey will granulate, and will have no other. 

 That I keep to sell to my best customers, and 



to use in my own family. I went to a confec- 

 tioner's, with whom I am acquainted, who is 

 making and selling honey caramels. I asked 

 him how much glucose he mixed with the honey 

 he sold. He said about one-third. I asked him 

 why he mixed it. His reply was, ' It does not 

 granulate; and, besides, it makes it cheaper, 

 and the people like it as well as or better than 

 the pure honey when it is sugared.' " 



I thought 1 would see the opinion of the dif- 

 ferent experts. I got some glucose of him. He 

 said it was the very best quality made. I put 

 one-half good clover honey with it, and sent 

 out five samples to different experts, so called, 

 sending a stamped and directed envelope to 

 each, requesting them to give their opinion as 

 to what kind of honey it was. 



No. 1 answered that, in his opinion, by the 

 taste, it was a fine sample of white-clover 

 honey. 



No. 2 thought it was a good sample of bass- 

 wood and clover. 



No. 3 thought It might be a mixture of some 

 kind of syrup and honey, probably glucose. 



No. 4 said he thought it was clover and other 

 flowers mixed. 



No. 5, whom I expected the least from, said 

 it was a mixture of glucose and honey, accord- 

 ing to Root's test. 



Now, how is the general public to discrimi- 

 nate the pure from the adulterated ? Not one- 

 half of the people read the directions on the 

 bottles about liquefying the honey, or about its 

 granulating. I do not believe, Mr. Editor, all 

 that can be written in the bee-journals does 

 any good. Some able writers should write In 

 some of the daily papers, the agricultural pa- 

 pers, in the magazines, and in that way edu- 

 cate the masses, and thereby kill out the frauds. 



Charlton City, Mass. 



[It would seem that the policy of makine 

 public this article was somewhat questionable; 

 and yet 1 believe the readers to whom it goes 

 are just the very ones who should know the 

 facts, and thus be able to cope with the evil in 

 a proper and intelligent manner. 



In the first place, it is evident that not all 

 the glucose-mixing is done by the large syrup- 

 nandlers and honey ('?)- houses of the cities. 

 Some confectioners know that, by adding glu- 

 cose, they can very materially increase their 

 profits— for a while at least; but after a little 

 they will find that their customers tire of such 

 insipid honey. 



There are two kinds of glucose on the market 

 — the ordinary, tne metallic taste of which in 

 honey can be very readily detected by an ex- 

 pert. This glucose has a brassy and (to me) a 

 somewhat nauseating flavor; and from tests 

 which I made a few years ago I could detect 

 even 10 per cent of it in honey just by the mere 

 taste. Such goods will not sell long, for they 

 are too vile for the stomach of a hog. But 

 there is another kind of corn syrup, the very 

 finest, from which this brassy metallic taste 

 has been eliminated. It is this article, mixed 

 in honey, to which Mr. Vinal doubtless refers, 

 and which can not be readily detected by the 

 taste. 



