48 



GLEANmGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in California 



p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. 



DOES HONEY FROM THE SAME PLANT VARY? 



It seems that I am almost alone in my 

 views on the color of honey from the same 

 plant. That part does not bother me as 

 much as do some of the arguments used to 

 prove that I am wi'ong'. Some are not only 

 claiming a difference in the color of honey 

 from the same plant, but have gone further 

 by saying there is also a difference in the 

 body and flavor. No doubt this will be of 

 great advantage to those who have an in- 

 ferior grade of honey, for they can choose 

 a fancy name and thereby augment the sales 

 of their crop ; but it is hardly necessary to 

 state that the true article from which they 

 have borrowed the name must in time suffer. 

 But, according to the trend of the discussion 

 at the present time, they will have quite an 

 array of argiiment to sustain them. In that 

 case the name white clover, basswood, buck- 

 wheat, sage, orange, etc., will mean abso- 

 lutely nothing. We have a prominent bee- 

 keeper in California who was also long a 

 producer in New York, who says that he 

 has seen the early flow from cultivated 

 buckwheat so light that it could not be told 

 from white clover by sight. He also con- 

 tends for the difference in color of sage, 

 according to the soil and elevation. 



I wish to review briefly Mr. Wesley Fos- 

 ter's argument on p. 838, Dec. 1. I agree 

 that plants are constantly undergoing a 

 change; but I contend that it is not an over- 

 night change. Mr. Foster has the following 

 to say : " The various honeys such as alfalfa, 

 orange, white clover, and basswood, how- 

 ever, approximate a certain definite stan- 

 dard." Yet in the Imperial Valley of Cali- 

 fornia we are told that alfalfa^runs as Ioav 

 in color as dark amber. Buckwheat in New 

 York as light as white clover, and white 

 clover in New York as dark as buckwheat ! 

 Where are we at? Mr. Foster also says. 

 " It is an accepted fact that the climate has 

 an effect on the color of people's skins, hair, 

 eyes, etc. People on the Pacific coast have 

 a' different complexion from those in the 

 Rocky Mountain region." Yet in Germany 

 we find light-haired blue-eyed people, while 

 just across the line in France we find tliem 

 dark-haii'ed and black-eyed. So far as the 

 complexion of people here on the coast be- 

 ing any different from those of the Rocky 

 Mountains is concerned, that is a fallacy. 



I had many talks on this color proposi- 

 tion while at the California State conven- 

 tion, for I was the target that several people 

 wanted to shoot at. Nine out of ten agreed 

 thpt, the heavier th^ flow from a source^ the 



lighter the honey. That was my original 

 contention, that we obtain only the pure 

 nectar from any flower when it is yielding 

 bountifully; at other times it can not be 

 judged as pure, from the fact that other 

 plants are yielding enough to change the 

 color. Take the button sage, for example. 

 No amount of preaching can make me be- 

 lieve that it is not water-white in its purity, 

 for I have studied this flora for ten years 

 under all conditions; yet there are some 

 years when we get the pure water-white 

 grade, though most of the nectar is from that 

 source. The button sage, under the influence 

 of warm sunny Aveather, will yield a perfect 

 stream of nectar, so to speak, while a dark, 

 cloudy, cool day will cause the wild alfalfa 

 to yield more and the sage less; then the 

 bees go to the wild alfalfa, and within the 

 period of a few days will often color an 

 extracting of sage honey until it reaches the 

 light-amber class. Strictly speaking, it is 

 not sage honey, yet it contains only suffi- 

 cient wild alfalfa to throw it oft" color for a 

 strictly sage product. 



A gentleman from Nevada told me that I 

 was mistaken on the color of alfalfa honey 

 — that it varies from white to light amber, 

 the white being secured when there is a 

 heavy flow on, and becoming darker as the 

 flow becomes lighter. I asked him if he was 

 sure his bees were getting only alfalfa in the 

 light flow. He admitted that he was not. 



In a recent issue of the Western Hon- 

 eybee, " Honey-plants of California " was 

 quoted at some lengih to break down my 

 arguments; one of the quotations given there 

 ] am quoting here: "Page 1017. Mint 

 family. Marrubium vulgare L; horehound. 

 Common weeds of old fields and waste places 

 about farms and villages everywhere in the 

 Coast Rang'es, Sacramento, and the San 

 Joaquin valleys and Southern California. 

 Evergreen with us; season May to Septem- 

 ber. A splendid yielder of dark-amber hon- 

 ey too strong and dark for table use, but is 

 used largely in medicine. The honey is re- 

 ported by some Ventura County beekeepers 

 to be of a light color ny^th a greenish tinge '' 

 (my italics). "It is, however, probably 

 wild-alfalfa honey with a slight addition of 

 horehound, as the latter is very aromatic." 

 The facts in the matter are wliat we are 

 after and what we should have. We should 

 also know if all honeys vary according to 

 soil and climate, and to what extent; for if 

 if can be proven that sage honey is at times, 

 a light amber I must apologize to a firm of 

 western buyers who quoted light-amber sage. 



