1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



221 



It might be held, though, that, even if the 

 mixing is done by bees of a substance not 

 the nectar of flowers, though gathered from 

 natural sources, the seller of the product 

 would be subject to fine. This would be a 

 serious matter if the law should be strictly 

 enforced, and would cause great annoyance 

 and expense to honest producers. 



No doubt it would lessen the labors and 

 perhaps increase the importance of the 

 chemists if a definition were adopted that 

 would narrow down as closely as possible 

 the question of what is to be considered as 

 honey; but we must remember that nature 

 does not often work on such narrow lines as 

 to make hard and fast definitions possible. 

 If honey were an artificial product, a defi- 

 nite compound, it might be well enough to 

 allow the chemists to make definitions to 

 suit themselves as to what should constitute 

 honey; but as it is, it is the bee-keeper or 

 the naturalist, fully conversant with the 

 habits of the honey-gatherers, who should 

 be allowed to fix the standard for honey, so 

 far as that can be done. My definition of 

 honey would be, ' ' Honey is the sweet sub- 

 stance gathered by bees from natural sources, 

 and stored in their combs." This might be 

 expanded and elaborated somewhat, but I 

 think it is fairly comprehensive. It might 

 be more concise to say, ' ' Honey is the liq- 

 quid gathered by bees from natural sources, 

 and stored in their combs." 



Let us hear from others as to their idea 

 of what a definition of honey should be, and 

 see if we can not evolve one that will satis- 

 fy the chemists without doing injustice to 

 ourselves. 



COLORADO HONEY. 



The Colorado bee-keeper who attempts to 

 market his honey in the East is apt to meet 

 in some quarters a prejudice against Colora- 

 do honey, especially comb honey. Why this 

 is so is hard for him to understand. He be- 

 lieves his alfalfa and sweet-clover honey are 

 the finest in the world. In this he is borne 

 out by the testimony of the majority of 

 those who use these after a thorough ac- 

 quaintance with other honeys. Why, then, 

 this prejudice? If we try to analyze the 

 reasons for it we find that there are two of 

 them, one of which has a very reasonable 

 foundation in fact, while I think the other 

 has but very little. 



Some years ago, while I still lived in Illin- 

 ois, something of a crusade was started in 

 the bee journals against the quality of sweet- 

 clover honey. The sweet- clover honey I was 

 producing at that time I considered to be 

 of the very nicest quality, both in appearance 

 and flavor; and in selling it I received many 

 compliments, both from consumers and re- 

 tail merchants, on its quality. I was puz- 

 zled to reconcile what I knew to be fact with 

 the reported opinions of others. In looking 

 for light on this subject I had an interesting 

 conversation with one of the leading com- 

 mission men shortly before my removal to 

 this State. He said that both sweet-clover 

 and alfalfa honey were objectionable from 

 his standpoint— sweet-clover, because of its 



bad flavor; alfalfa, because of its lack of 

 flavor. His theory in regard to the latter 

 was that people bought alfalfa well at first, 

 because of its beautiful appearance, and 

 that they liked it well enough at first, 

 but that, because of a lack of pronounced 

 fiavor, they got tired of it and concluded 

 that they did not care for any more honey. 

 In support of his contention that the flavor 

 of sweet-clover honey was poor I was invit- 

 ed out into his storeroom, where I sampled 

 some lots of sweet-clover honey that had 

 just been received. While I did not consid- 

 er their flavor at all bad, they were certain- 

 ly not first grade, and the reason was very 

 evident to me. Although it was all comb 

 honey, it had the unmistakable taste of an 

 unripened article. 



Sweet-clover honey, when first gathered, 

 has a rather rank unpleasant taste which 

 becomes still more pronounced if it is re- 

 moved from the hive before it is ripe, and 

 improperly stored thereafter. This honey 

 had evidently been kept in a cool room after 

 its removal from the hive, and had deterio- 

 rated in consequence. Yet sweet-clover hon- 

 ey, properly ripened and kept, is equal to 

 almost any thing that is produced in the line 

 of honey. 



The claim that people became tired of al- 

 falfa honey was new to me; and in a selling- 

 trip among the retail merchants of several 

 cities soon thereafter I took pains to inves- 

 tigate this point wherever I found alfalfa 

 being handled. I was unable to find any 

 one who did not declare that there was no 

 foundation whatever for this theory. My 

 own experience since coming here confirms 

 this. There is more honey consumed here 

 in Grand Junction, where practically all the 

 honey is from alfalfa and sweet clover, than 

 in any other city of its size that I am famil- 

 iar with. It is very evident that they do 

 not become tired of it here. 



In the course of my investigations, how- 

 ever, I learned of another objection to Col- 

 orado comb honey that had a much better 

 foundation. This was its greater tendency 

 to granulate in the comb than Eastern hon- 

 ey. I came across a carload of Colorado 

 honey which would have to be sold for a 

 great deal less than the buyers had paid be- 

 cause it had granulated in the combs. West- 

 ern consumers do not object very greatly 

 to candied comb honey, because they are 

 more or less used to it; but in Eastern com- 

 munities, unaccustomed to that sort of arti- 

 cle, it is almost unsalable. Most people are 

 sure it is adulterated, and those who are 

 not do not care for it that way. On this ac- 

 count we find some honey-dealers, especial- 

 ly in the extreme eastern States, who will 

 not buy Colorado comb honey at all, or un- 

 less it is very low in price. Now, here is 

 a very real and stubborn fact which we 

 must study and overcome if possible. I 

 think the way around it is not difficult. To 

 make clear the remedy that I propose I 

 shall have to relate some of my own experi- 

 ence. 



Some of the older readers of Gleanings 



