SUGAR, MOLASSES, CONFECTIONS, AND HONEY. 



793 



Where the ash amounted to 0.20 and over, the color and appearance of the same 

 were noted. 



Ashes Nos. 110, 14(5, and 149, pink in color, were tested for iron and were found to 

 contain this metal. 



In order to learn the composition of an undoubtedly pure honey, two samples of 

 comb honey were obtained from Edmund Rose, Delhi, N. Y. These samples were 

 purchased, the seller knowing that they would be analyzed for test purposes. The 

 one sample (A) was made by bees that had fed on white clover and possibly a little 

 milkweed; this was of a bright gold-yellow in color. The other sample (B) was ob- 

 tained from bees that had fed principally on buckwheat. This was dark brown in 

 color. 



The capping was carefully removed by knife from both sides of the combs, the in- 

 termediate wax wall perforated, and the honey allowed to drain through a fine wire 

 gauze into a porcelain dish. The combs were kept covered during the draining, and 

 after a few hours, when this was completed, the strained honey was placed in air- 

 tight jars. 



The analyses of these two samples resulted as follows : 



* Calculated from difference in amounts of reducing sugar, before and after inversion, a 1 per cent 

 olntion being used in both instances. Neutralization after inversion was effected by sodium car- 

 bonate. 



The polarization before inversion corresponds to a specific rotatory power for so- 

 dium ray, in sample A= 4.698, sample B = 4.906. 



On examining the analyses of the 50 samples of honey recorded above in order to 

 determine which are genuine and which are not, one is confronted by a problem in 

 many cases difficult, in others actually impossible of solution. 



However, carefully studying the bearing of all of the different factors in the ques- 

 tion, the following conclusions appear warranted by the data.* 



* For contributions to this subject, see H. W. Wiley in The American Apicultnrist, 

 Vol. in, No. 12, 1885 ; the same, in American Chemical Journal, Vol. xm, No. 1, 

 1891; A.H.Allen, Commercial Organic Analysis, Vol. i,2d Ed., 1885; Hassall, Food 

 and its Adulterations; E. Sieben, in Zeitschrift des Vereines fur RUbenzucker- 

 Industrie, Vol. 34, p. 837, 1884. 



