238 



THE BEJB-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



again written to. No reply. Weeks and 

 months pass and no money comes. The 

 man ia written to repeatedly, but there is no 

 reply. Nothing is much more aggravating. 

 There may be good reasons why the man 

 cannot pay. If so, why not write and say 

 so? Such men often pay up after awhile 

 and then explain ivhy they have not paid 

 before and apologize for their neglect. 

 How much better to have explained before. 

 I have frequently been obliged to ask a 

 creditor to wait, and I have never yet been re- 

 fused such leniency, but I have always an- 

 swered all requests for pay, and explained 

 exactly how I was situated and what were the 

 prospects for payment. Most of us are 

 willing to grant favors to our fellow men, 

 bat when we ask for favors in return, and 

 these requests are completely ignored, feel- 

 ings are roused that might better have 

 slumbered. 



EXXRMOTED. 



"Somnambulist" and the Apicnltarist. 



The Progressive Bee - Keeper has a very 

 bright correspondent that writes under the 

 nom de plume of " Somnambulist." "Way- 

 side Fragments " is the title given to these 

 somnambulistic writings, and they are a 

 bright, fresh, sprightly review of bee jour- 

 nals, bee men and bees ; something after the 

 manner that friend Hasty gets up his depart- 

 ment in the Review. Here is a character- 

 istic paragraph : 



" And now let's wheel right off from Bro. 

 York's biographical sketches, and take no- 

 tice of Henry Alley. Did you ever see any 

 one hump himself as he has done this sum- 

 mer ? (Apicultural editors hare to hump 

 themselves now-a-days, Mr., Mrs., Miss, or 

 whatever you are. Somnambulist. — Ed. Re- 

 view.) Don't he remind you of a widower 

 looking up a new wife ? He has wheeled 

 that vehicle by which he conveys his 

 thoughts to the public, and which he calls 

 the Aj^icjiltiiri.st, into line, and brightened it 

 up surprisingly. Therein one's eyes meet 

 'cells, cells, cells,' but after all the paper, 

 I'll warrant you, is no .se//." 



Honey Analyses. 



" The sharper the rat the better the cat." 



Prof. Cook of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College has for years been securing honey 

 from different sources. That gathered in 



different localities from different sources 

 and under different conditions. Some of 

 this was gathered very rapidly and some of 

 it was honey dew. Some, also, was sugar 

 honey. The object in making this collection 

 was to try and learn of the different charac- 

 teristics of honey with a view to deciding 

 whether the chemist could say positively 

 whether a given sample of honey was adul- 

 terated. As has been previously stated in 

 these columns these ;")() samples of honey 

 were submitted to three able chemists for 

 analysis. One of these was Prof. H. W. 

 Wiley, the government chemist ; another 

 was Prof. M. A. Scovell, Director of the Ex- 

 periment Station at Lexington, Kentucky, 

 and the other was Dr. R. C. Kedzie, Prof, of 

 Chemistry at the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege. Prof. Cook has now gotten out a bul- 

 letin of 16 pages in which all of the facts and 

 particulars, the whys and the wherefores are 

 given. lam sorely tempted to give the Bul- 

 letin in full, but, as it would use nearly all 

 of one issue of the Review, the idea must be 

 dismissed with simply giving the summary 

 which reads as follows : 



" 1. That chemists can easily detect adul- 

 teration of honey by use of glucose, in all 

 cases where it is likely to be practiced. The 

 same would be true if cane sugar syrup was 

 mixed with the honey. 



2. That a probable method to distinguish 

 honey dew from honey adulterated with glu- 

 cose has deeii determined by these analyses. 

 The right-handed or slight left-handed rota- 

 tion together with the large amount of ash, 

 and small amount of invert sugar indicate 

 honey dew honey. As honey dew honey will 

 never be put upon the market, this question 

 is of scientific rather than practical impor- 

 tant e. 



8. As yet the chemist is unable to distin- 

 guish between cane sugar syrup honey — by 

 which we mean cane sugar synip fed to the 

 bees and trausformed by them into honey, 

 and not cane syrup mixed witli honey, which 

 is adulteration pure and simple, though a 

 kind not likely to be practiced — and honey 

 from flowers. As the best cultivated taste 

 cannot thus distinguish, this seems of slight 

 imt)ortance. If it should prove to be impor- 

 tant to be able to distinguish them it is prob- 

 able that the chemist will discover the 

 means, as chemistry has very delicate eyes, 

 and can usually search out very slight dif- 

 ferences. 



We see that there are yet unsolved prob- 

 h ms in this direction. And it is desirable to 

 follow up the investigations. Prof. H. W. 

 Wiley is desirous to do so till the last fact is 

 discovered. To better accomplish this he 

 desires samples of three or four pounds each 

 of honeys from any k)toivii source, especially 

 honey dew honey, and that gatliered very 

 rapidly. Sugar syrup honey will also be very 



