ao2 



THE BEE KEEPERS' kEVlEW. 



honey more pfilatftttle and rich. The changes 

 that these principles undergo are decided. 

 The flat though aromatic nectar in time be- 

 comes the rich delicious honey. 



Honey gets all or nearly all of its distinc- 

 tive value and character from the flavor, 

 and its flavor is derived except the small 

 part given it by the secretions and the sug- 

 ar contained in it, from the flavoring prin- 

 ciples contained in the nectar; each kind 

 gets its distinctive flavor from tlie flowers, 

 from the same source. Some have supposed 

 that honey gets its flavor from the secretions 

 of the bees. If this is true what becomes of 

 the wide difterence in flavor between the 

 diflierent kinds of nectar ? If the bees pos- 

 sessed the power of giving the different 

 flavors to honey, it would certainly be a 

 most wonderful one when we consider the 

 wide difference in flavor between the mild 

 white clover honey and the rank pungent 

 buckwheat. 



But little honey would be eaten if it were 

 not for its flavor, for the same amount of 

 nutriment could be more cheaply secured by 

 buying sugar. Flavor possesses an important 

 function in the economy of nature, so im- 

 portant do we consider it that we add it to 

 our food when needed. By its action on 

 the mind it stimulates the appetite, probably 

 encourages digestion and it is possible that 

 it aids in the nutrition of the tissues. How 

 much less would the good things that we eat 

 be worth if they were deprived of flavor. 



Honey is a rich nutrititious food and is dif- 

 ficult of digestion. (?) It should be eaten in 

 moderate quantities at a time or the stom- 

 ach may sicken and the taste for it will be 

 lost. It gets its direct nutriment from the 

 sugar it contains; sugar is a carbo-hydrate, 

 one of those substances that give heat and 

 force to the system, hence the value of hon- 

 ey in cold weather. Honey bees do not 

 gather honey and store it in their combs, 

 but they gather nectar and make it into 

 honey. They do not digest the nectar, for 

 digestion is a process under control of life 

 for preparing the principles of food for the 

 nutrition of animal tissues. When making 

 honey the bees are merely preparing food. 

 They not only manipulate the honey and 

 add their secretions to it, but they 

 generate more or less of the heat necessary 

 for making honey. They possess a wonder- 

 ful faculty of generating heat. The bees 

 are in a true sense manufacturers. It has 

 been suppossed that nectar changes to hon- 



ey while in the honey sacs of the bees and 

 while being gathered and brought to the 

 hives. This is a mistake as any one can 

 verify by tasting of the fresh gathered 

 nectar and sometime afterward tasting of 

 the honey from the same kind of nectar. 

 The change from nectar to honey requires a 

 longer time than this and i^ a more or less 

 complex one, the nectar changing from a 

 neutral to an acid base, the cane sugar to 

 glucose (notthe commercial), and the flavor 

 undergoing groat change. 



Real honey is produced by bees from 

 nectar, and nectar is only a secretion of cer- 

 tain floral organs of plants. Bees will not 

 gather anything else if they can get nectar 

 unless their sense is perverted by robbing, 

 for it is their natural food. This shows how 

 they appreciate flavor. I often wonder if 

 sugar syrup fed to bees is not given flavor by 

 their adding honey to it. Such substances 

 as fruit juice, sap from plant wounds and 

 aphide discharges cannot make honey. I 

 doubt if the product of bees from real hon- 

 ey dew is entitled to the term honey. I am 

 led to this conclusion by the fact that it is 

 generally of a poor character. It should be 

 kept as much as possible from floral honey. 

 It can be used to feed bees or it could be 

 made into vinegar. 



Several years ago more or less excitement 

 was created in the apicultural world by the 

 publication of a theory that sugar syrup fed 

 slowly to bees and at some distance from 

 their hivas would become real honey. This 

 theory is erroneous and is based on two 

 errors. One is that any sweet thing that bees 

 gather becomes honey while in the honey sacs 

 of the bees, and the other is that honey gets 

 its flavor from the bee secretions. Although 

 sagar syrup is a refined substance and sugar 

 is one of the principles of nectar, it lacks 

 the flavoring lirinciples of nectar, the very 

 principle that give to honey nearly all of 

 its distinctive value and character. The 

 syrup would still be only sugar syrup with 

 the flavor of the bee secretions and the cane 

 sugar changed to glucose, a simple change 

 that takes place after a time in cane sugar 

 when added to fruit. The same change in 

 the sugar of nectar is doubtless only an in- 

 cidental one. 



Oleomargarine if made of healthful ma- 

 erials, which I presume it is, is more or less 

 nutritious and better than poor butter, 

 still I cannot separate in my mind the idea 

 of fraud from its manufacture for the rea- 



