food and drug inspection. 15 



Honey. 



According to the standards adopted for Maine (Bulletin 

 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station 135, page 240) Honey 

 is the nectar and saccharine exudations of plants gathered, 

 modified, and stored in the comb by honey bees {Apis mellifica 

 ■and A. Dorsata) ; is laevo-rotatory, contains not more than 

 twenty-five per cent of water, not more than twenty-five hun- 

 dredths per cent of ash, and not more than eight per cent of 

 sucrose. Comb Honey is honey contained in the cells of the 

 comb. Extracted honey is honey which has been separated 

 from the uncrushed comb by centrifugal force or gravity. 

 Strained honey is honey removed from the crushed comb by 

 straining or other means. 



While some comb honey is sold in the State, the most of the 

 honey on the market is extracted. The extracted honey is so 

 much superior in appearance and quality to strained honey that 

 the latter is practically never met with. There is little tempta- 

 tion to adulterate honey at present because the California pro- 

 duct is sold in large quantities at a less price than cane sugar. 

 Occasionally honey may be dark colored or strong in taste and 

 to improve the appearance of such honey, it is sometimes adul- 

 terated by the addition of can sugar; or in case of a very wet 

 season the honey may be of low consistency and the unscrupu- 

 lous person may attempt to stiffen it by the addition of sugar. 



The tables which follow give the results of the analyses of 

 more than 30 samples of honeys collected in different parts of 

 the State during the fall of 1907. All the goods collected were 

 extracted honeys and the samples are arranged as to whether 

 they were or were not produced in Maine, and alphabetically 

 tinder the towns in which they were produced or packed. The 

 polarization readings are given as they clearly indicate whether 

 the goods are adulterated with cane sugar or glucose. 



Adulterated and Misbranded Honey. 

 It will be noted that four samples, — Nos. 7780, 7026, 7050 and 

 7051, carried more sucrose than the standards allow for pure 

 honey. The readings, however, were lcevo-rotatory. These are 

 suspicious samples and at least two of them — 7026 and 7050 — 

 probably had cane sugar added to them, either by feeding bees 

 the cane sugar or else by putting cane sirup into the honey. It 



