IS SUGAR SYKUP COXVEKTED INTO HONEY? 157 



CHAPTEE XXX. 



IS SUGAE SYRUP CONVERTED INTO HONEY BY BEES? 



This question is put in order that we may animadvert on 

 a fraudulent practice of some bee-keepers, confined cMefly, 

 as we believe, to one district or county of Scotland. We 

 bave aheady lifted onr voice against tbe practice in a 

 letter wbicb was published in a very respectable periodi- 

 cal of the day. The bee-keepers referred to will not, we 

 hope, fancy that we are their enemy because we speak 

 plainly. Though we wish "the trick" to be practised no 

 more, we have no wish to hurt the feelings of those who 

 have been doing it quietly for years. Sugar never becomes 

 honey, though swallowed and disgorged twice by bees 

 before they store it away or lay it up in their combs. 

 " Sugarcomb " is not honeycomb. To seU the one for the 

 other knowingly is a trick and a deception. If people 

 will seU syrup for honey, or syrupcomb for honeycomb, 

 what are we to think of them 1 Are they at all acquainted 

 with the golden rule of treating others as they wish others 

 to treat them ? Do they act on this principle when they 

 palm off a trashy article for a real one 1 Is he an honest 

 man, and fit to be trusted in society, who would wittingly 

 give a bad shilling for a good one ? And are those who 

 sell spurious honeycomb, manufactured from sugar by 

 bees, any better ? If they are honest people, they wiU 

 openly teU the buyers that the comb they offer for sale is 



