MARKETING HONBT. 477 



CHAPTER XX. 

 HoNET Handling. 



Marketing Honey. 



825. The quality of honey depends very little, if at all, 

 upon the secretions of the bees ; and hence, apple blossom, 

 white clover, buckwheat, and other varieties of honey, have 

 each their peculiar flavor, and color. The difference between 

 the honey of one blossom, and that of another, is so great, 

 that persons unacquainted with this diversity, when tasting 

 honey different from that to which they are accustomed, 

 imagine that either the one or the other is adulterated. 



The most prized and best flavored honey produced in this 

 country, is that from white clover blossoms (712). Bass- 

 wood honey, if unmixed with any other grade, is too strong 

 in taste, but a slight quantity of it in clover honey makes a 

 delicious dish. Both these grades, being very white, sell 

 more readily than any other, in the comb (719). 



Smart-weed honey, — which should properly be called 

 knot-weed or Persicaria honey, — is of a pale yellow color 

 and very fine in flavor. Asters produce honey nearly as 

 white as clover. Different grades of fall-honey, from Span- 

 ish needles, golden-rod, iron- weed, etc., are of a yellow 

 color, and strong in taste. Buckwheat honey is dark ; bone- 

 set honey and honey dew are the ugliest and poorest in 

 quality, looking almost like molasses. 



Some kinds of honey are bitter, and others very unwhole- 



• The honey of Hymettns, which has been so celebrated from the most 

 andLent times, is of a fair goldeo color. The lightest-colored honey is by ao 

 means always the best. 



