A BRIEF SURVEY OF HAWAIIAN BEE KEEPING. 
51 
the Hawaiian bee keepers have done and it is now sold as " honey dew 
honey." The bee keepers of Hawaii fully realize the peculiar honey 
with which they have to deal and are not attempting to market honey- 
dew honey in competition with floral honey for table use. It goes to 
the baking trade and for such use is reported to be satisfactory; at 
any rate, the price received is equal to that received for algarroba 
honey. 
As stated elsewhere, bees prefer floral nectar to honeydew. How- 
ever, when the suppl} T of floral nectar is not great, the bees work on 
both, and as a result there are mixtures of the two, stored in the 
hives, varying all the way from the pure honeydew honey to pure 
floral honey. It is these mixtures that cause the trouble in labeling. 
One of the requisites of a pure honey as defined by the standards 
is that it shall be lsevorotatory to polarized light ; hence, since honey- 
dew honey is dextrorotatory and there are blends made by the bees of 
this and algarroba hone} 7 , it is necessary to have a chemical analysis 
made to be absolutely certain whether a given quantity of the product 
of the islands may be sold as honey or as honeydew honey. The 
various mixtures which occur are well illustrated in Plate I of Bul- 
letin 110, Bureau of Chemistry, here reproduced as Plate VI. This 
plate illustrates very well the influence of honeydew on the physical 
properties of honey. At one end of the series is the pure algarroba, 
which is represented as granulated, while at the other end is a sam- 
ple of honeydew honey which is as pure as it is usually found. Be- 
tween the two in perfect gradation are shown various mixtures just 
as they came from the hive in various extractings. The chemical 
analyses of these particular samples, made by Miss Alice R. Thomp- 
son^ show that the chemical composition varies in exactly the same 
way. Of these samples, Doctor Browne ° says : 
From the polarizations and analyses of these samples (as given in the table) 
it will he seen that there is a range in direct polarization from — 22.0 to 
a TJ. S. Dept. Agr., Office of the Secretary, Cir. 19, p. 11. 
/; Polarization <ni<l a nail/sex of honeydew blends. 
I From Bui. 17, Hawaii Agr. Exp. Sta.] 
Data. 
A 1lt;i r- 
roba 
honey. 
Polarization direct 
(°V) -22.00 
Polarization invert 
(°V) -27.61 
Sucrose I percenl (.. 
Reducing BUgai 
(per ei-nt i 
A-h (per cent) 
Noti sugars (per 
cent) 
3.58 
76.84 
.34 
1.41 
-21.4 
2.4 
re. 64 
.58 
1.67 
Blends. 
-17.3 
2.3 
77. 28 
.69 
1.81 
11.5 
2.2 
72. 36 
.72 
7.17 
■0.3 
•3.8 
2.7 
1.06 
13. 52 
+0.5 
-4.2 
3.7 
56.16 
1.11 
+4.0 
-1.0 
2.3 
67.28 
1.12 
11.84 
+8.9 
+ 3.2 
4.5 
63.08 
1.33 
15.27 
+ 19.2 
+ 12.4 
5.3 
58.92 
1.77 
Honey- 
dew. 
in. 
+24.5 
+15.3 
7.2 
59.76 
2.04 
Bul. 110, Bureau of Chemistry, pp. 55-56. 
