THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
5 
goodly collection of hives and appliances. 
New Zealand, New South Wales, and South 
Australia will have exhibits, and probably 
other colonies will also have similar exhibits. 
We propose to give an account of those 
exhibits in future numbers. 
The exhibit of bees at work will be placed 
at the eastern wall near Nicholson-street in 
the Victorian court, but it is not expected 
that this exhibit will be in position till after 
the first of September. 
MANUFACTURED OR SPURIOUS 
HONEY. 
The appearance in the Melbourne market </ 
a large quantity of well got up parcels o* 
so-called honey, and labelled pure honey , 
pure garden honey, &c., with the names of 
well-known firms appended, and which seems 
to have met with very general sale, has 
attracted the attention of beekeepers ; first, 
by the fact that it remained fluid during the 
cold months, while most pure honey was 
solid and hard, and secondly, by a simple 
inspection of bottles purchased for examina- 
tion ; for the way it moves in the packages 
(generally bottles) at once betrayed a consti- 
tution differing from pure honey. On 
further examination this material was found 
to consist for the most part of corn or starch 
tyrup, a substance largely made in America 
from refuse, maize, potatoes, &c., and con- 
sists of crude glucose and dextrin or gum. 
It is very cheap, not exactly deleterious, but 
certainly not wholesome. Many of the 
samples bought up by the Association con- 
tained certain percentages of real honey, and 
most were flavoured with some essence or 
other. The manufacturers had committed a 
flagrant breach of the 55th clause of the 
Health Act by labelling these packages as 
honey, and rendered themselves liable to a 
fine of £20 in every case. Since the atten- 
tion was callud to this fraud by the Victorian 
Beekeepers’ Association, the same material 
appears in shop windows divested of the 
labels, the dealers expecting thereby to 
escape the provisions of the Act. 
We notice the same thing is going on in 
the other colonies, and the New South Wales 
Beekeepers' Association, by the Agricultural 
Society, have determined to initiate pro- 
ceedings in every case. 
The remedy against this fraudulent manu- 
facture is most strongly in the hands of 
consumers, but also to a great extent in tho 
hands of beekeepers. The people want 
instruction with regard to honey. Only the 
other day a sample of splendid honey from 
Daylesford was brought to us by a purchaser 
who stated “the Association should prose- | 
cute the vendor, as it was adulterated and ( 
almost all sugar.” It was s olidly crystallized t 
with the cold weather , and when he was told I 
it was pure and good honey he said it was 
“too hard for that.” We ultimately con- 1 
vinced him, and he has advertised this pure 
commodity in every direction. The fact is 
the majority of the people look on crystal- j 
lized honey as manufactured, and corn 
syrup as pure honey. It is a pity it is not I 
j generally known that nearly all true honey 
is solid below a temperature of 62“ Fahr., j 
and that what beekeepers regard as a test of | 
purity and ripeness should be looked on by 
the public as the reverse. 
So many people have complained of late of 
honey making them sick. This manufacture 
explains it. 
Our American friends were the first to try 
this experiment, and we had in Melbourne 
not so very long ago a large consignment of 
Californian honey in the comb, called " Cali- 
; fornian Sage Honey.” This was true honey 
comb filled by the bees with corn syrup, 
which had been fed to them. It is a pity 
we cannot compel such beekeepers to eat all 
such stuff, or induce the bees to revolt 
against so dishonest a use of their labour. 
COMB FOUNDATION AND FOUN- 
DATION MILLS. 
We have received from Messrs. Dickens and 
Sons, Wakefield-street, Adelaide, some sam- 
ples of foundation made by foundation mills 
of their own manufacture. The specimens 
are of several kinds, and are known as 
Natural Base, Dunhams, Roots, Ac., accord 
ing to the style of the impression, which i : 
form the base of the cell. Some has thefli 
bottomed cell impression, which mad 
thin has been much used for sections, and 
frames for comb honey. This flat bottomed 
foundation made thicker is now coming into 
extensive use in Europe for brood as well as 
super comb, for it is found the bees take to it 
as readily as any other form, and it appears 
it is more easily made than the other. Roots, 
Dunhams, and other forms of foundation have 
the natural base with circular walls and differ 
chiefly in the depth and thicknees of wail. As 
foundation is now almost indispensable to 
beekeepers working for profit, we find several 
are setting up mills of their own, and we have 
had numerous enquiries as to cost, &c., which 
we have replied to as far as we could. To 
such as require further information in this 
direction, we would call attention to the 
Messrs. Dicken's advertisement in the pre- 
sent issue, and we hear from some of our 
