ITALIAN BEES 
547 
uses is approximately as follows: cane 
sugar, 25 lbs.; tartaric acid, y 2 oz. (avoir¬ 
dupois) ; water, 1 gallon. Bring to a boil 
and keep at that temperature for y 2 to % 
hour. 
When prepared as above the product is 
liable to be yellow or brown in color, but 
it is perfectly possible by concentrating in 
vacuum or under reduced pressure to pro¬ 
duce an invert sugar water-white. It can 
be made to appear like a high-grade clover 
honey. Its analysis is very similar to that 
of a clover honey. 
During the preparation of this sugar, a 
small amount of the levulose is broken 
down into furfurol or methylfurfurol. This 
product even in very small quantities gives 
strong color reactions with some reagents 
as resorcin—aniline acetete which forms a 
partial test for invert sugar. 
Attempts have been made to make invert 
sugar which would not give these color re¬ 
actions, but on a commercial scale they 
have not been altogether successful. The 
enzyme, invertase (from yeast), will break 
down sucrose into dextrose and levulose 
without the formation of these furfurol 
bodies, but on concentration these bodies 
are formed. Other ways have been tried. 
It is true, tho, that invert sugar can be 
made commercially that gives only slight 
color reactions, and improvements in man¬ 
ufacture of late years have yielded a prod¬ 
uct which has very much less of these fur¬ 
furol bodies present, but the chemist does 
not need these color reactions altogether to 
prove the presence of commercial invert 
sugar in honey. 
Commercial invert sugar is generally put 
on the market as a water-white liquid at 
the same price as granulated sugar. It 
has anywhere from 50 per cent to 75 per 
cent invert sugar, from 1.5 per cent to 30 
per cent of sucrose, and from 18 per cent 
to 30 per cent of water. If a mineral acid 
as phosphoric, muriatic, or sulphuric is 
used for the inversion, this is generally 
partially neutralized with soda, and hence 
the product will have from 0.5 to 3.08 per 
cent of ash. Where acetic acid or phos¬ 
phoric acid unneutralized is used, or where 
tartaric acid is used, there is practically no 
ash unless the sucrose carried some. For 
the detection of commercial invert sugar 
see Honey Analysis and Adulteration. 
ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE.— See 
Diseases op Bees. 
ITALIAN BEES. —At present the Ital¬ 
ians, and even hybrids, have shown them¬ 
selves so far ahead of the blacks that all 
■ discussion of the matter is at an end. Many 
times colonies of hybrids will be found 
that go ahead of pure stock; but, as a gen¬ 
eral thing (taking one season with an¬ 
other), pure Italians, where they have not 
been enfeebled by choosing light-colored 
bees to breed from, are ahead of any mix¬ 
ture. There has been a great tendency in 
the case of bees, as well as other stock, to 
pay more attention to looks than to real 
intrinsic worth, such as honey-gathering, 
prolificness of the queens, and hardiness. 
Even if it were true that hybrids pro¬ 
duce more honey than pure Italians, each 
beekeeper would want at least one queen 
of absolute and known purity. Altho a 
first cross might do very well, unless he had 
'this one pure queen to furnish queen-cells 
he would soon have bees of every possible 
grade, from the faintest trace of Italian 
blood, all the way up. The objection to 
this course is that these blacks, with about 
one band (with the exception of the East¬ 
ern blood), are much crosser than Italians; 
they also have a very disagreeable way of 
tumbling off the combs in a perfectly de¬ 
moralized state whenever the hive is 
opened. Neither will they repel bee disease 
like pure Italians. See Foul Brood, sub¬ 
head, “European Foul Brood;” also “Hy¬ 
brids.” If for no other reason, one can 
well afford to Italianize because in no other 
way can European foul brood be con¬ 
trolled. This disease, in some sections of 
the country, is cleaning out the blacks and 
hybrids, while the good Italians are nearly 
immune to it if kept strong. 
The pure Italian stocks can be opened at 
any time and their queens removed, scarce¬ 
ly disturbing tEe cluster, and, as is some¬ 
times the case, without the use of any 
smoke, by one who is fully conversant with 
the habits of bees. Hybrids are generally 
cross and will not repel the moth as do the 
pure Italians. 
The queens, and drones from queens ob¬ 
tained direct from Italy, vary greatly in 
their markings, but the normal worker bee 
shows three yellow y bands. 
