Title: American bee journal
Identifier: americanbeejourn3193hami (find matches)
Year: 1861 (1860s)
Authors:
Subjects: Bee culture; Bees
Publisher: (Hamilton, Ill. , etc. , Dadant & Sons)
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: UMass Amherst Libraries

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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 179 found to be pure fabrications, consist- ing of cane-sugar syrup with about 3 per cent, of alcohol. They contained no honey whatever. I have thought the members of this Association might be interested in see- ing some of the apparatus and re-agents which are employed in the analysis of honey, and in looking at some of the operations of a chemical nature. I have on the table here the principal appara- tus and re-agents employed in such ex- aminations, and which I shall take pleasure in showing the members. (The polariscope and chemical ap- paratus used in honey analyses were ex- hibited and explained to the audience.) In conclusiou, permit me to say that the work of the Department has shown that of the liquid honeys on sale, bought in open market, nearly 45 per cent, are adulterated. Every bee-keeper can see at once how greatly enhanced in price the product of his industry would be should such adulteration be prohibited and prevented. It is neces- sary that all should work together in harmony and in earnest to secure this result. The bee-keepers will find the Department of Agriculture hereafter, as heretofore, doing everything in its power to detect and prevent the adul- teration of honey. H. W. Wiley. Prof. C. V. Riley—There is such a difference in honey obtained even from natural sources, and it is so difficult to be able to know exactly from what source a sample comes, that I regard it as ex- tremely doubtful if the chemist will ever be able to say positively in regard to the puriiy or impurity of all samples. A. N. Draper—Can a person who is not a chemist, by the use of litmus paper, or some chemicals, determine in regard to the purity of honey ? Prof. Wiley—No, sir. It requires great skill and training, and the proper apparatus. Although Prof. Wiley thought that there was so much adulterated honey on the market, he doubted if it was of a character that was injurious to health. He considered glucose a healthful food, but said that its use robbed the bee- keeper of selling just so much honey. (Continued next week.)
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A New Era in the Production of Honey. Written for the A.merir,an Bee Journal BY J. F. LATHAM. Webster's Pocket Dictionary we offer as a premium for sending only one new subscriber with $1.00. It is a splendid Dictionary—and just right for a pocket. If the conventicle spirit of the times is portentous, it is apparent from the gist of the discussions emanating from some of our "leading bee-keepers," that a new system of honey-production is in process of evolution. Whether it is to result in bee-manipulation, or the ab- sence of "bee-mediation," much depends upon the definition applied to the terms, as the basis of the movement indicates, in a ratiocinative aspect, that a reaction is in progress of inauguration strongly tending to artificial mediation, which may culminate in raising the "scientific pleasantry " to the head of the list. Sugar-honey ! Glucosed honey !! Is not the lauded " gift of the gods " fall- ing into disrepute ? Then, again, "honey- dew honey "—a newly-coined Anglicism —is placed on the list of honeys as an off* spring Corpus sinepectore; for mutual adoption by the apiarian world. What is to become of the pure nectar from the flowers—Honey—that has re- ceived so much admiration in poetry and prose for more than 30 centuries ? Surely, if the medical qualities alone of honey are a sham, I fear Pluto's domin- ions may not be adequate for the immi- gration to his realm ; and an overflow will be left behind to chant the virtues of sugar-honey. But enough of this. Let us stir up the witch's cauldron, and try a survey of the contents. First, it may be asked with propriety in what exists the necessity of feeding sugar syrup to bees for the purpose of obtaining honey by the process ? How often we have been told in the bee- papers, by our mentors in bee-knowl- edge, that sugar syrup fed to bees, and stored by them in the combs, will be sugar syrup still. That has been my ex- perience while feeding sugar syrup for

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