Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/529

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technical processes of preparing the commercial article. Honey is approximately a pure saccharine substance and this, in addition to its peculiar and, to most people, pleasant flavor, not only gave it a vogue in the earlier times of necessity but has maintained it in public favor when other and cheaper sources of saccharine substances have been developed. In fact, at the present time it might be said that honey owes its value upon the market not to the fact that it is a saccharine body but that it contains flavors and aromas imparted to it by the flower and by the bee which render it a luxury rather than a necessity of life.

Fig. 83.Swarm of Bees on Bough of Tree.—(Courtesy A. I. Root Co.)

Preparation of Honey.—While bees stored their honey in hollow trees or other suitable places in earlier times this was a doubtful source of supply. The bee tree is still an object of interest in every neighborhood. Many wild animals, especially bears, are very fond of honey and these animals were the robbers of the honey bee in the days when such animals roamed the for-