HONEY, a vegetable product, very si milar in its properties to sugar. It is found in large quantities in a number of vegetables, is collected by the bee, and is fed upon by many insects. It is always formed in the flower, chiefly at the base of the pistil, and it seems designed to re ceive and retain the fecundating pollen. Honey differs much in colour and in con sistence ; it contains much saccharine matter, and probably some mucilage, from which it derives its softness and via. cosity. Honey very readily enters into the vinous fermentation, and yields a strong liquor called mead. There are two spe cies of honey, the one is yellow, transpa rent, and of the consistence of turpen tine ; the other white, and capable of as suming a solid form, and of concreting in to regular spheres. These two species are often united ; they may be separated by means of alcohol, which dissolves the liquid Loney much more readily than the solid. Honey has never been accurately analyzed, but some late experiments go to prove it is composed of sugar, muci lage, and an acid.
In France, a good swarm of bees, in two years, will yield near thirty pounds of honey ; and they are still more profita ble in 'countries that are covered with flowers the greatest part ofthe year. There are two sorts of honey, the white and the yellow: The white or virgin honey trickles out spontaneously from the combs. These they break, soon after they are made, and lay them upon hurdles or mats of or on linen cloth, fastened at the four cor ners to as many posts, and then an excel lent white honey will fall from the combs, and grow hard in a short time. After wards they:put it into glazed earthen pots. Some pttss this honey out, but then it is not so agreeable, for it will of the wax. The best sort of French virgin honey is that of Languedoc, called honey of Narbonne. It should be new, thick, granulated, of a clear transparent white colour, of a soft and somewhat aromatic smell, and of a sweet and lively taste If it is very pure, it is Minos( as hard as su gar-candy; and what renders it so supe rior, are the many aromatic flowers which grow in those parts, and from which the bees gather their honey. It is always ob
servable that the honey made in moun tainous countries is more highly flavour ed than_that of low grounds. The honey made in the spring is, more esteemed gathered in the summer; that of the summer more than that of the autumn. There is also a preference given to that of young swarms. Yellow honey is obtained by 'pressure from all sorts of honey combs; old as well as new '; and even of those from whence the virgin honey has been extracted. They break the combs, and heat them with a little water in ba-. sins or pots, keeping them constantly stirring ;. they then put them into bags of thin linen cio; h, and these they put in a press, to squeeze out the honey, The wax stays behind in the bag, though al Ways some particles of it -pass through with the honey. Honey -is the produc tion of most countries ; yet more abun dant in the island of Candia,, and in the greater part of the islands of the Archi pelago, than any where else. The Sici lian honey seem§ to be, particularly high flavoured, and in some parts of the island even to surpass that Minorca ; which no doubt is owing to the quantity of aro matic .plants with which that country is overspread. This honey is gathered three times in the year, in July, Angus% and October. It is found by the peasants in the hollow of trees and rocks. The coun try of the lesser Hybli is still, as 'former ly, the part of the island that is most cele brated for this article. Considerable quan tities of honey are produced.by the wild bees in the woods of North America.