HONEY is a saccharine vegetable secretion, most abun dant in the nectarinm of flowers. Some authors consider it an elementary principle of all vegetables without excep tion : They suppose that it exists in every part of plants, and that their life is dependent on its presence. We do not know, however, that the saccharine matter of plants is universally convertible into honey. It is much more co piously diffused in certain flowers than in others, both of the same and of different species : in some it cannot he re cognised, and the weather has always a powerful influence on its secretion. A hot and sultry atmosphere, charged with electricity, is considered most favourable to the pro duction of honey. Honey seems to he of various quality, sometimes of a grateful taste and odour, sometimes pun gent and bitter, or even of a deleterious nature, which pro bably originates from the flowers.
This substance appears in its sensible shape when col lected by bees, a tribe of insects which may almost be con sidered as reduced under the dominion of man. But natu ralists are not agreed whether honey undergoes a particu lar elaboration in their bodies, thence deriving its flavour and consistence, or whether it is merely collected, and is still seen in its pristine state. A bee having entered a flow er, apparently absorbs the liquid nectar by its proboscis, whence it is conducted to an intestinal sac exclusively ap propriated for its reception, commonly called the honey bag. The animal is then plump and cylindrical, and re turning to the hive, disgorges the contents into cells select ed for that purpose. By repeated accumulations the cell is filled, and then sealed by concentric circles of the thinnest wax, begun at the circumference and closed in the centre. There it is kept, as is supposed, for winter store ; at least no other use is assigned to it : but we cannot be sufficiently reserved in classing distant anticipations among the instincts of animals. It is principally in the more civilized coun tries that bees are confined in hives. In many places, they form their combs in trunks of trees, and also in cavities of rocks, and the earth. In India, there is a species which constructs a single comb of very large dimensions, attach ed to the under part of the bough of a tree well sheltered. During winter, a great portion of the honey thus preserv ed is undoubtedly consumed ; and it is understood that the safety of an ordinary hive is endangered, if there be a smaller quantity than twelve pounds at the end of autumn. Honey is supposed by some of the most acute naturalists, as Huber, to contain the principles of wax, whence the bees are enabled to build their combs without collecting it from vegetables ; and he describes a method of arranging a hive, whereby they may be forced to work in this sub stance. The relative proportions of honey and wax in a
hive are not ascertained ; the latest observations allot about three or four pounds of wax to one hundred of honey.
The finest honey is collected by swarms leaving the parent hive, and it always becomes darker and coarser in proportion to the age of the combs. Its quantity and quali ty, both depend very much on the nature of the surround ing vegetation ; hence in cultivating bees, particular at tention should he paid to the abundance of flowers. Ho ney and wax are very considerable articles of traffic, and profit may undoubtedly be derived from bees with little trouble and trifling expence. Most part of the honey im ported into Britain comes from Germany, Russia; and America, with which we could vet y well dispense by a little more attention to bees. Probably ten times the num ber of hives now existing could be subsisted in the coun try. Huish, a late author, by a moderate calculation, endeavours to show, that in the year 1817, the profit from one hive purchased in 1812 should he 57/.: 15: 4, while ten remain to carry on the stock. He considers the chief obstacle to the culture of bees to centre in the use of the common hive ; and that, on the whole, it is better that they should be destroyed at the end of the season.
The combs being withdrawn from the hive, are to be laid on a fine sieve above a vessel, into which the best honey will be received : gentle heat will disengage the next in quality ; and the whole remaining mass may be then subjected to a press, whereby the remainder will be extracted.. A certain quantity of wax and other impuri ties always pass over, which renders it necessary to ex pose the honey contained in the vessels again to heat, and this admits their rising to the surface, when the whole can be removed. The purification of honey is conducted after a different process, according to the country wherein it is practised : and premiums have been offered for the best mode of doing so on the continent. Honey should be chosen of an agreeable odour, sweet, clear, and new ; but it may be preserved a year or longer in the comb, still retaining most of its properties. See Huber, New Ob servations; Finish, Treatise on Bees ; Reaumur, file moires sur les Insectes ; Bonner on Bees ; and our article BEE. (c)