The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-07-09
EARLY HONEY
FLOW IS GOOD
QUALITY HIGH
Bees Start Gathering Nee
tar, Are Good Natured,
Too Busy to Sting
By DR.. JOHN l.. NORRIS

On July first the honey bees Of
Henderson county began the col
lection of Souwood honey. The
sourwood tree is so regular in the
time that it begins to yield nectar
that one could with fair accuracy
tell the day of the month by
watching the bees go to the sour
wood flowers. A few of the flow
crs open prior to July first, but
these early flowers apparently do
not yield sufficient nectar to at
tract the bee. On July first the
bees appear excited, they rush
hurriedly in and out of the hives.
During this honey flow they are
gentle, being too busy to sting. In
vhcir hurry they will bump into
the faces of persons about their
hives but speed on without sting
ing. A lull in the honey flow such
as a rainy day makes them very
cross and it is then advisable to
keep away from even a very gen.
tie colony.
The honey flow so far this year
has been good and the quality of
the honey above the average.
White and crimson clover has
been of good yield and the poplar
or tulip tree has abundant bios
SONS. In most localities there has
been very little honeydew to spoil
the flavor. The early honey in
1886 was generally poor though
the sherwood yielded far above
the average. The prospects of a
large yield from the sourwood this
wear is not good. Some of the
trees have scarcely any blossoms
and none of the trees appears as
full of blossoms as last year. To
offset this, the very good early
flow of honey has made the col
onies strong and in good condi-
ton to collect what there is. The
quality of pure sourwood honey
is so far superior to any other
honey that local honey producers
think only in terms of Sourwood.
The color of sOurwood honey is
not water white such as that from
Dutch clover but rather a light
amber. If it is red it is either mix
ed with poplar or, worse yet, with
honey dew.
Sourwood honey, being superior
to all other honeys, naturally
brings a somewhat higher price
than honcys produced from other
flowers. 1t sells for about thirty
cents a pound and is practically
all locally consumed and usually
it. is off the market within
month of the time it is produced.
Much study has been given to
the subject of honey as a food
for young children and persons
of advanced years whose digestion
is feeble and it is generally agreed
that levulose, the principal sugar
of honey, is preferable to the or
binary sugar of commerce. The
difficulty in prescribing honey in
diets is that SO frequently the
dark honeys contain honey dew
which may render such honey
rather unpalatable and perhaps
even somewhat deleterious.
While there is practically no
adulterated honey on any market,
yet many dealers put out what is
known as blended honey that is
mixing honeys of different kinds
together. This results in the bet
ter honeys rather carrying the
bulk of the honeys of inferior
quality. This blending, or mixing,
can of course only be accomplish
ed i'm the case of extracted, or as
it is sometimes called, strained
honey. There is no way TO mix
or adulterate honey in the comb.
Henderson county ha sa sum-
mer and fall climate equal to any
place in the United States. 1t has
beauty unsurpassed. Added to this
it produces fruits and vegetables
equal to any part of our country,
and a honey superior to all other
honeys. Certainly the residents of
this section are blessed and those
from other sections are fortunate
if they can spend even portion
of their time here.