FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 643 



is lacking to bring out in striking clearness the outlines for the picture of 

 that work is an exhib^;. 



Mr. Bittenbender already stands committed as an exhibitor. He can't 

 help it. Maybe he was born that way. But away back there in the early 

 days of the Iowa State Fair he came up against the proposition that if he 

 would exhibit he must produce and then he began to get busy. Then 

 along came the germ whispering in his ear: "Exhibit more extensively, 

 Mr. Bittenbender," and our genial friend yielded to wooing, and there 

 you have his well worked out scheme of increase. 



Let me say here, Mr. True has made two very interesting and promis- 

 ing exhibits, winning a goodly number of blue ribbons. You quote some- 

 times these words: "Sow a thought and reap a habit; sow a habit and 

 reap a character." Will you allow me an application of the quotation: 

 "Sow a thought now — get it started to growing while conditions are so 

 favorable concerning your exhibit. Get the exhibit habit and be an 

 exhibitor." 



HOW MAY WE INCREASE THE CONSUMPTION OF HONEY? 



BY EUGENE SECOE, FOREST CITY, IOWA. 



What do you suppose is the average amount of honey per inhabitant 

 consumed in this country? I have not at hand the figures of the pro- 

 duction of honey in the United States as shown by the last federal 

 census, but from what I know of my own locality by actual sales, and 

 of other places by observation, I am convinced that the amount of honey 

 used isn't one pound per capita per annum. Just think of that! There 

 are more pounds of tobacco sold and used ten to one than there are of 

 the nectar of heaven! The consumption of sugar as an article of food 

 is out of all proportion to honey used for the same purpose. It is quite 

 a common thing for families to buy fifty or a hundred pounds of gran- 

 ulated sugar at a time, but I seldom hear of the head of a family carry- 

 ing home anything like the same quantity of honey. Perhaps that is 

 why we are a nation of dyspeptics. It is an ejjort for the stomach to 

 digest sugar. Honey is more assimilable. It requires less vital force 

 for the stomach to convert it into blood and bone and muscle and fat. 



But someone will say honey is a luxury, and he can't afford luxuries. 

 Honey is a luxury. It is unmatchable by the arts of man. No alchemist 

 can make it. It is the very soul of the flowers and they are the poetry 

 of nature. Science cannot compound it nor perfume it with the essence 

 of heaven. It is distilled by the sunshine in the secret chambers of 

 the corolla and is poured into delicate new-made chalices of wondrous 

 workmanship by the servant of man for his inexpressible delight. Yes, 

 honey is a luxury. But isn't sugar a luxury? Don't you think you 

 would live just as long and perhaps a little longer if you didn't eat so 

 much sugar? Sucrose sugars are responsible for many kidney troubles. 

 Did you ever know of a case of diabetes in a constant user of honey? 



Someone else says honey is too expensive. He can't afford it. Ye^, 

 honey is higher than sugar, but not so high as meat. Meat isn't a neces- 



