HONEY AND ITS COLORS. 



257 



HONEY AS FOOD. 



quite, Califoiuia. sage, and some others of 

 less importance. From the American trop- 

 ics the chief white honeys are logwood, or 

 campeche; campanilla (Cuba), and the man- 

 grove (courida), on all tropical seashores. 



Amber-colored honey comes from many 

 sources. Among them, only the more fa- 

 miliar ones can be noted in a popular book 

 of this kind; namely, goldenrod, wild sun- 

 flower, heartsease, aster, Spanish needle, 

 sumac, milkweed, poplar, gum, magnolia, 

 lima bean, marigold, horsemint, horehound, 

 carpet-grass, and the hog plum (hobo), rose- 

 apple, and royal palm of the West Indies. 



Of dark honeys we take two great exam- 

 ples—the buckwheat of the United States 

 and Europe, and heather, which is confined 

 to Europe alone. The latter, though dark, 

 is a I rich, strong-flavored, thick honey, so 

 dense that the extractor is not used to take 

 it from the combs. That produced in Scot- 

 land commands a very high price, while that 

 of England is cheaper, being gathered from 

 another species of heather. In North Ger- 

 many the heath or heather honey commands 

 a good figure. It is largely produced by mi- 

 gratory bee-keepers, their bees existing on 

 white clover during summer, and in the fall 

 being moved to the heaths. 



Buckwheat honey is not nearly as good as 

 clover, either in flavor, density, or color; 

 but it is so liberally produced in buckwheat 

 localities that it is a paying crop to the bee- 

 keeper. It blooms late, hence the bees can 

 be prepared in ample time to profit by its 

 bloom. This feature alone makes it very 

 valuable to the bee-keeper who is fortunate 

 enough to live in a buckwheat- growing sec- 

 tion. In those parts of this country where 

 buckwheat is grown largely, consumers are 

 willing to pay as much, or almost as much, 

 as they will for fine white honey. Indeed, 

 many prize it more highly. 



In France there is a great demand for buck- 

 wheat honey from bakers of a kind of bread 

 which has been made for centi;ries. No other 

 sort of honey is desired by these bakers, who 

 derive nearly all their supply from Brittany, 

 where buckwheat is commonly sown. At- 

 tempts have been made to get the bakers to 

 use other dark honeys, but without success. 



In Europe there are some prominent hon- 

 eys which are almost or quite unknown in 

 this country. Heather has been mentioned. 

 Sainfoin is another which is quite common, 

 being almost the same as alfalfa honey with 

 us. Narbonne honey belongs to this class. 

 In southern Europe romarin (rosemary) is 

 very highly spoken of ; and in Greece there 

 9 



is the classically famous honey of Mount 

 Hymettus, from wild thyme. In Australia 

 the honey of eucalyptus is highly appreciat- 

 ed, but attempts to sell it in England have 

 always ended in failure, although it ought 

 to be useful for persons suffering from 

 conghs and colds. Instead of the eucalyptus 

 flavor proving to be an attraction it proved 

 a drawback. In California, eucalyptus honey 

 has a limited demand. 



HONEV AS FOOD. The American 

 nation consumes an enormous amount of 

 sugar, averaging nearly 80 pounds per head 

 of population, and the British Isles surpass 

 us by 30 pounds or more. The increased 

 consumption of sugar during the last few 

 years has been phenomenal, and even the 

 poorest use a large amount. This, of course, 

 is due to the great fall in the price of sugar, 

 which now sells within the reach of all. 



Honey has not fallen in like proportion, 

 though it sells in some States for very little 

 more than good cane sugar. It is very much 

 superior to sugar in several respects, having 

 more flavor and aroma. For baking'certain 

 fancy cakes it has no equal, and for this rea- 

 son will always command a higher price 

 than sugar. We know fastidious people are 

 always willing to pay high prices for foods 

 having fine flavors, and all physiologists are 

 agreed that flavor lias much to do with the 

 dietetic value of a food by inducing a free 

 flow of saliva and promoting digestion by 

 pleasing the palate. 



Honey is an excellent food in the preven- 

 tion of fatigue, owing to the fact that, while 

 it builds up the body, or, rather, makes up 

 for the loss of tissue, it does not tax the sys- 

 tem. The latter is not called upon to throw 

 off or get rid of a mass of perfectly useless 

 material, for it is undoubtedly true that 

 not more than one two-hundredth part of 

 honey is actual waste. Practically the hu- 

 man system uses up almost every particle of 

 honey placed in the stomach. This can be 

 said of no other food except sugar, which 

 must undergo a process of inversion before 

 the system can utilize it. Honey, on the 

 other hand, is in a state of partial digestion 

 before being eaten; and this, in addition to 

 the very free flow of saliva induced by the 

 flavor, causes it to be completely used up in 

 the digestive system without straining it at 

 all— so much so, in fact, that many invahds 

 and infants can use honey when sugar 

 would be prejudicial. 



Honey, it is believed, after passing through 

 the stomach, becomes glycogen by the action 

 of the liver, and in this way is converted 



