ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



95 



clover and sweet clover and he wrote 

 back and ordered five barrels of white 

 clover honey. I was not well at the 

 time and I told my man who got the 

 honey ready to mark the barrel and be 

 sure and get nothing but white clover 

 honey. He got it ready and shipped it 

 and when I got up and went out to 

 see what he had done I found one of 

 my sweet clover barrels missing and I 

 expected to get a pretty heavy rake- 

 up from this man, but within two or 

 three weeks I heard from him, saying 

 there was one barrel of sweet clover 

 honey in that shipment, and he said: 

 "If you have any more, send me five 

 barrels more, even if it does take 

 dynamite to blow it out of the bar- 

 rels." 



Mr. McElvain — Do you recommend 

 sowing buckwheat in this latitude? 



Mr Baxter — I cannot recommend it 

 in this latitude at all. I have been giv- 

 ing buckwheat seed to my neighbors 

 ever since I began bee-keeping forty 

 years ago until recently, with the ex- 

 pectation of getting returns from it in 

 honey, but buckwheat, does not pro- 

 duce honey in this latitude. In Wis- 

 consin, Michigan and York State it is 

 the best honey producer. It is the 

 same as alfalfa; alfalfa does not pro- 

 duce honey here. 



Mr. McElvain — It does not produce 

 any seed here. 



Mr. Baxter — I do not know, I have 

 not investigated, I have never seen 

 any bees on it; in the west it is their 

 main crop. Take golden -rod — golden - 

 rod produces a great deal of honey in 

 the New England states, but it does 

 not produce anything here as a rule. 

 This year it gave a pretty fair crop. 



The President — "What is the quality 

 of the golden-rod honey? 



Mr. Baxter — Very much like the 

 Spanish needle, only it does not have 

 quite as strong a flavor; it is pretty 

 •good. 



Mr. Richardson — That is the chief 

 objection we have to the buckwheat 

 honey. We can get a considerable 

 amount of it, but it is so dark in color 

 and it is so strong and coarse in 

 quality that it sells very low; there is 

 not much call for it. 



Mr. Baxter — That is true to a cer- 

 tain extent, but it all depends upon 

 circumstances. You go back in York 

 State, where they are used to buck- 

 wheat honey, and sections of Michi- 

 gan, where they grow a great deal. 



they will ask for buckwheat; they are 

 used to it, and they want it. I have 

 some customers in Kansas send to me 

 for clover honey every year. They say, 

 "We cannot eat alfalfa honey; we do 

 not like it." It all depends on what 

 people are used to. Buckwheat honey 

 is a dark reddish honey, and I do not 

 like it at all, but it is used exten- 

 sively in York State 'as a table honey, 

 and it is used extensively by bakers. 

 Remember there is a big demand from 

 bakers, they make honey cookies. I 

 have a customer in Iowa to whom I 

 sell twenty-five barrels, who has been 

 taking honey from me for thirty years. 

 It has been used also, the cheaper 

 grades, in curing hams and sides, and 

 it makes delicious meat, and there are 

 many uses for honey. On account of 

 the high cost of sugar this year, honey 

 has been in big demand; there has 

 been a big crop all over the country 

 east of the Roocky Mountains, and the 

 expectation was the prices would go 

 to pieces. Instead of that, it has been 

 rising. I made a mistake by selling 

 my honey too early, but that shows the 

 uncertainty of things. I remember in 

 early days we used to use honey for 

 making preserves, for canning fruit 

 and numerous other things, and I as- 

 sure you you cannot find , any sweet 

 that will make as fine preserves or 

 give the same fiavor, provided you use 

 the right honey, white clover. You do 

 not want to use the strong kinds. 



The President — Do you know any- 

 thing about its medicinal qualities? - 



Mr. Baxter — Yes, the medical quali- 

 ties of honey are greater than those of 

 any other sweet, I don't care what it is. 

 A man who is suffering with Bright's 

 disease or with diabetes can take 

 honey and it will not hurt him. He 

 cannot use sugar at all. It is good for 

 infants. It is good in cases of consti- 

 pation; there is nothing better, and 

 as a nourishment honey is nearer a 

 balanced ration than anything else I 

 can think of. A man will live longer 

 on honey and bread alone than he 

 would live on bread and butter alone, 

 and he would have more energy and 

 be better fitted for his everyday occu- 

 pations than he would on any other 

 foods. It is a predigested food; it is 

 an inverted sugar, and it is readily 

 taken Into the system, builds it up fast, 

 and there is more nourishment in a 

 pound of honey, that you can buy at 



