August, 1908. 



American Hee Journal 



and private, I have felt somewhat handi- 

 capped in the past to "convert the bright 

 capped nectar advantageously into the 

 coin of the realm," as R. L. Taylor says. 

 Hence from a financial point of view, 

 apiculture has not so far proved to be 

 a bonanza with me. However, it has 

 in more than one instance sweetened the 

 cup of my daily pursuit. In fact, it is 

 an edifying and interesting rural avo- 

 cation for the enthusiastic amateur, pos- 

 sessing so many charms, both of study 

 and of the modus operandi as well. 



O, when the radiant bloom is on, and 

 the nectar all but drips from the frag- 

 rant flowers, and when those powerful 

 and agile colonies get fairly started, 

 the vim and rush and roar can better 

 be imagined than my pen can depict. 

 Energy and hilarity are the sentiment 

 of the scene. And in the cool of the 

 evening shades — my daily work over — 

 how I like to sit under my favorite 

 linden trees, to rest and muse, gazing 

 and listening to the magic music of the 

 alluring hum of the heavily laden gath- 

 erers, eagerly hurrying home from the 

 fields to their hearths ! It is only the 

 lot of a true beedomite to comprehend 

 the fascination of such scenes in the 

 apicultural domain. 



Besides bee-keeping I have found no 

 other diversion or side occupation that 

 awakens impressions at once so won- 

 drous, so pleasurable, so profound ! Ever 

 since my youth I have naturally felt at- 

 tracted to the wonderful commonwealth 

 of the bee, but it was not until in my 

 later years, when a more stable abode 

 enabled me to turn my attention to 

 this placid idyl in my clerical life, and 

 find enjoyment therein. 



Brainard, Nebr., July 3. 



A Food that Fills the Bill 



BY EUGENE SECOR. 



There are ever so many prepared 

 foods on the market nowadays, and it's 

 a dull month that doesn't add another 

 to the list. 



We are frequently surprised by our 

 grocer offering us something in that line 

 which we never before heard of. 



The new food may prove attractive, 

 appetizing and nourishing, and continue 

 to tempt us to buy, or we may tire of 

 the novelty and long to go back to the 

 old standby that has proved its value 

 by furnishing us with muscle or brain 

 force to tussle with life's hard problems. 



Food, to meet the requirements of 

 the human system in this busy, work-a- 

 day world, must possess at least three 

 qualities. It ought to be 



1. Nutritious. 



2. Appetizing. 



3. Digestible. 



The first because our physical na- 

 tures need rebuilding all the time. The 

 wastes caused by labor or exercise, by 

 growth, and in fact by the simple act 

 of breathing, must be supplied by food. 



The second because we need all the 

 pleasure possililc to be had out of the 

 rebuilding. If the wind should blow 

 some shingles off our house every day 

 and we were doomed to climb a ladder 

 every day to replace them whether we 

 liked it or not, we'd soon get tired of 



repairing the house. But if somehow 

 we could make fun out of the job in- 

 stead of work, the shingles might fly 

 and we wouldn't care. 



It is fun to eat when things taste 

 good. 



The third requirement is necessary 

 because our modern life has impaired 

 our digestive organs more or less and 

 some foods which the aborigines might 

 have gulped down with impunity are 

 a menace to our nervous and impaired 

 constitutions. Our comfort and health 

 depend upon our digestion. 



Not only do the staple foods come 

 under these requirements, but the so- 

 called luxuries, condiments, and season- 

 ing foods may aid or retard the di- 

 gestive process. If they are agreeable 

 to the stomach and are readily assimi- 

 lated they aid in sustaining the body 

 and in building up the wasted tissues. 

 Good butter is nourishing, agreeable to 

 the taste and digestible in small quan- 

 tities. 



Cane sugar is nourishing and agree- 

 able to most people but not readily as- 

 similated. It taxes the stomach and kid- 

 neys and often leads to serious ailments. 



As an appetizer, taking the place of 

 butter or used as an adjunct thereto, 

 supplying the demand of the body for 

 sweets, there i? nothing which quite 

 equals honey. This is a sweet distilled 

 in nature's laboratory that has never 

 been e.xcelled by the genius of man. He 

 may try to imitate but he cannot impart 

 the aroma, the delicious flavor of the 

 wild wood or the blossoming garden or 

 the scented field. He may distill some- 

 thing from corn that looks like it but 

 he cannot fool the bee into thinking it 

 honey. And he can't fool the chemist 

 either, and wherever the pure food law 

 is in force the chemist traps the man 

 who is calling glucose honey. There- 

 fore there is little adulterated honey 

 on the market, but if one wants it in 

 the liquid, or extracted form let him 

 buy only from reliable men or under 

 the guaranty of the National Bee Keep- 

 ers' Association. And if one wants to 

 be absolutely sure he is eating the genu- 

 ine, heaven-distilled and bee-manipula- 

 ted article, let him buy comb honey with 

 the assurance that no man has ever yet 

 been able to imitate the bee by faking 

 the delicate comb which holds it, or the 

 delicious syrup that fills it. 



Not only is honey appetizing, but it 

 is nourishing. It is a real food. It 

 builds wasted tissue. 



Not only is honey palatable and nu- 

 tritious, but it is assimilable. It agrees 

 with most people. It is much more 

 easily digested than cane sugar because 

 it needs one less transformation in the 

 stomach. It enters more readily into 

 the circulation and doesn't tax the or- 

 gans that are overworked in trying to 

 take care of commercial sugars. Kid- 

 ney diseases are comparatively unknown 

 among persistent users of honey. 



When the clover fields are white with 

 bloom, and the linden shakes its creamy 

 cups, and summer is drunk with a 

 thousand perfumes, the provident bee 

 garners the matchless food that needs 

 no cook to prepare it, no spice to sea- 

 son it and no fair hand to tempt us 

 to eat what God has provided in the 

 great storehouse of nature for all his 

 children. 



Marketing the Honey Crop 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



My first experience with marketing 

 honey was when I was quite young, my 

 father loading on the wagon what his 

 4 or s colonies had produced that sea- 

 son, and taking me along with it to our 

 village. I held the horse while he 

 brpught men and women out to see the 

 honey, all in 15-pound boxes, each turn- 

 ed bottom-side up, to show the nice, 

 white capped combs. This honey was 

 barter for anything our family could 

 use in tlie line of groceries, cloth, boots, 

 shoes, etc., and in this way he would 

 dispose of all he could produce, even 

 after he numbered his colonies by the 

 score. 



But those days have passed long ago, 

 and cash sales are the order of the day 

 now, hence the marketing of honey is 

 a more important question now than it 

 was then, for a person may succeed in 

 producing a good article of honey, and 

 so put it up and force it upon the mar- 

 ket, that it will not bring the producer 

 as much as a third or fourth class ar- 

 ticle would in those old days of barter. 

 At the present time, a good price for 

 honey depends very much on the con- 

 dition in which it reaches the market. 

 Some will take their honey to market 

 in bulk, piling the section bo.xes into a 

 spring wagon in a haphazard way, and, 

 driving to the nearest town or city, offer 

 it for sale. As a rule, the grocery man 

 looks at it and soliloquizes thus : 



This honey is in a poor shape for me 

 to sell, and if I put it in attractive shape 

 it will cost me a cent a pound at least; 

 also, this honey shows that the pro- 

 ducer does not know the value of his 

 production, or he would have put it up 

 in marketable shape, therefore, if I buy 

 it will be at a less figure. 



So he offers 3 or 4 cents less than he 

 would expect to pay for the same quality 

 of honey nicely crated and oft'ered for 

 sale by a person knowing what such 

 honey was worth in the different mar- 

 kets of the United States. 



While passing through the city of 

 Syracuse y few years ago, I stopped in 

 several places where I saw honey, .uid 

 enquired the price they paid for it. The 

 groceryman, pointing to a lot of per- 

 haps 60 pounds, in a pile without cases, 

 informed me that he got that lot at 

 10 cents ; and then turning to a lot which 

 was no better, but nicely put up in hand- 

 some cases, he said, "That lot cost me 

 13 cents." Upon questioning him fur- 

 ther, I found that he was retailing both 

 lots at 16 cents a pound. This was 

 about the difference in price I found 

 .generally, although in one or two places 

 it was not more than 2 cents. 



From this it will be seen that it pays 

 largely to case nicely our product ; and 

 if I had but 50 to 100 pounds of section 

 honey for sale, I should fix it up as 

 nicely as possible and case it, by all 

 means, not only because it would pay, 

 but also because it would help to es- 

 tablish a better price for honey, as well 

 as a more uniform price for it through- 

 out the country. 



In casing our honey it should be grad- 

 ed, so that the very best or fancy should 

 all go by itself, and the same of No. i, 

 No. 2 and so on down to the poorest. 



