October, 191 1. 



American Vee Journal 



containing no pollen, and in which no 

 brood had ever been hatched. It was 

 impossible to gather more than a por- 

 tion of this choice honey, since there 

 was no method for separating it from 

 the combs without breaking them. The 

 pressed honey was the second quality. 

 This was secured by breaking up the 

 combs and putting them under a press. 

 A third quality was taken from the 

 same combs and from the inferior 

 combs by melting over fire, which sep- 

 arated the honey entirely from the wa.x, 

 but which gave a quality of honey dam- 

 aged by heat, and from which all the 

 essential oils had evaporated, thus tak- 

 ing all the fine aroma. 



The production of choice honey was 

 minimized by these conditions. The 

 second quality was nearly always taint- 

 ed, and more or less damaged by a 

 mixture of pollen which the press 

 crushed. In our America it was still 

 worse. The greater number of colo- 

 nies of bees were hived in hollow trees 

 — bee-gums, so called from the fact 

 that the gum-tree, or hyssa, or tupelo, 

 supplied the greatest number of hollow 

 trees. They were sawed into lengths 

 of 18 to 30 inches, with a board nailed 

 on each end, and a notch for the bees' 

 passage. To harvest the honey from 

 the " gum, " the upper board was re- 

 moved, and all that presented a suitable 

 appearance was cut out from above the 

 brood-nest, and the board again nailed 

 on. Then the best honey was strained 

 out and the residue pressed. Thou- 

 sands of swarms lodged in the virgin 

 forests, in hollow trees that were cut 

 down to secure the honey, supplied 

 honey more or less mixed with pollen, 

 crushed larvae, and rotten wood. 



The centrifugal honey-extractor used 

 by the modern methods, which throws 

 the honey out of the cells after the 

 combs have been uncapped with a 

 knife, furnishes a perfectly pure grade 

 of honey. The pollen, too liard to be 

 thrown out, invariably remains in the 

 combs. If the modern methods of 

 production are followed by the use of 

 supers or boxes containing the surplus 

 honey, the brood-apartment forms a 

 separate nest, where the queen keeps 

 herself, and from which she does not 

 usually move. For the same reason, 

 very little pollen is stored among the 

 surplus honey-combs, the pollen being 

 always stored next to the brood. As a 

 result, choice honey is much more 

 abundant now than formerly, the sec- 

 ond and third quality being found only 

 in the cappings that have been removed 

 from the cells with a knife, and which 

 do not produce a tenth of the total. 

 Even among these cappings, one may 

 obtain about as good honey as that 

 produced by the straining process of 

 former times. 



It is necessary to insist on this 

 change of conditions in the production 

 of honey — a change of which very few 

 consumers are as yet aware, outside of 

 the producers or retailers of apiarian 

 products. There are no longer upon 

 the markets inferior grades of honey, 

 as far as manner of production is con- 

 cerned, except among the crops of a 

 few old-timers, who, like Kip van Win- 

 kle, have permitted themselves to go 

 to sleep during several generations. 



However, there is a great deal of 

 choice in honey of different sources. 



but this choice is based entirely upon 

 the flowers that produce the nectar 

 from which it is made. Buckwheat 

 honey, boneset honey, and other dark 

 and strong grades will always be infe- 

 riorj no matter how well cared for. on 

 account of their strong flavor and dark 

 amber color. But clover honey, or 

 that harvested from alfalfa, esparcet in 

 the North ; or palmetto, mangrove, in 

 the South, etc., hold the most promi- 

 nent place. The quality of these grades 

 has increased in a ratio proportionate 

 to the increase of their production. A 

 few very inferior products also har- 

 vested by the bees can not be put in 

 the same rankas honey. Such is honey- 

 dew, gathered from the leaves of trees 

 during some seasons: it is sometimes 

 produced from a superabundance of 

 sap in the leaves, but oftener it is a 

 sweet secretion from plant-lice. 



Even in the production of comb 

 honey for the table, there is a great 

 difference in modern processes over 

 those of the past, for instead of being 

 delivered in broken chunks, or in more 

 or less damaged packages, the honey is 

 furnished in nice, smooth sections, 

 well sealed and well ripened ; it is re- 

 tailed out uninjured and without loss 

 or leakage. 



If. then, the quality is better in every 

 way than of old, why has honey depre- 

 ciated in price ? First, because, as I 

 have explained, the production of 

 honey of best quality has increased in 

 the entire civilized world. But cheap 

 sugars have also made against honey a 

 more or lesscompetition. Manysyrups, 

 many compounds, have been adorned 

 with the name of honey, which contain 

 barely enough honey to cover the 

 fraud. Yet commercial glucose, made 

 of corn starch by chemical process, 

 does not contain more than a third of 

 the sweetening power of honey. This 

 is not sufficiently known by the public. 



They have argued incessantly over 

 the advantages of low-price sugars and 

 syrups. It is worth the while, for the 

 profit is immense. How many candies, 

 how many sweets of different sorts, 

 are manufactured only with low-grade 

 glucose ? The result shows in our 

 grand-children, who often lose their 

 teeth before the latter have attained 

 their full growth. The profession of 

 dentist is becoming daily more impor- 

 tant and more indispensable. 



It is unnecessary for me to praise 

 honey, which is a superlative word for 

 sweetness. From the Philistines who 

 replied to Samson's riddle by, " What 

 is sweeter than honey?" down to Vic- 

 tor Hugo, who wrote : 



" Life is a blossom, and love is its lioney." 



the whole of mankind has agreed upon 

 giving it tacitly the first place among 

 the products which flatter the palate 

 while nourishing the body. Aside from 

 the fabled ambrosia, the food of the 

 gods, which they said was nine times as 

 sweet as honey, and which no mortal 

 ever tasted, nothing is considered su- 

 perior to honey. 



Our ancestors who ate no sweets but 

 honey, were just so much healthier 

 than we, without the services of doc- 

 tors. It was because honey is a nat- 

 ural product, already partly digested by 

 the formic acid of the bee, as has been 

 mentioned by numbers of scientists 



who have given to bee-culture the best 

 of their life. Doctor Dubini, a now 

 deceased Italian apiarist, very highly 

 educated and well informed, who wrote 

 a well-known treatise, "The Bee," said 

 of honey that " it gives vigor to the or- 

 gans, renews the blood-warmth in old 

 persons, gives strength to those who 

 labor, and increases the lucidity of 

 men of business or literary people." 



Mr. Alin Caillas, agricultural en- 

 gineer, in an excellent little pamphlet 

 entitled, "The Treasures in a Drop of 

 of Honey," e.xplains in what manner 

 the drop of nectar, composed princi- 

 pally of saccharose, undergoes a partial 

 digestion in the bee's stomach to furnish 

 a sweet more capable of assimilation, 

 "This drop of nectar, concentrated, 

 transformed, has become honey, a com- 

 ple.x product, union of the plant and of 

 the living insect, and the fecund col- 

 laboration of these two individualities 

 gives us a product the qualities of 

 which are complete." 



Honey, elaborated by Nature, may be 

 fitly compared to milk — the first food 

 of the new-born — a healthy product, 

 par excellence. The child braves dis- 

 ease with much more vigor if it has 

 the milk of a healthy nurse, whether 

 she be its mother or not. It is because 

 milk, when fresh and pure, is one of 

 the most easily assimilable aliments. 

 A French writer of popular rural dit- 

 ties, in singing the praise of his favor- 

 ite cow, wrote : 



" Le lait de Blanche est une essence 

 Des simples de tout le pays 

 II renferme plus de science 

 Que tous les livres de Paris." 



" Blanche's milk is an essence of the 

 herbs of the whole country; it con- 

 tains in itself more science than all the 

 the books of Paris." So is honey, an 

 essence of the blossoms of every coun- 

 try, much superior to all the sugars, 

 the candies, and the syrups more or less 

 sweet of commerce. Let us eat honey 

 if we wish to keep healthy and live to 

 a good old age. 



Hamilton, 111. 



The Status of Bee-Keeping— 

 Foul Brood 



BY DR. G. BOHRER. 



On page 112, there is found an article 

 under the above caption, in which I 

 called attention to the progress made 

 in apiculture during the last half cen- 

 tury, the pure food laws, the advertise- 

 ing and sale of honey, etc. I wish 

 now to state that in the matter of legis- 

 lation for the protection of the bee- 

 keeping industry, very much has also 

 been accomplished, most of our States 

 and Canada having fairly good laws 

 upon the subject of the diagnosis and 

 treatment of contagious and infectious 

 diseases, and it is a very noteworthy 

 fact that Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mis- 

 souri and Kansas, and some other 

 States, have all secured legislation of 

 this kind during the last 5 years. But 

 now that we have succeeded in getting 

 fairly good laws for the protection of 

 bee-keeping, only the initiatory steps 

 have been taken. There is yet very 

 much to be learned in regard to the 

 matters of correctly diagnosing and 



