396 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1918 



the stimulant sugar — quick results in energy 

 but no lasting good. Probably the refiners 

 are to blame for the fact that we use so 

 much refined sugar and so little of the types 

 that give permanent good, but the fact that 

 sugar production can be carried on only 

 on a large scale leads to such processes. If 

 all of the sugar used in the United States 

 were produced here, it is probable that we 

 would use more raw sugar. 



The craving for sweets has led to the 

 making of a product of still less value, glu- 

 cose. Good corn is used for this purpose. 

 Glucose is the worst enemy of the beekeep- 

 ing industry because it was formerly used as 

 an adulteration for honey, but this day is 

 happily past. Now it is an enemy of honey 

 only in so far as it can be produced more 

 cheaply and more uniformly. However if it 

 were as good a food as honey, the beekeeper 

 ought not to object to its use. In the early 

 days of the glucose industry, before the later 

 methods were employed, this product con- 

 tained acids which were directly injurious 

 to the human stomach, but these processes 

 have been improved. Glucose now contains 

 a large amount of gums. We can digest 

 these, but all beekeepers well know that 

 bees will die on such a diet, for their di- 

 gestive machines cannot handle it. If we 

 object to sugar because it contains no gums, 

 to be consistent, perhaps we ought to com- 

 mend glucose because it contains so much 

 material of this kind. However the abnor- 

 mal amount of gum results in a food which 

 has little sweetening value. Glucose is in 

 reality a food which has been partially con- 

 verted into a substance which can be as- 

 similated. So far as it has been prepared 

 for human assimilation it is a good food, 

 but it lacks the very quality desired in n 

 sweet, sweetness. It is unappetizing, and, 

 worst of all, is sold almost entirely as an 

 adulterant. Doctor Wiley, while Chief of 

 the Bureau of Chemistry, fought this prod- 

 uct as hard as he could, not because it was 

 a bad food but because it was not what it 

 purported to be and because it was not call- 

 ed by its right name in most cases. 



In the south-central and southern States 

 considerable quantities of sweet sorghums 

 are grown, and this source of sugar has 

 greatly increased since the war began. ^ In 

 classing sorghum syrup with the less desira- 

 ble sugars we do so, not because it is in any 

 way injurious, but because it is usually an 

 inferior product. The process of manufac- 

 ture is crude, the product is so variable as 

 to make its purchase a gamble; and further- 

 more it is subject to the same criticisms as 

 cane and beet sugar, in that it is a sucrose, 

 an uninverted sugar which places a tax on 

 the human stomach. However, we need not 

 fear sorghum for in all probability its use 

 will decrease again after the war is over. 

 The appetite for this is, in a sense, a cultivat- 

 ed one, and certainly sorghum syrup cannot 

 be called a first class article of diet. 



Mention was made in the beginning of this 

 editorial to the fact that the use of sugar 



increases as the use of alcohol decreases. 

 This is true all over the world. Every peo- 

 ple seems to demand some sort of food from 

 which they can get a quick response in 

 energy, and the speed with which the Ameri- 

 can people live probably calls for an un-' 

 usual amount of food of this type. We 

 have learned, or are learning, that in using 

 alcohol for this purpose we are getting re- 

 sults other than those of quick energy, for it 

 leaves a trail behind. However, to increase 

 the use of sugar as rapidly as we have is 

 placing a strain on American digestion that 

 we cannot stand without evil results of far- 

 reaching ■ importance. The products that 

 have been discussed in this editorial are not 

 of the type which do us roofl, but there are 

 sugars which have better qualities, and these 

 we will discuss in the next issue of Glean- 

 ings. 



In Memoriam G. M. DooUttle. 



Gilbert M. Doolittle died at his home near 

 Borodino, N. Y., on June 3, 1918, aged 72 

 years, 1 month and 19 days. Altho Mr. 

 Doolittle had suffered from serious ill health 

 for a long time, his final illness was of the 

 duration of only two days, death resulting 

 from prostration due to the extreme heat of 

 June 1 complicated with the results of con- 

 tracting a severe cold. His whole long and 

 useful life was spent on a farm in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of his birthplace. He 

 was born the sou of a farmer and beekeeper, 

 and from his very infancy he was himself a 

 beekeeper. 



By the death of G. M. Doolittle, the voice 

 of a great beekeeper-teacher has been still- 

 ed. For almost half a century he unceasingly 

 taught the principles and details of good 

 beekeeping thru the apicultural journals to 

 a great audience of both beekeeper learners 

 and beekee})er experts. Among all the cor- 

 respondents of the bee journals no writer, 

 perhaps, has been more closely followed than 

 Mr. Doolittle. The readers of Gleanings 

 thru many years have expressed in thou- 

 sands of letters their appreciation of him as 

 a teacher. So universally was his opinion 

 sought that Gleanings Editor, early in 1900, 

 asked him to conduct a department in 

 Gleanings entitled ' ' Conversations with 

 Doolittle." In that capacity Mr. Doolittle 

 has been a continuous instructor to the 

 American beekeeping public for more than 

 18 years. He has been a regular contributor 

 to this journal from the first year of its 

 publication, 1873. 



From his earliest years, Mr. Doolittle was 

 a very close observer, and his statements 

 as to the actual operations that take place 

 within the hive (or what we now technical- 

 ly call bee behavior) can be regarded as 

 authentic. He came to be generally accepted 

 as an authority on all manner of domestic 

 economy of the bees. 



Mr. Doolittle was a large man in every 

 way, of magnificent physique and command- 



