404 



December, 1915. 



American Hae Journal 



lished writings, Dr. Miller is still more 

 so in his private correspondence, which 

 bristles with witticisms and bons mots. 

 In private, he uses the reformed spell- 

 ing — phonetic spelling — recommended 

 by the American Philological Associa- 

 tion, which was used by our former 

 editor, Geo. W. York, in the American 

 Bee Journal for several years. This 

 sometimes adds piquancy to his re- 

 remarks. May we give some samples 

 of his private correspondence without 

 indiscretion ? 



The autobiography was begun in 

 December, 1914, at our request, but was 

 delayed by one thing and another and 

 lately by our demand for photographs, 

 to illustrate it. At one time we wrote 

 the Doctor an appreciation of an ex- 

 cellent editorial he had sent us and 

 asked him about the biography. Here 

 is a part of the reply : 



"Yours of 11th came this morning 

 and, as always, I read it aloud. Mrs. 

 M. said, ' That's a good letter.' Her 

 sister added, 'It ought to warm the 

 cockles of your heart.' Fact is — no 

 use denying it — you're an appreciative 

 cuss — tomer, and I appreciate appre- 

 ciation. I suppose now I ought to be 

 very modest and depreciate any special 

 value in what I wrote. I'm not mod- 

 est, not a bit; I think it's one of the 

 best things I ever wrote — thot so when 

 I sent it. 



"You're evidently just a bit afraid 

 that I'll never get started at that auto- 

 biography. You forget that I have a 

 wife, also that she is a warm friend of 

 yours. So it was only the natural thing 

 that in her gentle persuasive way she 

 should keep me reminded of it. As a 

 result I began it quite a number of 

 days ago. But so many duties come 

 in that I don't get on very fast. If I 

 get something done at it today, then it 

 may be crowded out for several suc- 

 cessive days. Another thing that makes 

 it go slow is that I am making it very 

 full, putting in trivial things that the 

 public can take no interest in, altho 

 perhaps as a personal friend they may 

 interest you. The reason for it is that 

 I am writing it at the same time for my 

 family, and you can omit all you don't 

 care for, while you couldn't add if I 

 omitted." 



Regarding the photos, we wanted to 

 show Dr. Miller at work, in shirt 

 sleeves, among his bees, but whether 

 from his own fancy or from the desire 

 of the ladies, it was thought best to 

 have his " picture took "in style, and 

 he wrote : "It was thot my whiskers 

 were a little too bushy to be fit for a 

 picture to occupy so exalted a position 

 as contemplated (American Bee Jour- 

 nal cover page), so I went to the bar- 

 ber and askt him to trim them off a lit- 

 tle. Instead of that he took off so 

 much that you wouldn't want to pre- 

 sent me in such a plight; so now I've 

 got to waif for at least a little growth. 

 Fortunately the growth is pretty rapid." 



After the pictures were taken: "The 

 fotografer wrote me last week that he 

 would have the picture finisht Satur- 

 day. It is now Thursday and no pic- 

 ture yet. You're better off than I am ; 

 all you need do is to feel disgusted at 

 the way I am treating you, while be- 

 sides being disgusted at the fotografer, 

 I'm distrest at the thot of being lowered 



in your esteem, an esteem that I hold 

 in high estimation." 



Nestor was said to be 90, when his 

 counsels were of such high value to the 

 Greek warriors. Dr. Miller will be 85 

 at his next birthday and appears as 

 lucid as ever in all that he writes. It 

 must be due to his equanimity and 

 sobriety, an example for us all. — c. p. d. 



The Food Value of Honey 



IN the days of our grandfathers honey 

 had a place on every table. Honey 

 and maple syrup were the only 

 sweets supplied to the family. Refined 

 sugar, as now used, was unknown. A 

 few bees were kept to supply honey, 

 the same as a cow was kept to furnish 

 the family milk and butter. As the 

 conditions of the country changed and 

 ways of living became more compli- 

 cated, new food products appeared 

 upon our tables, and substitutes took 

 the place of things formerly regarded 

 as necessities. 



The dairy interests of the country 

 made a tremendous fight to prevent 

 oleomargarine from replacing butter 

 and the sentiment created by this or- 

 ganized effort was sufficient to create 

 a demand for butter from the Ameri- 

 can public, rather than for its cheaper 

 and inferior substitute. 



Unfortunately, the beekeepers have 

 not been organized, and while butter 

 has continued to grow in demand and 

 sell at constantly higher prices, the 

 demand for honey which was once well 

 nigh universal has been largely sup- 

 plied by corn syrup and other inferior 

 products, while honey sells at a lower 

 price than it brought half a century 

 ago. 



The beekeeper who offers his pro- 

 duct for sale constantly meets the state- 

 ment that honey is a luxury which the 

 man of small income cannot afford to 

 buy. Even the beekeeper himself has 

 accepted this view, and undertaken to 

 build a market on this basis. 



Is honey a luxury? While it may 



not be a necessity, no more is it a 

 luxury than is butter or beefsteak. 

 Some writers have pointed out that be- 

 cause one could not live on honey 

 alone, it was a luxury and should be 

 sold as such. One could as well live 

 on honey alone as on butter alone, yet 

 no one regards butter as a luxury. 



A fair basis of values of food prod- 

 ucts is the actual food units which they 

 contain. In order to secure reliable 

 information as to the food values of 

 the products which we wish to com- 

 pare with honey, we have taken the 

 table compiled by Hon. W. B. Barney, 

 of the Iowa food and dairy department. 

 With this table at hand we went to a 

 retail store in Keokuk, Iowa, where 

 probably the usual retail prices prevail, 

 and purchased different products of 

 equal food value. 



Figure 1 shows 3 articles, with food 

 value equal to 7 ounces of honey. For 

 the quart of milk we paid 10 cents, for 

 the codfish 20 cents, and for the eggs 

 2.5 cents. Milk and eggs are generally 

 recognized as necessities, yet as far as 

 food value is concerned the eggs cost 

 more than twice as much as the honey 

 and the milk is slightly higher in price. 



In Fig. 2 is shown a 12-ounce steak 

 which costs at retail 1.5 cents, yet 

 which, according to Mr. Barney's table, 

 is only equal to 7 ounces of honey in 

 food value. When beefsteak is re- 

 garded as a necessity even by those 

 who are working for the lowest wages, 

 why should the beekeeper permit the 

 impression to grow that his product is 

 a luxury at half the price ? Nine cents 



KIG. i-FOUR ARTICLES OF EQUAL FOOD VALUE 



