260 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



with just the queen. You can easily distinguish 

 the drones from workers; for while workers are a 

 shiny black at the rear of their abdomen, the 

 drones keep the same color to the end, and are a 

 little more blunt. We used, when bojs, to call 

 them " she bees." They may be found on what we 

 call " bull thistles " and other fall Howers, earning- 

 their own living- by the sweat of their brow. 

 MJnesing-, Simcoe Co., Can. Thos. Stokes. 



SOME USES FOR HONEY. 



FLAVORS TO USE WITH HONEY, ETC. 



T WONDER if any of the readers of Gleanings 

 /af have had any thing- like the following experi- 

 ^l ence of ours happen to them. Several years 

 -*• ago we sold several barrels of fall honey to a 

 large grocer and dealer in sweets, in a city in 

 the east. One of the barrels was to be used in a 

 bakery. A few days after the honey had reached 

 its destination we received a letter from the whole- 

 sale dealer, saying: "I do not know what to do 

 with the barrel of honey which I delivered to the 

 baker; he says he spoiled a batch of cakes by using 

 it. I ha^•e tasted the cakes; they have an unpleas- 

 ant flavor." 



We knew that the quality of the honey was unques- 

 tionably good, so when my husband read that 

 letter to me we looked at each other in surprise. 

 The honey that we used for the cookies, "snaps," 

 and honey -cakes that were daily on our table was 

 of the very same quality as that which was in the 

 aforesaid barrel; and not only did we prefer the 

 strong-flavored honey to spring honey for baking 

 purposes, but many who had tasted these cookies, 

 etc., at our home had seemed to relish them. 



After thinking the matter over a few minutes I 

 realized what the trouble was: The baker had 

 probably tried to make gingerbread with this fall 

 honey. I had once tried to use ginger to flavor 

 cakes and cookies made with fall honey, and the 

 result had been a decided failure— the two flavors 

 combined giving a coarse, bitter, almost nauseous 

 taste. I have used ginger with honeys of milder 

 flavor; and though the result is not perfection, 

 the taste is not really Imd. 



A number of different flavors can be used with 

 honey; among them are cinnamon, nutmeg, grat- 

 ed orange-peel, etc. But by far the best flavor is 

 obtained by the use of the four spices— anise-seed, 

 coriander-seed, cinnamon, and nutmeg. So far as I 

 have experimented, I have found the following to 

 be the best recipe for 



honey spice-bbead. 



Dissolve a teaspoonful of soda into W^ cups of 

 sweet milk at least 3 hours before you are ready to 

 mix the cake (soaking the soda the day before is 

 still more preferable). Have ready 3 cupfuls of 

 honey, 4 eggs, V^ cupful of butter, and one table- 

 spoonful each of ground anise-seed and coriander- 

 seed, one scant teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, 

 and ^ nutmeg, grated. Melt the honey, if candied, 

 but use it cold, or only lukewarm; mix it with the 

 butter and the spices thoroughly; add flour enough 

 to make a stiff batter; next add the yelks of the 

 eggs and the milk, mi.\ and beat well, then add the 

 whites beaten stiff. Bake In squai-e tins in a gen- 

 tle oven. If the dough lays in the pans over an 

 inch and a half in thickness, allow it to bake 45 

 minutes to one hour. One-half hour is enough if 



the cakes are not thick. When poured in the pans 

 the batter should be of such consistency as to 

 spread evenly in the pans though not too readily. 



SOFT HONEY-COOKIES. 



Mix together 3 cupfuls of liquid honry, .5 eggs, a 

 scant cupful of lard or butter, and a heaping tea- 

 spoon of soda; add the four spices mentioned 

 above, and mix with enough flour to make a stiff 

 dough; roll out thick, cut in any shape, and bake in 

 a quick oven to a light brown. 



CBISP " HONEY-SNAPS." 



To two cupfuls of honey add one or two eggs, 

 half a cup of butter, half a teaspoonful of soda, 

 spices as in the above mixtures: make a dough just 

 stiff enough to roll (if you let it stand in a cold 

 place after mixing- it soft, it will get stiffer without 

 using more flour). Roll it out thin, cut in any 

 shape, and bake in a slow oven until quite brown. 



The soft cookies will get too soft unless kept in a 

 dry place, but the " snaps " will remain crisp quite 

 a while, and keep fresh for a long time. 



Cinnamon, anise-seed, and a small proportion of 

 cloves, may be used as a substitute for the four 

 spices mentioned above, though they are by no 

 means a perfect substitute. In the above recipes 

 the strongest-flavored honey will give the best 

 results. 



Any cake or cookies made with honey is far more 

 digestible than compounds of sugar, eggs, and 

 flour. Ginger, as every one knows, is a tonic of a 

 very irritating nature, while anise-seed (or the es- 

 sence obtained from anise) is one of the few flavors 

 which can be used by dyspeptics with actual bene- 

 fit. Every mother who has used Mrs. Winslow's 

 soothing syrup knows it owes its soothing qualities 

 chiefly to the essence of anise-seed. 



Coriander grows wherever carrots grow, so we 

 bee-keepers can not only produce our own sweets, 

 but that with which to flavor them. 



I intended to say much more about honey and its 

 uses, but my article is already too long. I may 

 come again, and show the advantages of using 

 honey in making jams, and give two or three more 

 recipes. Mrs. B. J. Baxter. 



Nauvoo, 111., March, 1887. 



A REMEDY FOR THE MUCH-DREADED 



GREEN FLY OF THE LETTUCE- 



GRO\ArERS. 



A KIND OF FOUL BROOD THAT BRINGS BELIEF IN- 

 STEAD OF DISASTER. 



R. ROOT: — I am just home after a week's 

 absence, and find the green aphides of the 

 lettuce, which you send, all dried up. 

 Yet I assui-e you they are very interest- 

 ing to me, for I can still see the fungoid 

 threads which would surely soon hind them in 

 death's chains if they had not already done so. 

 While we are very loth to have the fungus of 

 " foul brood" carry off our bees, we are more than 

 willing to have it claim as victims our injurious 

 insects. As I told you at Ypsilanti, the cabbage- 

 caterpillar fungus is destroying the destructive 

 pest of our cabbages in a way to make every cab- 

 bage-grower glad. That fungus is much like the 

 one that kills our bees; while the one you send 

 that is ensnaring the aphis is like that which is 

 often seen enshrouding our common house-flies in 

 autumn. Nearly all the readers of Gleanings 



