t'('i'(M'.Ki>' I, I'lr 



GENERAL COEMESPONDENCE 



A SONG OF HONEY 



BV GRACE ALLEN 



We find anioiij;: Ihe merry songs of ''nfnblns tlmi ))lcnsi\ 

 Full many a lay of cuids and whey, of apple pie and cheese — 

 Of lusoions figs and purple grapes, and api)les lound and red, 

 Of i)ips with jdnms for g:ra.siiin!i- thumbs; but after all is said, 

 Is anything better than honey, frugiant, sweet, and sunny, 



Gathered when days are warm and bright by a hundred thousand bees? 

 Is there anything all your money can buy that is better than honey, 



With the scent of the sloAving- hearts of floAvors and a hint of a "woodsey breeze 



Now some may sing' of snow-white bread, but brown's I lie bread foi' me — 

 Coai-se g^-aham flour, and baked an hour, the eiiist so rich to sec; 

 A taste like nuts in autumn Avheu the leaves are g-old and red; 

 Then briny sweet milk, and honey sweet, for, after all is said, 

 Ts anything better than honey, fi-agrant, sweet, and sunnv. 



Borne by a thousand silken wings through a niillioii laugiiing beams? 

 Is there anything all your money can buy tliat is better than honey, 



With every drop lik-e the tasle of food we dreamed in a childhood dream? 



Let other rhyrasters all the joys of jolly dumplings sing; 



No ballad I, of salad, pie. or puddiiia-saucc shall bring: 



But through my days I'll sing the praise of crumbly graham biead 



With creamy milk and clover honey; for. after all is said, 



Ts anything- better tlian honey, fragrant, sweet, and sunny, 



INfade by a magic spell and the charm of June's bewitchingost v.-ays? 

 Is there anything- all your money can buy that i? better than honey. 



The autumn's precious heritage of summer's fairest days? 



nnraiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiihiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiii!!iiiiiiimniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim;iiiiiiiii:iiiiiiiiiii!iniiniiiiiiiiiiiiiin 



THE MINERAL CONSTITUENTS OF HONEY 



BY J. A. HEBERLE, B. S. 



C'lvdi iitcd from an article hit Dr. Fehlm 



To-day, as in old times, honey as a 

 l)opular rettiedy is esteemed by old and 

 young. Less valued and too little known 

 is honey as an article of food. As such, 

 for easy assimilation and savor, it stands at 

 the head. We may assume that it was also 

 one of the early foods of mankind, since in 

 the Old Testament the promised land is 

 spoken of as flowing: with milk and honey, 

 implying: that the best of food was there in 

 abundance. 



Pliny. 2000 years ae:o, called honey the 

 sweetest and most wholesome of juices. 

 " There is no pleasanter or better remedy 

 to save mortals fiom deadly evils.'' Th? 

 ignorance of the general public in regard 

 to honey as food is astonishinsr. -Fust as 

 water goes direct into the blr>o<l, so does 

 honey, leaving no residue. It is assimilated 

 at once, and chanc:ed to eneriry. For fool 

 it is far superior to sugar, which is to-day 

 liighly esteemed as food among the sweets. 



an in the Schv" 'Zinisdio Iiienrnz-itiiii(j 



Cane sugar in the stomach, through the 

 gastric juice, must be first inverted — chang- 

 ed to that form of sugar of which honey is 

 principally composed. Iloiu^y contains only 

 a small amount of cane sugar. The fact 

 that honey is in the form in which it can be 

 at once assimilated without taxing the di- 

 gestive power is of great importance. The 

 need of sugar by our body is, as a rule, 

 much greater than is commonly supposed. 

 The starch we take in our food must first 

 be changed by our digestive apjiaratus into 

 dextrine and then into sugar — not cane su- 

 gar, but dextrose, the principal constituent 

 of honey. From this one fact we might 

 call the snsar in honey physiolos:ical sugar. 

 This .saving in Ihe digestive power, when 

 we eat honey, is due to tlip fact that liie 

 bees, when they gather nectar, which for 

 I lie most i)art is cane sugar, change it to 

 fruit suear. On account of the importance 

 of invert sugar to our bodies we must con- 



