736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



plan to start a bee-hive factory in Cuba, 

 and Icnocli out all foreigners. Senior Fred 

 did not hanker after any such job— mig-ht go 

 in at the larger and come out at the smaller 

 end of the horn. W. W. thought it would 

 be a good plan for Senior Fred and the 

 Rambler to get married, and he had sever- 

 al Cuban ladies in view as eligible. Senior 

 Fred and I were unanimous in the opinion 

 that we'd get married when we got ready, 

 and not before; and with this steadfast 

 opinion, and at a late hour, we retired. 



EXTRACTED HONEY IN HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 

 Honey as an Article of Food for Children. 



BY PROF. C. F. HODGE. 



I am interested in the discussions of ex- 

 tracted honey, bottling, etc., that are begin- 

 ning in Gleanings. I have no fear that 

 they will drive me to "extraction," for I 

 have already reached that stage by a pro- 

 cess of experience and necessity. For fan- 

 cy use and now and then we want a nice 

 comb of honey on the table; and however 

 much extracted we use, about as regularly 

 as butter, it can not take the place of the 

 beautiful comb honey. But the staple use 



" THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING (hONEY) IS IN THE EATING 



of honey, I find (and here is where my "ex- 

 perience" comes in), is as a spread on bread 

 and butter or rolls. Here the comb is in 

 the way, especially with young children, 

 and it is here that extracted honey should 

 find its daily use. We have two babies, 

 two and four, pictures of health and vigor; 

 and, while I do not say it is due to the hon- 

 ey, they have had honey from the time they 

 began to eat solid food, with almost no oth- 

 er sweetening, and they simply adore it, 

 and have shown no signs of tiring of it. 

 As I have before said, I have never seen ab- 



solute proof that honey is a more wholesome 

 food for children than cane sugar or pure 

 syrups; but I am strongly inclined to the 

 view that it is. It seems to me that it may 

 be a more ph3'siological mixture of sugars, 

 and that it may contain, besides, traces of 

 digestive ferments and flavoring substances 

 that may be not only appetizing, which is 

 no small matter, but wholesome as well. 

 To say the least, honey is pre-digested su- 

 gar ; i. e., the nectar of flowers is very 

 largely cane sugar. This has been almost 

 all changed into grape sugar by ferment 

 action in the bee's stomach; and since all 

 cane sugar must be changed to grape sugar 

 before it is absorbed, honej^ presents a par- 

 tially digested and thus easily absorbed 

 form of sugar. It is analogous to malted 

 milk and pre-digested cereal foods in this 

 respect. 



But besides the sugars, all honey analy- 

 ses show a small percentage (.03 — 2.02) of 

 nitrogenous matters which are quite suffi- 

 cient in amount to be of considerable nutri- 

 tive value, and more than enough to exert 

 impoi'tant physiological influences. Honey 

 is recognized in medical works to have a 

 soothing healing influence on inflamed sur- 

 faces, and to act as a mild aperient. This 

 seems to me a field well worth investigat- 

 ing; and results, accurately stated, might 

 explain theproverbialgood- 

 ness and wholesomeness of 

 honey, and have some ef- 

 ect to reinstate it as a sta- 

 ple household food, even in 

 an age of cheap sugar. 



Mrs. Hodge says that I 

 have not stated the case 

 strongly enough as regards 

 the wholesomeness of honey 

 for little folks, and she has 

 had the "experience" at 

 first hand. Besides being 

 a delicious food, honey is 

 often taken for coughs and 

 sore throats, but we have 

 not had so much as a toucli 

 of cough or sore throat in 

 all the four years, and that, 

 too, with whooping-cough 

 all about us most of the 

 time, and even here in the 

 house with us. Dr. Miller 

 may say "pooh-bah" at 

 this; but I am not claiming 

 that it proves any thing ex- 

 cept that honey is good to 

 bring up babies on after they outgrow milk 

 sugar, and it is suggestive to say the least. 

 I am just ordering two more gallons of 

 extracted honey to feed to the family (es- 

 pecially the babies) between now and 

 spring. I hope it may prove as good as 

 formerl}^ Apropos of the candied-honey 

 question I have another note to add in this 

 connection. The last two -quart can I 

 brought down was candied. I explained 

 how it could be melted back to its former 

 consistency. Imagine mj' surprise when I 

 was told that it was better as it was. "It 



