330 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



come so low in price that they may be commonly used in the poorest fami- 

 lies. Formerly honey was the principal sweet, and it was one of the 

 items sent as a propitiatory offering by Jacob to his unrecognized son, the 

 chief ruler of Egypt, 3,000 years before the first sugar-refinery was built. 



It would be greatly for the health of the present generation if honey 

 could be at least partially restored to its former place as a common article 

 of diet. The almost universal craving for sweets of some kind shows a 

 real need of the system in that direction, but the excessive use of sugar 

 brings in its train a long list of ills. Besides the various disorders of the 

 alimentary canal, fatal disease of the kidneys is credited with being one 

 of the results of sugar-eating. When cane-sugar is taken into the stomach, 

 it cannot be assimilated until first changed by digestion into grape-sugar. 

 Only too often the overtaxed stomach fails to properly perform this di- 

 gestion, then comes sour stomach and various dyspeptic phases. Prof. A. 

 J. Cook says: 



"If cane-sugar is absorbed without change, it will be removed by the 

 kidneys, and may result in their break-down; and physicians may be cor- 

 rect in asserting that the large consumption of cane-sugar by the 20th 

 century man is harmful to the great eliminators — the kidneys — and so a 

 menace to health and long life." 



Now, in the wonderful laboratory of the bee-hive there is found a 

 sweet that needs no further digestion, having been prepared fully by those 

 wonderful chemists — the bees — for prompt assimilation without taxing 

 stomach or kidneys. As Prof. Cook says: "There can be no doubt but 

 that in eating honey our digestive machinery is saved work that it would 

 have to perform if we ate cane-sugar; and in case it is overtaxed and 

 feeble, this may be just the respite that will save from a break-down.' 



A. I. Root says: "Many people who cannot eat sugar without having 

 unpleasant symptoms follow, will find by careful test that they can eat 

 good, well-ripened honey without any difficulty at all." 



HONEY THE MOST DELICIOUS SAUCE 



Not only is honey the most wholesome of all sweets, but it is the most 

 delicious. No preparation of man can equal the delicately flavored product 

 of the hive. Millions of flowers are brought under tribute, presenting their 

 tiny cups of dainty nectar to be gathered by the busy riflers; and when 

 they have brought it to the proper consistency, and stored it in the won- 

 drously-wrought waxen cells and sealed it with coverings of snowy white- 

 ness, no more tempting dish can grace the table at the most lavish banquet; 

 and yet its cost is so moderate that it may well find its place on the tables 

 of the common people every day in the week. 



IT IS ECONOMY TO USE HONEY 



Indeed, in many cases it may be a matter of real economy to lessen 

 the butter-bill by letting honey in part take its place. A pound of honey 

 will go about as far as a pound of butter; and if both articles be of the 

 best quality the honey will cost the less of the two. Often a prime 

 article of extracted honey (equal to comb honey in every respect except 



