189G. 



TUE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



210 



comes, just the same as we hire men 

 to go into our harvest field to cut the 

 grain when it is ripe. The hiring of 

 men to go into the fields to reap the 

 harvest after the grain had ripened, 

 fallen to the ground, an.d rotted or 

 grown, is often a fair sample of what 

 our would-be apiarists are doing year 

 after year. Secure the bees in time 

 for the harvest, see that the hive or 

 brood chamber is of the right size ac- 

 cording to the capacity of the queen, 

 put the sections on as soon as there is 

 any honey coming in at the com- 

 mencement of the harvest, and have a 

 few sections of comb left over from 

 the previous season for each hive, as 

 "bait" sections, ^nd I think no one 

 will have any reason to complain be- 

 cause the bees will not give a good 

 surplus to fully repay for all trouble, 

 unless the flowers fail to secrete honey. 

 Borodino, X. Y. 



From Glciiningji. 



HONEY AS FOOD AND MEDIOINB. 



A Remarkable Cure of Dyspepsia by 



the use of Honey. 



~¥ — 



BV ELTAS FOX. 



At the age of 13, in 1867, I con- 

 tracted that terrible disease krfkwu as 

 dyspepsia, in apparently its worst 

 form, and my appetite seemed to crave 

 nothing but sweet. I often ate a pound 

 of stick candy at a time, or more of 

 maple sugar in the spring. Not being 

 able to do very much heavy work it 

 fell to my lot to boil the maple sap ; 

 and when " sugaring-off day " came I 

 had a feast of which I repented later 

 on. But that made no difference. My 

 appetite craved it, and eat it I would, 

 as I always felt temporary relief after 

 satisfying ray appetite with sugar. 



candy, sweetcake, or preserves ; and 

 thus it ran on for years, growing 

 gradually worse all the time, notwith- 

 standing I was taking medicine of 

 some kind all the time. 



After a few years my father bought 

 a colony of bees in a box hive, and of 

 course they swarmed as often as they 

 liked. Sometimes he would have from 

 ten to twenty hives, and on the strong- 

 est ones he would put a small box ; 

 and if the season was favorable he 

 would get a few caps filled, and while 

 this lasted I would eat as much as I 

 could get, although it was only about 

 half what I wanted ; but no matter 

 how much or how little I ate, it did 

 not seem to have the bad effect that 

 other sweets did. Then when fall 

 came, all light swarms had to be set 

 over the sulphur-pit and smothered, 

 and this, being a sort of puttering job, 

 also fell to the " dyspeptic." Well, I 

 would kill from two to six or eight 

 colonies, and, of course, after the sul- 

 phuring was done, it was necessary to 

 remove the honey from the box hives, 

 and I did not wait for this job to. fall 

 to me, but I fell to it; and then if any 

 mortal ever feasted on honey it was I. 

 I never weighed what 1 ate, but I 

 Avould eat about all the time and know 

 from the bulk that there were times 

 when I ate three pounds. Many will 

 ask, " AVere you not ashamed ? " so I 

 Avill answer it now. I was not at that 

 time, but have been since, and am ac- 

 tually ashamed now to submit it to 

 print ; but it is a fact just the same, 

 and the beauty of it was that no mat- 

 ter how much or hoAv often I ate of it, 

 it never once in my life left a bad ef- 

 fect. I always felt well after eating 

 it, and it seemed that the more and 

 oftener I ate it the better I felt. But, 



