THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



13 



For the American Apictdttirist. 



A PURE SWEET. 



J. n. I.VUKABEE. 



To supply the demands of all the 

 varving conditions of sixty millions 

 of peo|)le. llioro are many occupa- 

 tions, trades and industries about 

 which the majority are supremely 

 ignorant. Apiculture is one of 

 these. Long ago the natural ap- 

 petite for sweets was supplied by 

 honey alone. Within the last fifty 

 years this appetite has brought the 

 industry of cultivating the sugar 

 cane and of manufacturing sugar 

 to vast propoi tions. But the del- 

 eterious effects of sugar upon the 

 digestive ap[)aratus and kidneys 

 have made it essential that some 

 sweet should be provided which 

 does not require to be "inverted." 

 This is su[)plied by honey as lioney 

 is already inverted sugar and does 

 not re(iuire that change in its pas- 

 sage through the system which 

 may overburden the digestive or- 

 gans thus causing dangerous dis- 

 ease. 



Within twenty-five 3'ears the 

 industry of hone}^ production has 

 risen from an occasional few 

 swarms here and there in log gums 

 or box-hives to the rank of a 

 specialt3\ 



The movable-comb hive was the 

 first great invention enabling the 

 interior of tlie hive to be kept un- 

 der perfect control, its size con- 

 tracted at will, the queen found, 

 queen cells removed, and many 

 other manipuhilions, known and 

 understood only by beekeepers, 

 performed. 



Then followed the invention of 

 comb foundation, which is a sheet 

 of wax pressed full of small in- 

 dentations to represent the bases 

 of the cells as built b}^ the bees. 

 By this method straight combs 

 were secured, and much valuable 



time saved to the bees, to be used 



for honey storage. 



This thin sheet of wax pressed 

 full of intlentations is the cause of 

 ' a great deal of injury to the bee- 

 keeping industi'y as stories of the 

 manufacture of honey comb by 

 machinery have carried with them 

 a color of truth by the finding, by 

 those ignorant of its true charac- 

 ter, of a hard septum in the centre 

 of the finest honey. 



Following the comb foundation 

 machine came the extractor or 

 honey separator. By this means 

 the honey is separated from the 

 combs leaving the latter to be re- 

 filled by the bees. A framework 

 with wire-cloth sides is rapidly re- 

 volved inside a large tin can and 

 the uncapped lioney expelled by 

 centrifugal force. This machine 

 was originally invented by a Ger- 

 man but has been brought to per- 

 fection by Yankee ingenuitj'. 



With the above named aids and 

 an increased knowledge of the 

 natural histor}' of the bee and 

 methods of management, is it to be 

 wondered at that the industr^^ is 

 fast gaining ground? Let the pro- 

 ducers of manufactured sugar be- 

 ware, for the natural product of the 

 little busy bee is much to be pre- 

 ferred both from a medical and 

 epicurean stand[)oint, and, as will 

 be seen from the following figures, 

 is calling loudly and bidding well 

 for popular use. 



Tliere are, it is said, over five 

 million colonies of bees in the 

 United States, and as we surely 

 get an average of 25 pounds to 

 the colony, 125,000,000 pounds of 

 hone}' are annuall}^ consumed by 

 the sweet-loving people. It is to 

 be hoped that new inventions and 

 an increased freedom from winter 

 losses and disease will bring it 

 within the bounds of possibility to 

 produce honey at a fair profit be- 

 low the cost of sugar. Then it 

 will become a necessity as much as 



