214 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 8, 1906 



pounds of glucose consumed in a year, 12^ pounds for every 

 man, woman and child ; more than a pound a week in the 

 average family of 5 members, and yet all of it masquerad- 

 ing under some other than its true name ! Should an hon- 

 est product act in that skulking manner? 



But let us have some further quotations from the same 

 article, and let us not fail to notice the conspicuous side- 

 heads : 



"Glucose Harmless" — '■ Glucose a Blessing." 



Is it, then, a dangerous or poisonous food? It is, on the con- 

 trary, perfectly harmless. It belongs to the sugar family ; it is a true 

 food like sugar and starch, and of about the same nutritive value. In 

 1886, some 10 years after the establishment of the industry in this 

 country, a committee of eminent scientific men, members of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Science, made to the United States Government a 

 report on the process of manufacture. They reported that glucose 

 contained no injurious substances. " That, though having at best 

 only about two-thirds the sweetening power of cane-sugar, yet starch- 

 sugar is in no way inferior to cane-sugar in healthfulness, there being 

 no evidence before the committee that maize starch-sugar, either in its 

 normal condition or fermented, has any deleterious effect on the sys- 

 tem even when taken in large quantities." That this report is also 

 true of present conditions we find by reference to any modern treatise 

 on hygiene 



Before the Senate committee three years ago it was asserted that 

 "the great concern in Chicago that controls its manufacture i6 con- 

 ducted on scientific principles, and its goods are perfectly healthful 

 and clean." 



The fact is that glucose is a partially digested starch, the dilute 

 acid effecting the same change in it as do certain ferments in our own 

 digestive tract. Our meal may be of potato and bread, but the very 

 action of the saliva on the starch of these foods begins to turn it into 

 this kind of sugar even before the food is swallowed. 



Very recently the tendency to call these syrups by their right 

 name — "corn syrup " — is very marked. Sold at a low price, and un- 

 der an honest name, this new product is a blessing. To quote the 

 advertisement, it is " the greut spread for daily bread." 



Cane syrup and molasses sell for 60 cents a gallon, corn syrup for 

 30 cents or less. An addition to our list of cheap and wholesome 

 condiments is always to be welcomed. The exclusive grocer who 

 " will have nothing to do with it " can be likened to a dry goods-mer- 

 chant who would sell only high-priced silks and wools and disdain 

 cotton fabrics. 



As we have seen, there is at present no ground for the assumption 

 that glucose is any other than a healthful food; even when taken in 

 excessive quantities, it would probably be neither more nor less harm- 

 ful than cane-sugar. But it should be remembered that, as found in 

 Nature, this glucose sugar is either chemically found with other 

 sugars, as with levulose to form cane-sugar, or it is found in company 

 with them as with fruit-sugar in grapes; and investigations of recent 

 years made by scientists have shown that these different sugars exer- 

 cise a favorable influence on each other's utilization by the organs and 

 tissues of the body. 



It is, therefore, quite possible that further investigation and longer 

 practical experience with its use may 6how that it would not be en- 

 tirely advantageous for the sugar of our diet to be furnished solely by 

 this one variety, which is a derivative of starches and compound 

 sugars, unbalanced, as it were, by any of the counterpart sugars with 

 which it is found associated in Nature. 



It is not harmful, according to the evidence now available. What 

 is needed is honest labeling wherever it is an ingredient, in order 

 that the purchasers may know what they are buying. 



Let us hear now the conclusion of the whole matter in 

 the closing paragraph : 



This, then, is the truth about glucose. It is a wholesoome food, 

 although less sweet and highly flavored than our older sweets. It is 

 cheap; it ought to be openly sold on its own merits. The ignorance 

 and prejudice of the buyer are largely responsible for the present 

 situation. A few States require the honest label, fewer execute the 

 law. The remedv is more intelligence on the part of the consumer. 



Ash for tlie Honest Label. 



Well, what of it ? Isn't it all true? Let us turn our 

 attention to that in a succeeding number of The Delineator 

 next week. 



Honey as a Health-Food. — This is a 16-page honey- 

 pamphlet intended to help increase the demand for honey. 

 The first part of it contains a short article on "Honey as 

 Food,"' written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It tells where to keep 

 honey, how to liquefy it, etc. The last part is devoted to 

 "Honey-Cooking Recipes" and "Remedies Using Honey." 

 It should be widely circulated by those selling honey. The 

 more the people are educated on the value and uses of 

 honey, the more honey they will buy. 



Prices, prepaid — Sample copy for a two-cent stamp; SO 

 copies for 70 cts.; 100 for $1.25; 250 for $2.25; 500 for $4.00; 

 or 1,000 for $7.50. Your business card printed free at the 

 bottom of front page on all orders for 100 or more copies. 

 Send all orders to the office of the American Bee Journal. 



See Langstroth Book Offer on another page of this 

 copy of the American Bee Journal. 



"\ 



21tt\ pasty's 

 Ctftcrtl?ouc$ts 



j 



The " Old Reliable" as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



How the Celled Queen Develops. 



Very improbable, I should say, that the incipient queen 

 puts no silk armor around the base of her chamber for the 

 definite purpose of having it easier for her rival to kill her. 

 That looks like a self-refuting absurdity — at least we want 

 to see some such self-injurious device in Nature fully proved 

 up before taking stock in one. The view advanced by Allen 

 Latham looks reasonable. Has to remain immovable pos- 

 terially, else she would drop into the point of the cell and 

 die there. Having only partial freedom she simply spins, 

 the silk on up as far as she can reach, and lets it go at that. 

 Page 67. 



The Hershiser Bottom-Board. 



Hershisers bottom-board is " high and mighty " — and 

 there is chance to say so much for it, and chance to say so 

 much against it, that purely theoretical reasoning about it 

 may not be the best thing. Let's wait till we hear from a 

 sufficient number of those who have used it and continue to 

 like it. Apparently saved Mr. H.'s bees when the furnace 

 went on a tear in his absence. But an adversary would be 

 sure to say : " Put your bees out of reach of runaway fur- 

 naces." Pages 68, 73 and 74. 



Adult Bees And Foul Brood— Wax-Moth. 



Scientists say adult bees have foul brood, and practical 

 men say they don't. Well, that, after all, need not trouble 

 us much. Probably both are substantially right from their 

 own point of view. No very serious significance to the dis- 

 ease except among the larva? — but still findable when a 

 sharp observer goes for it with a microscope. 



Between Adrian Getaz and Prof. Cook I guess the lat- 

 ter got wrong this one time. The young of the wax-moth 

 prefer comb that has had brood reared in it ; but, on a pinch, 

 they can eat themselves to maturity on the other kind. Of 

 course if fed nothing but absolutely pure beeswax they 

 would starve for want of nitrogen ; but no comb is pure 

 beeswax ; and Prof. Cook happened to let slip the memory 

 of that fact. Weigh out a few ounces of the purest virgin 

 comb you can get, render it into wax, and you will be sur- 

 prised to see how much less it weighs. As a guess, I'll guess 

 that the substance which rendering removes is partly dust 

 and partly dried saliva of bees — both substances on which 

 we can imagine a larva as subsisting. At any rate, visible 

 evidence that extracting combs which never contained 

 brood do get eaten up sometimes will have to stand. 



Mr. Stachelhausen stands well up in the first rank of 

 writers — yet in the one paragraph quoted by Mr. Getaz, we 

 find him apparently very badly off his base. H'm— what's 

 the name of that man who does always have his foot on the 

 bag ? Page 72. 



Position of Hive-Entrance. 



The capacity of being stampeded pertains specially to 

 horses and cattle — but liable to extend to man once in 

 awhile. We should not allow ourselves to be stampeded 

 into moving all our front doors to the roof of the house, in 

 advance of preparatory experiments of our own. But we 

 should be opinionated know-it-alls of a bad grade if we 

 ignored, or tried to poh-poh out of consideration, a new plan 

 which shows so much evidence. I'll guess that the great 

 increase of surplus was really owing to better wintering. 

 Given a locality where the winter climate is mild and damp, 

 and the surplus nearly all gathered very early in the season , 

 and these things, as below, might show up with two com- 

 parison colonies. Colony A, old-style entrance, might come 

 out in spring tolerably strong in numbers. Colony B, en- 

 trance at top, not very much stronger. Casual glance sees 

 not much difference in their working. But, on careful 

 scrutiny, it appears that there is more vigor and vim at B ; 

 more bees per minute go out and in when you count them — 

 and the bees there have on the average more days of life 

 remaining to them. At A dampness ard discomfort wore 

 them out badly, although not many died outright. The 



