AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



339 



left home I received a card from the Sec- 

 retary, saying I had been selected to say 

 something by way of filling up the pro- 

 gram on one of the evenings during the 

 session of this Association. The circum- 

 stances were such that I had no time or 

 opportunity to make preparation to do 

 so, or even to think of or fix upon a 

 topic. 



On mentioning my dilemma to our 

 President, Mr. Gemmlll, to-day, he gen- 

 erously came to my rescue and suggested 

 "Honey" as a good subject to treat on 

 such an occasion. I am very grateful to 

 him for thus furnishing me with a "text." 

 It is a very common-place one to treat 

 before an audience of bee-keepers — an 

 audience composed of the brains and 

 matured experience of the class to which 

 they belong in this Province. Still, the 

 topic has something in it we don't all 

 understand, and by the way of demon- 

 strating this, I ask Mr. Blank, down 

 there in the audience, "What is honey?" 

 Mr. Blank pauses awhile and replies, 

 "Why, honey is honey,— everybody 

 knows what honey is." "Your answer 

 to the question is a very unsatisfactory 

 one, sir ; I will furnish you with a better 

 definition, but one you may not find in 

 the dictionaries, it is one, however, that 

 suits me well enough. Honey is a trans- 

 lucent saccharine syrup that all children 

 and most grown-up people are fond of." 



Now, Mr. Blank, No. 2, "Where do 

 we get honey?" Your answer is, "We 

 get it in bee-hives. " "And how came it 

 in the bee-hives?" "The bees collected 

 and stored it there. " "Good ; and where 

 did the bees get it? " "In the flowers, of 

 course." 'Aye, and where did the flow- 

 ers get it?" Now you hesitate ; that is 

 evidently a "poser." Well, it is the con- 

 sideration of the last question I propose 

 discussing for a few minutes this even- 

 ing. 



I set out with the assertion that the 

 atmosphere is the source whence our 

 honey is derived and I say further, that 

 the substance of every green thing on 

 the earth's surface —from the tiny plant 

 to the monarch of the forest is mainly 

 derived from the same etement. Science 

 has clearly demonstrated this fact. It 

 is a fact that is easily demonstrated, too. 

 Fell a tree and burn it up, the ashes that 

 remain represent just what of its sub- 

 stance comes from the soil, the rest is 

 driven off and mingled with the air. It 

 is another instance of "dust to dust" and 

 the balance to the source from whence it 

 came. 



To understand how honey, and plants 

 and trees from which it is collected, 

 have their origin in the atmosphere, we 



must know something of the composition 

 of the atmosphere, and the nature of 

 plant life. Here let me say that one of 

 the advantages of bee-keeping is, that 

 the prosecution of it leads intelligent, 

 observant people into channels of 

 thought they would not otherwise enter 

 upon. To understand it fully, the do- 

 main of science must be pretty well cul- 

 tivated. Hence the bee-keeper of an en- 

 quiring mind finds in it ample scope for 

 the exercise of his talents, and usually 

 becomes an enthusiast in the business. 



The constituents of the atmosphere, in 

 the main, are no longer a secret. Every 

 school-boy knows that they consist, in 

 the main, of oxygen and nitrogen, but 

 there are other elements as well, one of 

 which is carbonic acid. This is the 

 source from whence we derive our honey. 

 It is the source, too, that nourishes and 

 builds up the plants and trees that se- 

 crete honey. The proportion of carbonic 

 acid in the atmosphere is comparatively 

 small, being only about four-tenths of 

 one per cent, of" its volume. Yet this 

 fraction is quite enough to supply the 

 wants of the vegetable world. It has 

 been estimated that there are 28 tons of 

 carbon in the atmosphere that overhangs 

 each acre on the earth's surface. As 

 less than a third of the earth's surface 

 is covered by vegetation, and as the at- 

 mosphere is ever in motion from place 

 to place, and as the loss of carbonic acid 

 through its appropriation by living 

 plants is ever being given baek to it 

 through the decomposition of vegetable 

 matter, there is and will continue to be 

 in the atmosphere, ample of carbon to 

 supply the ever-recurring wants of the 

 vegetable kingdom. Hence we may look 

 forward to an annual honey crop while 

 the vegetable kingdom remains as now 

 constituted ; not always uniform, how- 

 ever. 



It remains for me now to outline how 

 living plants elaborate honey from the 

 carbon of the atmosphere. We can only 

 understand this by knowing something 

 of structural and physical botany. We 

 will select a tree for our purpose, be- 

 cause it appeals more forcibly to our 

 senses than a tiny plant. What then is 

 a tree? I answer, it is at once a living 

 and a dead thing. Every particle of 

 matured wood in its trunk and branches 

 is dead matter. It is death preserved 

 from decay by its environments. It has 

 in it no power to aid in the further 

 nourishment or development of the tree. 

 The leaves, the bark (especially the in- 

 ner bark) and the sapwood alone are 

 alive, and in these the work of nourish- 

 ment and developmenir are carried on. 



