THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



14t 



At that epoch, as during the middle 

 ages, honey was preferred to sugar for 

 the preparation of most sweet meats. 

 This preference was not based, as one 

 might at first believe, on an economical 

 motive; for such a motive is a small ob- 

 stacle for gormands, but it was simply 

 because they found that honey gave bet- 

 ter relish to the dishes in the preparation 

 of which it entered. Honey was thus for 

 all, rich or poor, a real delicacy. They 

 ate it pure at certain epochs of the year, 

 and until the seventeenth century it was 

 considered as tlie preferred food for Lent; 

 this is explained by the nutritive proper- 

 ties of its azolous formation. 



Honey was used, besides, in an infinity 

 of ragouts, preserves and pies, and served 

 in the manufacture of liquors and wines 

 known under the names of vinous metlieg- 

 lin, or of common metheglin which had 

 been in use for centuries. 



Shall I expatiate on the role that honey 

 plays and played in medicine and in 

 pharmaceutic preparations? In our vil- 

 lages, honey is almost always employed 

 in place of sugar in teas, and the sick do 

 not complain of it, as it renders the bev- 

 erages better and more digestible. 



We have found in an old work, that 

 honey was used as an antiseptic for the 

 preservation of bodies, and this use seem- 

 ed to us to be curious enough to be se- 

 lected here: "I have seen in Auvergne 

 at the house of a surgeon of Aurillac, 

 the body of a man kept and preserved 

 entire with its muscles, without any alter- 

 ation, daubed and covered with honey." 



If honey was sought for, wax was not 

 thought less of. 



The middle ages with their religious 

 ceremonies, in the churches where closed 

 windows gave but a faint and dim light, 

 required an enormous amount of wax. 

 The lights of the torches and of the wax 

 candles, shining in atmosphere perfumed 

 "with incense, heightened the looks of the 

 imposing ceremonies of the Christian 

 creed. The custom of lighting candles 

 in daylight, signified the joy, the charity 

 and the light of the truths unravelled to 

 men by the i)reaching of the Gospel. 



TO BE CONTINUED. 



D. A. Jones, Tecumseth, Out., writes 

 that some have sent to him from the U. S. 

 for extractors, but as it costs so much for 

 duty, &c., it does not pay to send them. 



To Printers. — An eight column Foster 

 Hand Press for Sale, cheap. For Particu- 

 lars address, Thos. G. Newman & Son, 

 Cedar Eapids, Io>va. 4tf 



Sundry Questions Answered. 



1. Will a colony of bees winter without 

 bee-bread '? 



2. Can they raise young bees without it ?" 



3. Can they raise young bees without 

 water ? 



4. Will moth eggs taken out of the hive in 

 November and put back in March, hatch ? 



5. Does the the extractor injure brood ? 

 (5. Can bees hear ? 



7. How far can a bee see ? 



8. Do the same bees that gather pollen 

 place it in the comb ? 



9. What size meshes in wire cloth will al- 

 low the worker bee to pass through, but not 

 allow the drones and queen ? 



10. How long may eggs remain in a hive 

 before hatching ? 



11. Will honey extracted before it is capped, 

 sour if not sealed air tight ? 



12. Will it injure it to heat it for sealing?.' 

 Please answer the above questions. 



Gosport, Ind. John S. Lingle. 



1. A colony of bees may be wintered with- 

 out bee bread. We have tried it, wintering 

 on sugar, candy and syruji, without either 

 bee bread or honey ; but in the spring pol- 

 len is indispensible ; meal is a good substi- 

 tute. 



2. They cannot rear brood without it. 



3. Young bees are raised without water in 

 the winter, but we think moisture which 

 accumulates is used in place of it. Wheii' 

 much brood is reared, water is indispensable. 



4. Moth eggs will not hatch if kept out of 

 a hive all winter. 



5. We tliink the extractor, as generally 

 used, does injure all unsealed honey. It 

 may be possible to use it without killing 

 it, but we find in our hives, as a rule, no 

 more honey in combs containing sealed 

 brood than that brood will need for its use ;. 

 therefore do not extract from such combs. 



6. We cannot be sure, but think they do.. 



7. We have no means of telling how far a. 

 bee can see. 



8. We think they do generally, but have 

 often seen bees removing the pollen from 

 the baskets of loaded bees. 



9. Worker bees vary much in size and. 

 drones also vary. Queens vary still more.. 



10. We cannot say, but are sure that the 

 temperature of the hive has something to do- 

 with the length of time eggs remain without 

 hatching. 



11. We have never had any sour honey,, 

 but cannot say that it will not sour in some 

 conditions of the atn)osphere. 



12. We think it does injure the flavor to 

 heat it . 



If any one has different answers from 

 these to give to either of these questions, let. 

 us hear from them through the Journal. 



