Aug:. 28, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



551 



pounds for each colony to be wintered in thecellaror speci.il 

 repository. 



However, if we are willing; to look after tlieni when 

 spring opens, 2,'i pounds for those out-doors, and 20 for those 

 wintered under cellar protection, will do well enough; and 

 in season of scarcity my bees have gone through safely 

 from September till April on 20 pounds for those left out 

 and 15 pounds for those carried in. 



If there is not honey enough, after all are equalized in 

 the apiary, to give sullicient stores to all, then draw on 

 those combs you have set aside for emergency ; and if not 

 onough of these, then you will have to resort to feedinf,'^. 

 As I go over the hives I carefully note the quantity of bees, 

 age of the queen, amount of pollen in combs, etc., which is 

 jotted down on a piece of honey-section, this piece being 

 left on top of the hive, so that the nest spring I can tell 

 just what was in each hive the fall before, so that in case of 

 loss I can form some idea of what occasioned it, and also 

 tell what is the first thing to be done with each colony when 

 spring opens. This little piece of section also helps me in 

 deciding what queens to supersede during the next season, 

 for on it I keep quite a record of when the colony swarmed, 

 if it did so, how much honey it stored, etc. 



After having the bees prepared as above, they are to be 

 snugly tucked up in their chaff and sawdust cushions, at 

 any time before the middle of November, when most con- 

 venient, after which they are left undisturbed till spring, or 

 fill placed in the cellar, according to where we winter our 

 bees. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



The Value of Honey as a Food. 



BV PROF. SHUTT. 



|The followiug is part of a ver.v interesting: adelress made before 

 the Oatario Bee-Keepers' Assocation bv Prof. Shutt. and reported in 

 the Canadian Bee Journal. Il would be a g'ood thinjr it bee-keepers 

 could have it copied in their local papers. — Editor. | 



HONEY AS A FOOD. 



With regard to this matter of the position of honey as a 

 food, honey must be classed with the saccharine foods when 

 considering its value. In order to appreciate its value intel- 

 ligently, I shall have to say something with regard to the 

 general food constituents as found in all foods. It will not 

 take me more than a few minutes just to outline their nature 

 and their composition and function in the animal system. 

 We find that all foods comprise a greater or less quantity 

 of the following classes of constituents : Protein or albumi- 

 noids, fats, starch and sugar, ash or mineral matter. 



Now, first of all, with regard to protein or albuminoids : 

 These materials all contain as an essential element of their 

 constitution, nitrogen. Now, if you ask me for an example 

 of protein or albuminoids I should at first name the white 

 of an egg, which is pure albumen ; it is one of the purest 

 forms in which we can obtain protein ; then the curd of 

 milk and gluten of wheat are others. There are more or 

 less pure forms. 



Fat or oil I need not describe to you. because we have 

 in so many articles, such as butter and various classes of 

 oils, materials that you are perfectly familiar with. You 

 know what I mean when I refer to and mention the word 

 fat 



With regard to starch and sugars, those are known to 

 the general chemist as carbo-hydrates. You have already 

 learned from what I have said that starch and sugar are 

 related chemically, so that all those substances which come 

 underneath that head we call carbohydrates. Then there 

 is also ash or mineral matter which, in the body, goes to 

 form the bone. These substances you understand are pres- 

 ent in greater or less proportion in nearly all our foods. 



though not in all ; we shall se<- in that respect honey is not 

 a complete food. 



I have said it is absolutely necessary that a complete 

 food should contain these. First of all, the body requires 

 something to build up its tissues continually. There is 

 waste of our tissues due to muscular energy. Every time I 

 speak a word or move my arm there is a certain waste of the 

 system and this must be replaced ; it is due to the protein 

 or albumenoids that repairing of the waste of the body takes 

 place, and consequently in order to restore life we must 

 have foods which contain a certain proportion of protein or 

 albumenoids. Such have this quality of being muscle-build- 

 ers, body-builders. They contain nitrogen as an es.sential 

 element. These other materials, fat, and starch, and sugar, 

 and so on, do not contain any nitrogen. The chief inten- 

 tion with regard to protein and all albumenoids is to build 

 up the body and repair the waste which hourly takes place. 



With regard to the fats and sugars, we have materials 

 which are useful in keeping up the heat of the body. If you 

 put a thermometer in your mouth you will find that the 

 temperature is somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 

 degrees Fahrenheit. How is that maintained ? In the 

 same way that heat in the stove is maintained. The wood 

 is burned in the stove : the food is burned in the body. It 

 is really a process of combustion : and the combustion of 

 fat and starch and sugar within our bodies gives rise to heat. 

 Heat is only another form of energy. We know that. 

 Therefore we are able to convert the heat produced by the 

 combustion of our foods into physical force or energy. So 

 that we have in these two substances — fats and carbo- 

 hydrates — those materials or constituents which have for 

 their cheif functions the development of heat and energy 

 within our bodies. 



Of course, the formation of fat takes place : a certain 

 quantity of fat within the body is formed and we further 

 find that that fat may be formed from either one of those 

 three substances, but chiefly from the fat and carbo- 

 hydrates of the food. It is important for us to know that a 

 complete food must contain all those classes of constituents, 

 and that protein or albumenoids difter, from those others, 

 in possession of nitrogen, and that the latter are absolutely 

 essential and cannot be left out of our daily diet, from the 

 fact that it is necessary to build up the body and repair the 

 waste which is constantly taking place. It is also neces- 

 sary we should have a due portion of fat, starch, and sugar, 

 in order to produce the necessary heat of our bodies, and 

 for the purpose of developing energy. 



There is also a certain proportion of mineral matter, or 

 ash, required for the development of our bones. 



Having said so much, where does honey come in ? 

 Honey is not a complete food, it does not contain anj- pro- 

 tein or albumenoids ; it is not a body-builder, it does not 

 contain any fat, but it is a substance of great value from a 

 saccharine standpoint. It consists of sugars, dextrose and 

 levulose, principally : consequently, we have a substance 

 which from the food standpoint is strictly comparable with 

 sugar. 



The digestibility of food in a large measure limits or 

 regulates value. It is not the food we eat that does us good, 

 it is the food we digest and assimilate, that is, is converted 

 into body-tissue or helps to develop heat and energy. When 

 we take cane sugar or syrup into the mouth it is mixed with 

 the saliva and converted into the form of glucose, and that 

 is the form of sugar which is assimilated and passes into the 

 blood and nourishes the body. We have that work already 

 done in the case of honey : it is tlien already in the forms 

 of dextrose and levulose. and therefore sugar in honey is 

 what we may term a partially digested form ; it is at once 

 presented in a condition that is immediately assimilable and 



