6 so 



September, 19U7. 



American ^ee Journal 



to live, it goes to show that there is not 

 much that concerns them in their vicin- 

 age, of which they do not take cogni- 

 zance." Mrs. a. L. Amos. 

 Comstock, Neb., July 31. 



Taste for Sweets an Index of Whole- 



someness 



It is gratifying to note that the sugar 

 consumption of the United States has 

 grown until it now equals that of 

 England, which was heretofore regard- 

 ed as the greatest sugar-consuming na- 

 tion on earth ; for nations may be rated 

 by their taste for sweets. Latest statis- 

 tics show that the sugar used in the 

 United States and England is equal to 

 80 pounds a year for each man, woman 

 and child in these two nations. Of 

 course, the sugar employed in the manu- 

 facture of jams, preserves, confections, 

 etc., aids in forming this average, but 

 sugar is sugar, whether it is eaten raw, 

 or in the coflfee or in pies, or preserves, 

 or in candy, and the average person 

 of the United States and England eats 

 more than twice as much sugar as any 

 other person in the world. As against 

 the American and Englishman's 80 

 pounds of sugar a year, the German 

 eats but 33 pounds, the Austrian eats 

 but 34 pounds, Russia 20 pounds, and 

 Italy only 7 pounds. 



Nothing could be said in greater 

 praise of a people than that they have a 

 taste for sweets. It shows a whole- 

 some, vigorous, healthful condition, — 

 an appetite not jaded from excessive 

 indulgence. The child whose appetite 

 has not become polluted or calloused 

 from false relishes, smarting sauces 

 and burning drinks, and dissipation, 

 loves sweets; so does the girl of bright 

 eyes and untainted youth, as is evinced 

 by her fondness for ice-creams and des- 

 serts; the young athlete among men 

 loves sweets, nearlv as well as does the 

 child. 



The bar-room lounger, the beer- 

 soaked twaddler, the tobacco-scented 

 smoker of cigars and pipes, the cigarette 

 fiend, the blear-eyed absinthe drinker and 

 the red-nosed whisky drinker, the dope 

 fiend and the depraved of all other class- 

 es do not like sweets. Long since their 

 minds and appetites have lost the de- 

 sire for everything pleasing to the natu- 

 ral palate. .Among these people you 

 will find the eaters of foul-smelling 

 cheese, which the older and more ran- 

 cid it is the better it is liked; the lov- 

 ers of moldy sausage, of old, dried 

 fishes, and of pickled eggs of fishes; of 

 goose-livers, made vile by natural and 

 artificial decomposition ; of meats and 

 fruits that are allowed to spoil before 

 they are eaten. Such vulturine tastes 

 dote on pate de foie-gras, caviar, salted 

 mackerel, limburger and roqueford 

 cheese, pickled olives, pickled ancho- 

 vies and a hundred other vitiated foods, 

 the viler they are the more they are 

 esteemed. All other kinds of foods 

 these appetites pollute with repugnant 

 sauces, and they wash them down with 

 fiery drinks, rated in esteem according 

 to their age. 



And from these causes, France, China, 

 Russia, Spain, Austria, Germany and 

 Italy laugh at the United States and 



England and say that our foods are not 

 fit to eat. England has been called the 

 nation of a hundred dishes and one 

 sauce. The Russian peace commission- 

 ers went back home and said the Ameri- 

 can foods were unspeakable. Some peo- 

 ple base their aristocracy on the fact 

 that they are able to eat caviar. These 

 people all want something foul a'nd ran- 

 cid, something sour or bitter — ^never 

 anything sweet, and the taste which en- 

 joys sweets they call amateurish or bar- 

 baric. 



The vulture is known by its habits 

 as well as by its name, and people are 

 of what they eat. A definition of the 

 word sweet, therefore, may aid in the 

 distinction of these nations. Here is 

 one definition of the word: 



"Having a certain agreeable taste or 

 flavor, like or resembling that of honey 

 or sugar^opposed to sour and bitter. 



''Not changed from a sound or whole- 

 some state ; not stale ; not sour ; not 

 putrescent or putrid. 



"Mild, soft, gentle." 



Then as people are what they eat, and 

 as things that are equal to the same 

 thing are equal to each other, we may 

 make this deduction : 



The people who like sweets are sweet 

 of nature; they are agreeable and pleas- 

 ing; they are not changed from a sound 

 or wholesome state ; not stale ; not sour ; 

 not putrescent or putrid; they are mild, 

 soft, gentle. 



The people who do not like sweets 

 are not sweet of nature. They are not 

 agreeable nor pleasing; they have been 

 changed from a sound and wholesome 

 state ; they are stale, sour ; they are 

 putrescent and putrid. 



So let's rejoice in the fact that Amer- 

 ica and England eat twice the amount 

 of sweets of any other nations in the 

 world. 



But let it not be understood that this 



is an argument in favor of the unlim- 

 ited eating of sweets. While the taste 

 for sweets is a natural desire, there is 

 danger in the excessive gratification of 

 even natural desires. This truth is es- 

 pecially manifest in children's liking 

 for candies, which often is productive 

 of most serious consequences. When a 

 people have lost a natural desire, alto- 

 gether, and substitute therefor a desire 

 that is unnatural, it betokens unwhole- 

 someness and possible degeneracy. — 

 What To Eat. 



The foregoing article from the maga- 

 zine What To Eat is well worth pon- 

 dering over. It will probably be news 

 to many a member of our circle to learn 

 that she is using in her household 4 

 times as much sugar as her Russian sis- 

 ter, and u times as much as her sister 

 under the sunny skies of Italy, and it 

 will be some comfort to learn that this 

 greater desire for sweets points to a 

 more desirable condition of body and 

 of mind. 



It would be well if What To Eat 

 would expand that last paragraph a 

 little farther. More than one reason 

 may be given for the "serious conse- 

 quences" arising from the excessive 

 .!,:Mtification of children's liking for 

 candies. Unwholesome — not to say ab- 

 solutely poisonous — ingredients are too 

 often to be found in candies. Let us 

 hope the pure-food laws may help in this 

 regard. Candies are eaten between 

 meals, and the "picking habit" grows 

 until many a child and many a young 

 woman clogs the stomach before meal- 

 time, and then fastidiously rejects the 

 wholesome dishes at the regular meal. 

 If honey were substituted at the regular 

 meal, there would be less craving for 

 candy, and on account of the more ready 

 digestibility of honey as compared with 

 sugar, little or no danger of any inter- 

 ference with the most robust health. 



Canadian 



r# 



*t»«rc»i3.'^«»>i»!SiMB«5-.'!-< 



Conducted by J. L. BYER, Mount Joy. Ont, 



Honey Crop and Prices for 1907 



The honey crop committee of the On- 

 tario Bee-Keepers' Association have is- 

 sued the following report : 



The 'honey crop committee of the On- 

 tario Bee-Keepers' Association met in 

 the Secretary's office, at Toronto, Fri- 

 day, August 9, 1907. Over lOO reports 

 from different parts of the Province, 

 and a number from Quebec, were laid 

 before them. Reports would indicate 

 that a very great loss of bees has been 

 sustained since last season, and that 

 probably 50 percent perished during 

 the winter and spring. The honey-flow 



in a few localities is reported good or 

 fair, others light, and in many nothing 

 has been harvested — probably an aver- 

 age of less than one-third crop in all. 



In view of these conditions, and the 

 shortage of the fruit crop in all varia- 

 tions, and the higher prices prevailing, it 

 is the opinion of the Committee that an 

 advance over last season's rates should 

 be reasonably expected, and suggest the 

 following: 



No. I light extracted honey, Iij4c. to 

 I2j4c. per pound, wholesale; retail, 14c. 

 to 15c. 



No. I comb, $2.50 to $2.75 per dozen, 

 wholesale. 



