GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York. 



THE HONEYBEE AND HONEY. 



" Is the honeybee a native of 

 North America °? " 



The honeybee is not a native of 

 either of the Americas if I am 

 correct. I am told a colony was 

 landed in Boston, Mass., in the 

 year 1670, and that they were brought 

 there for a twofold purpose. The prime 

 object was to secure their delicious and 

 health-giving product which is so thoroly 

 enjoyed by nearly every one; and, second, 

 the great and almost universal benefits 

 coming to all localities where they are kept, 

 on account of their unpremeditated work 

 in the fertilization of all blossoms in which 

 nectar is secreted." 



" Do you mean to say that the honeybee 

 is a necessity toward the perfection of fruit 

 from all blossoms ? " 



I do not wish to be understood as saying 

 from all blossoms; but, according to close 

 observation for the past 45 years, all blos- 

 soms which secrete nectar need the honey- 

 bee or some other Avinged insect for their 

 perfect pollination. I am well aware that 

 Darwin, the great naturalist, had nothing to 

 say about nectar secretion in flowers when 

 he said, " The more bees the more flowers ; 

 the more flowers the more seeds; the more 

 seeds the more flowers ; the more flowers the 

 more bees." This shows that, even tho he 

 may have observed closely, he did not think 

 it as important to mention that there are 

 more of the seed-producing plants which do 

 not need the aid of the bees or any other 

 insects, than there are of those which do^ — 

 that it is only those which do need the aid 

 of the bees that the bees visit, and that the 

 reason why the bees do so visit is because 

 they are invited thru the bountiful supply 

 of nectar secreted by such needy flowei's. 

 This is true of fruit as well as of seeds. 



Take the wheat from which our bread is 

 made. Did you ever see a bee at work on 

 its bloom? The reason for this is that it is 

 self-pollinating, therefore no nectar is se- 

 creted; and no nectar, no bees. On the 

 other hand, take buckwheat. The bees 

 hover over it till their merry hum is music 

 to the apiarist's ears. Why? Because nec- 

 tar is secreted. Neither a. rustling breeze 

 nor a hurricane could pollinate the blos- 

 soms. Among forest trees, tlie basswood 

 with its thousands of inverted or hanging- 

 down flowcr.s calls for the bees to turn 

 themselves upside down to pollinate them; 

 hence nectar is secreted. On the other 



hand, the beech-tree bloom is pollinated 

 with tlie slightest breeze thru its foliage. 



What is applicable to the buckwheat and 

 basswood applies to nearly all of the fruit- 

 trees. Hence Ave find the apple, pear, cher- 

 ry, plum, and peach, all secreting nectar 

 when the weather is favorable. In certain 

 places years ago, bees were banished, owing 

 to a belief that in gathering nectar the 

 embryo seed or fruit was deprived of some- 

 thing needful for its full perfection. Later 

 it was found that a lessened or poorer crop 

 resulted, so the bees were invited back 

 again. 



" But what about the honey j^art ? " 



We are told, and truthfully, I think, that 

 honey is the most wholesome and easily ab- 

 sorbed food known to man. Owing to the 

 peculiar conditions and environments of 

 honey-bees during their period of winter 

 confinement in the hive, their surplus honey, 

 stored by them for the purpose of carrying 

 them thru the winter period, is something 

 entirely different from any other substance. 

 It is already prepared by the bees before it 

 is placed in the cells. When we eat honey 

 we have only to assimilate its varied life- 

 giving elements. This is the only food of 

 which it can be truthfully said that some 

 otlier animal has specially prepared it for 

 our assimilation, thus precluding the neces- 

 sity of that labor on man's part. 



" That is something entirely new to me. 

 I had looked on honey as the sweetest of all 

 sweets, and so proclaimed Avhen I was offer- 

 ing for sale my extracted product." 



We were told nearly half a century ago 

 that honey is not as sweet as cane sugar, 

 alt ho the different acids it contains gives 

 the impression to the sense of taste that it 

 is sweeter. This accounts for the fact that 

 for hundreds of years honey has been term- 

 ed "the sweetest of all sweets;" and the 

 question asked, " What is sweeter than hon- 

 ey in the honeycomb ? " Here we have the 

 pleasure of the sensation produced by 

 sweetness Avithout the danger of retarding 

 the action of our digestion when honey is 

 eaten in large quantifies, as is the case with 

 most of the candy and sugars. 



Some object to eating comb honey from 

 the fact that the Avax comb is entirely in- 

 digestible. But because it is Avholly indi- 

 gestible the stomach makes no effort what- 

 eA'er to digest it. The particles chewed fine 

 are an aid to digestion. Comb honey is the 

 most wholesome, not only of any sweet, but 

 of any food known to humanity. 



