364 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



FLAPJACKS AND HONEY. 



HOW CUBANS CLIMB TREES. 



The Superiority of Honey over Glucosed Syrups. 



BY F. W. HALSTEAD. 



BY EUGENE SECOR. 



Eating is both a necessity and a luxury— 

 the latter according as we gratify our tastes 

 for the good things of life. Plain fare, with 

 nothing to please the appetite, may be suf- 

 ficient for our bodily needs; but the luxury 

 of living is in having things to eat that are 

 both wholesome and enjoyable. Honey is 

 not a necessity. Millions of people live to 

 an old age without tasting it— indeed, with- 

 out tasting any sweet as we understand the 

 word. Sugar-eating is largely a habit, but 

 such an established habit in this country that 

 Americans regard it as a necessity. Eating 

 honey is in some degree a habit. People 

 who have it every day look for it with the 

 same longing that others do for other things 

 they like. At our house, pancakes would 

 not be quite the luxury they are without the 

 ever present honey- dish. Nothing else so 

 satisfies. The syrups now on the market 

 are so largely glucose, and so insipid com- 

 pared with honey, that we soon tire of them. 



One can eat more honey without distress 

 or future bad consequences than he can of 

 commercial sugar. Another thing, when we 

 get our own honey from our own hives we 

 know we are eating the distilled excellence 

 of God's sweetest flowers put there for our 

 use and enjoyment— a product obtainable in 

 no other way, and a luxury excelling any 

 thing that man can manufacture. If people 

 like the insipid corn syrups on the market 

 they are welcome to them so far as I am 

 concerned; but give me the nectar of the 

 gods distilled in the alembic of Nature and 

 brought to my door by my servants, the 

 bees. I know that is pure and healthful 

 and nourishing. 



Did you ever try honey and cream on your 

 pancakes, instead of butter? If not, spread 

 some honey on the cake and then pour cream 

 over them— Jersey cream, if you have it, 

 but I use short-horn. That's good enough 

 for me. 



Forest City, Iowa. 



[Our older readers will remember Mr. Se- 

 cor as one of the former managers of the 

 National Bee-keepers' Association. During 

 that time he attended many of the conven- 

 tions. 



He has also been called the poet laureate 

 of beedom. His excellent verses have ap- 

 peared in one or more of the bee periodicals. 

 His most recent contribution in that line ap- 

 peared in Gleanings for last year, page 601, 

 entitled " The Bees are in the Clover." 



It is a pleasure to note that Mr. Secor has 

 not lost his interest in bees, nor his taste for 

 good honey. What he says concerning the 

 suitableness of honey for flapjacks in lieu of 

 some cheaper and less wholesome sweet, is 

 entirely true. Those who do a business in 

 retailing extracted honey would do well to 

 emphasize the points brought out by Mr. Se- 

 cor.— Ed.] 



Mr Root:— In Gleanings for Jan. 15, 1905, 

 page 85, you speak of the palm-climbing by 

 the Cubans, and that you had forgotten just 

 how the ropes were used. At my request 

 our official photographer, Mr. C. F. Potter, 

 took the pictures I send you. These give a 

 very good idea of the use of the ropes, of 

 which there are two, each one having a stir- 

 rup of "yaqua" (the petiole of the royal 

 palm). Ti^ie ropes are placed around the 

 tree as show^n; the left foot is placed in the 

 stirrup of the lower rope, and the stirrup of 



A NATIVE CLIMBING A CUBAN PALM. 



the upper rope is put above the right knee; 

 then the ropes are alternately loosened and 

 raised, the man steadying himself with his 

 bare feet while his hands are engaged. 



The Cubans who mai<e palm-climbing a 

 business become very expert at it, and will 

 climb and cut the fruit or leaves from 100 

 trees in a day if the trees are fairly close 

 together. In cutting the leaves the man 

 has to climb up past the fruit; and as the 

 bunches of berries make it impossible to use 

 the ropes he leaves them just below the 



