THE AMERICAN APIGULTUBJST. 



277 



worked hard to make the undertak- 

 ing a success and their efforts bid 

 fair to gain that point. 



The British beekeepers make 

 some extraordinary remarks upon the 

 display : the honey has not the rich 

 amber color theirs has ; the sections 

 lack that solidity their comb honey 

 has. In Canada, and I believe in 

 America, we find beyond a certain 

 point there is nothing to be gained 

 by that solidity in appearance, and 

 as to two- pound sections in Canada 

 at least, their day has passed. As to 

 the amber color, it is a matter of 

 education and the natural taste of 

 the eye as to which pleases the more : 

 the beautiful clear light colored or 

 the beautiful amber-colored. Also as 

 to flavor — here the buckwheat, which 

 has a distinct enough flavor and is 

 dark enough is rarely preferred to 

 the clover. Time will tell how per- 

 manently — for temporarily at least the 

 British public are pleased, yes, more, 

 delighted with the flavor of Cana- 

 dian honey — the undertaking will 

 succeed. We find in Canada that 

 much is to be gained by pushing 

 sales and attracting the attention by 

 displays of honey ; it increases the de- 

 mand and consumption permanently 

 and no doubt the British beekeepers 

 will yet see that they owe the Cana- 

 dian beekeepers a debt of gratitude 

 for this display and sale of honey. 

 Brantford, Canada. 



HONEY AS FOOD AND 

 MEDICINE. 

 Before the use of sugar became 

 general, honey was the sweetening 

 medium in regular use all over the 

 world ; and, so far as health is con- 

 cerned, it would have been better 

 had it so remained. The cultivation 

 of the sugar-cane, however, drove in- 

 to the shade the production of honey. 

 Sugar itself in time was destined to 

 be partially supplanted by a com- 



moner substitute — beet sugar; and 

 this again in turn (for brewing, and 

 many commercial food processes, 

 whole fruit-preserving, cheap sweets, 

 and so on) has, to a considerable 

 degree, had to yield to a still cheaper, 

 commoner substance named glucose, 

 an unwholesome sweet compound 

 made out of a score of things, from 

 potatoes to sawdust and rags, by boil- 

 ing them in a mixture of water and 

 certain acids. Had the science of 

 beekeeping been in its present stage 

 when the sugar-cane industry began 

 its rapid growth, the use of sugar 

 would have been considerably retard- 

 ed by the contemporaneous march 

 of its more wholesome competitor 

 honey which held the field. In those 

 dark ages, bees were suffocated by 

 sulphur fumes in order to obtain a far 

 more impure honey than is in the mar- 

 ket at this day, when the lives of the 

 bees are preserved by scientific meth- 

 ods : which also guarantee to us the 

 absolute purity and cleanliness of the 

 honey, besides telling us, indeed, the 

 actual source when gathered, whether 

 from fruit-blossoms, clover, or heather. 

 Had the rational culture of bees 

 marched along with scientific sugar- 

 making, we should, I repeat, have 

 heard less of cheap and nasty substi- 

 tutes for the honey of the ancients. 

 The number of bee-hives, instead 

 of being kept about the same by the 

 natural increase by swarming, and 

 the cruel decrease of the sulphur-pit, 

 would have multiplied at a similar 

 compound rate to that of cost of nails 

 in the proverbial horse- shoes. Honey 

 would have been produced at so low 

 a rate that it would have held its own 

 as the most delicious food, sweet- 

 meat, and saccharine diet, either rich 

 or poor could possess. Mead and 

 metheglin, honey wine, honey vine- 

 gar, aud honest honey drinks, would 

 be now used by all instead of so many 

 that are nasty and unwholesome. 



But for cane sugar there would 

 probably not be so many millions of 

 artificial teeth in daily use as there 



