964 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



Malt sug-ars are best of all, as they are 

 adapted to the human dig'estive apparatus, 

 being' the natural result of the action of 

 saliva on starch. I think maltose is pref- 

 erable to all sugars; but honey comes next, 

 and I frequently recommend my patients to 

 use it when they do not find it convenient to 

 use malt sugars. So I consider that you 

 and your busy bees are engaged in good 

 missionary work, and you have my hearty 

 sympathy. Knowledge in health-lines is ' 

 increasing at a very rapid rate these latter 

 days. 



Battle Creek, Mich. 



[The above, from such able authority as 

 Dr. Kellogg, ought to have more than a 

 passing notice. Perhaps I should explain 

 that some time ago I wrote, asking the doc- 

 tor's opinion of honey as compared with 

 sugar, and its effects on the health. 



Permit me to suggest that the above re- 

 fers, of course, to good well-ripened honey. 

 We had on our breakfast-table this morn- 

 ing one of Aikin's packages of honey put 

 up in paper. It is just as clean to handle 

 as butter — perhaps more so. It cuts with 

 a knife just easily enough to be handled 

 conveniently.* At the same time, it can be 

 handled with the fingers, almost without 

 soiling them; and this, too, after it has been 

 kept some time in a roc m where the tempera- 

 ture is 70 or more. This honey is certainly 

 far superior to much of that on the market 



*Mrs. Root melted some of this hard white honey; 

 and, while it is almost water-white, it is so thick at or- 

 dinary temperatures that a saucerftil :nay be turned 

 over, if done quickly, without ••pilling. Such thick 

 well-ripened honey has a sweet flavor that commends 

 itself at once as being wholesome. 



that has been thrown out of the combs before 

 it was well ripened and sealed over. I 

 suppose the source from which the honey 

 comes might also have something to do with, 

 its digestibility. 



In regard to the pamphlet Dr. Kellogg 

 refers to in his first paragraph, it is a 

 pamphlet of 16 pages, entitled " Dietetics 

 of Sugar." It discusses quite thoroughly 

 the diseases that are usually caused by the 

 excessive use of sugar, such as diabetes, 

 etc. So far as I know, this pamphlet will 

 be mailed on application to Dr. J. H. Kel- 

 logg, Battle Creek, Mich.— A. I. R.] 



A VISIT TO L. E. MERCER'S APIARY, NEAR LOS 

 ANGELES, CAL. 



Mercer's Honey Crop for 1903; Sampling California 

 Watermelons; the City of the Angels. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



The day after the Los Angeles conven- 

 tion, Messrs. Hershiser, Marks, and Mil- 

 ler went with L. E. Mercer to spend the 

 day at what he calls his home apiary, some 

 fifty miles from Los Angeles. A glance at 

 the picture on next page will show that these 

 four bee-keepers took interest in some 

 things besides bee-keeping. The absence 

 of coats and the area of shirt-front dis- 

 played suggests a hot day — and it was a 

 very hot day — just the kind of day to make 

 one's mouth water at the thought of water- 

 melon. Dead stillness reigned, with no 

 sign of life except the ground-squirrels run- 

 ning about, and a flock of California quails 

 parading innocently by. 



L. K. MKRCKK S HONKV-S TOR.^GE HOUSE. 



