1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



333 



EATING HONEY. 



180 Pounds of Honey Consumed by One 

 Man in 180 Days; Canning Fruit, Using 

 Honey Instead of Sugar; a Suggestion 

 for Those who liave Indigestion ; an In- 

 teresting and Valuable Article. 



BY C. W. DAYTON. 



To read of families of five or six persons 

 using a five-gallun can of honey a month, or 

 such a matter, is causing some smiles in this 

 quarter of the globe. I have worked for 

 several bee-men, and none of them " made 

 free" with honey on the dining-table. Fam- 

 ilies who eat much meat do not care much 

 for honey, or, for that matter, any kind of 

 sweets. I have always been a great meat- 

 eater; but several years ago I began to have 

 an almost constant headache, backache, 

 neuralgia, rheumatism, paralysis, etc. These 

 diseases affected me by turns, lasting from a 

 week to months. I began to study health, 

 and soon left off meat and sweets and fer- 

 mentation foods. This did some good, but 

 there was nothing of very decided benefit 

 until I went down co one meal a day. From 

 a life of almost constant misery I began to 

 feel "like a boy," with no pains or ill feel- 

 ing, and could work all day and not be tired 

 at the end of the day. But it required an 

 awful effort to master the artificial appetite 

 which had been gaining a foothold in my 

 system for many years, and I could then 

 realize the kind of a "fight" the liquor- 

 drinker must "put up." I had had a head- 

 ache from twice to three times a week for 

 years and consulted fifteen of the best physi- 

 cians I could hear of, but only temporary re- 

 lief came. But my headaches went and 

 have not returned from that day to the pres- 

 ent. My folks looked for me to lose flesh 

 and become weak; but I gained 16 pounds 

 the first month, and I was Handling the pick 

 and shovel and a ten-pound sledgehammer, 

 and a constant gain in muscular development 

 resulted. 



Well, after I got my system and digestion 

 corrected I found that I could return to my 

 old diet of foods, but I had to control my ap- 

 petite to the needs of my system. 



On August 81 I brought into the house and 

 set down by the dining-table a five-gallon 

 can of black-sage honey having the top cut 

 out. I set it on another five-gallon can so 

 that the top came just even with the level of 

 the table so as to be handy to dip my spoon 

 into it. just about four inches from my elbow. 

 When I got Gleanings from the postofiicc, 

 Sept. 23, and sat down to read, and came 

 across the picture and Mr. Gilstrap's letter 

 on page 1186, I simply reached for the ruler 

 and measured my honey-can, and it has been 

 lowered 8| inches in the 24 days — 36 to 40 

 lbs. No one has been here to eat besides my 

 individual self, and the marks on the can 

 show where the honey was when I began. 

 Besides, I have been eating more or less by 

 chunks when working about the honey-house. 



The first five months of this year I ate ex- 

 actly thi'ee five-gallon cans. But I ate also 

 a quantity of canned fruit — blackberries, 

 strawberries, plums, apricots, figs, grapes, 

 peaches, pears, apples, etc. — perhaps four 

 or five dozen jars. All of these were canned 

 with honey. We always put up from 100 to 

 200 Mason jars of fruit every year. Fruits 

 possess tart, which honey lacks. I bought 50 

 cents' worth of sugar in 1898 and nearly half 

 of it is in the honey-house yet. It was car- 

 ried there to be put in bee feed, but it has 

 been neglected. I never knew a jar of fruit 

 to spoil with honey. But any canned fruit 

 will spoil if not properly attended to. My 

 neighbors often spoil a half, and that in us- 

 ing sugar. Sugar is somewhat safer than 

 honey. But I found that sugar would make 

 my back ache (kidney trouble) in four or five 

 days, but honey took two weeks. I tested 

 both many times. One spoonful of vinegar 

 took me seven months to cure the effects of. 

 I almost despaired. Sugar was nearly as bad. 

 When we find the remedy it requires time 

 to make reparation of the injured organs 

 which bad diet and habits cause. Nature does 

 the repairing or rebuilding, but not instant- 

 ly. Now, since- 1 have allowed my digestive 

 organs to repair themselves I can see that 

 even vinegar with such foods as cabbage and 

 meat is necessary. It aids digestion if not 

 used to excess; dissolves uric acid; prevents 

 brystallization of uric acid, I suppose. 



Now I come to the canning of fruit with 

 honey. I can not remember when we lost a 

 can. First the can must be hot before the 

 fruit is put in. Then the fruit must be thor- 

 oughly heated through before it is put into 

 the cans. These particular points must not 

 be slighted, but they often ar§. Better boil 

 the fruit more than necessary rather than 

 too little. Boiling extracts the color from 

 the fruit more or less, but that is only ' ' looks. ' ' 

 Put the honey in at the last, and fairly heat 

 it through. Suit the taste as to the amount 

 of honey to use. Put the caps on the jars 

 while the fruit is hot. Have the caps hot, 

 right out of hot water. Screw them on with 

 a cloth to prevent the hand from being burn- 

 ed, then the air within the cap will be hot. 

 Set the jars aside to cool, caps down, on the 

 table. Examine them every hour as they 

 cool, and turn the caps on tighter. As the 

 fruit gets cooled it occupies less and less 

 space within. It must draw air in in order 

 to fill the vacancy which would occur. This 

 must be prevented. If no air can get in, the 

 cap will be drawn into a concave shape on 

 the outside. This may indicate the perfect- 

 ness of the work; but not always, because 

 the caps may have been concave before being 

 put on. Watch this so as not to be misled 

 by it. By the following morning the fruit 

 will be cold, the jars standing on their caps. 

 Examine for small air-bubbles passing up- 

 ward next to the glass. If there is, it gets 

 in between the cap and rubber and will spoil 

 the fruit. Do not wait until the day gets 

 warm, nor take the jars to a warm room to 

 make this examination. Do it in the coolest 

 part of the morning. That is when the con- 



