1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



IIWI 



Now, this is less than what honey is selling for at 

 Colorado and Pacific Coast points, and it does not 

 seem favorable to rush honey on to the market here 

 till the shortage has made itself felt, even though it 

 seems to be the best plan to do so when the crop is 

 normal. It is usually the way for the buyers of any 

 crop to rustle around and get the bulk of the crop 

 bought at the lowest possible figure and to advance it 

 after the producer has sold out. One or two held on 

 in this town last year till late and got their best prices 

 at the last end of the season. 



Unless the market for No. 1 and fancy 

 comb shows up a little better, we can not 

 censure the producers, who have these grades 

 on hand, for not selling at the present time. 

 But there is always danger in holding for a 

 better figure. Our impression is that the pro- 

 ducer can afford to wait a little. What little 

 comb honey we can get — a precious little 

 amount — we are retailing at 25 cents for fan- 

 cy and 24 for No. 1. Talk about supplying 

 the wholesale trade! why, we have not been 

 able to get much if any comb honey to sell, 

 even for a retail trade. 



Said a gentleman to us the other day, "I 

 have been trying to get some fruit this year. 

 I can not get it at any price. My wife and 

 I have decided that we shall have to lay in 

 a stock of comb honey. What is it going to 

 cost us?" 



"Better get it pretty soon before it goes 

 much higher." 



"But,' said he, "I can not find it. Have 

 you any ? ' ' 



"Not yet, but we hope to have some soon." 



"Well," said he, "when there is no fruit, 

 honey is the only substitute." 



Never was a truer thing said; and yet there 

 is a tendency on the part of many dealers to 

 hold down to the prices of last year. We 

 can not blame them much, as new conditions 

 leave them in the attitude of the senator who 

 said, "I should like to know where I am at." 

 But they should wake up to the situation. 

 They must offer a better figure, as some are 

 doing, or they will not get the honey. Co- 

 lumbus, Indianapolis, Zanesville, and San 

 Francisco are offering good prices. 



There seems to be, in many localities, a 

 chance for a fall flow of honey; in fact, it is 

 already on in our locality from goldenrod 

 and some remnants of sweet clover. There 

 has been comparatively little robbing this 

 season, as honey has been coming in slowly 

 from some source. 



.SUGAR OK HONEY AS A MUSCLE-PRODUCER. 



Ever since the days of Liebig it has been 

 the opinion of chemists that sugar and hon- 

 ey were mere heat-producers, therefore of 

 less value to workmen than meats, eggs, 

 cheese, fish, and other proteid foods. Grad- 

 ually the trend of scientific thought has been 

 changed, and natural glucose, which is the 

 principal constituent of honey, and the sweet 

 part of fruits, is now considered a very val- 

 uable muscle-producer. We do know chil- 

 dren are very fond of fruits, sugar, and 

 honey— a purely natural craving that ought 

 to be satisfied in some manner. The follow- 

 ing from the Louisiana Planter (translated 

 from La Sucrerie Iiidigene) will serve to 

 show the trend of modern ideas on the sub- 



ject of sweets, and at the same time bear out 

 this claim: 



Mr. Chauveau found that muscle which worked con- 

 sumed only the glucose or the glycogene carried by 

 the blood circulation. From this the energetic value 

 of a food should not be measured according to its ca- 

 lorific power — that is to say, not by the number of 

 calories produced by its combustion in a calorimeter, 

 but rather by its yield in glucose. Here the saccha- 

 rose and starchy materials take the first rank. Chau- 

 veau has calculated the isoglucosic equivalents cor- 

 responding to 100 grams of fat, and that result one 

 would compare with the equivalent of Rubner cited 

 above 100 fat corresponding to 153 grams of (cane) su- 

 gar, 161 grams of glucose (honey), and 146 grams cf 

 starch. 



Lefevre has essayed to reconcile these two theories 

 that diverge somewhat. He conceded readily, admit- 

 ting that an organism which labors and which re- 

 ceives the fat transforms this fat into glucose in ab- 

 sorbing 3;^4 calories per 100 grams of fat and in form- 

 ing 161 grams of glucose. This quantity of glucose 

 will give 480 calories by the combustion in the mus- 

 cle, and there will remain 120 calories for the energy 

 and the work— a total of 934 calories. If one gives to 

 the organism glucose exclusively, all the calories will 

 pass into work, as they will not have to undergo the 

 preparatory transformation. Lefevre concludes that 

 fat is a source of heat, and sugar a source of work. 



Other conclusions might be drawn from the works 

 of Lefevre relative to the digestibility— that is to say, 

 digestive utilization, of the various foods. Among 

 them sugar (of all kinds) holds the first rank, being 

 equal or superior to f 6 per cent, and then white bread, 

 rice, and mashed potatoes. Eggs and meat occupy 

 the sixth and seventh rank, and milk the eighth. 



All these conclusions are very interesting. They 

 fix in a manner absolutely scientific the basis of feed- 

 ing in general and the great value of sugar. The 

 practical conclusion, which can give only excellent re- 

 sults, will be the taking into account and determining 

 the rations of soldiers and horses in the army. There 

 the old errors still continue, and very often the men 

 and the animals are fed, if not insufficiently, at least 

 in a manner scarcely hygienic. If we follow our ordi- 

 nary tastes we do not deceive ourselves. 



We may say by way of explanation that 

 the glucose here referred to is not the artifi- 

 cial article which masquerades in this country 

 as "corn syrup," but the purely natural kind 

 which is found in honey and fruits. The ar- 

 tificial product is lacking in taste, so that the 

 human stomach rebels against it; and the 

 free flow of saliva, so necessary to good di- 

 gestion, is greatly if not wholly curtailed. 

 Honey heads the list of available sweets be- 

 cause it not only "makes the mouth water," 

 but is immediately converted into glycogen 

 without trouble, and in that state passes di- 

 rectly into the blood. Of the solid matter of 

 honey (80 per cent) not yV per cent of it is 

 wasted in any way when consumed, hence it 

 is real economy to use it more, especially by 

 indoor workers whose digestion is poor, and 

 whose muscular system needs toning up. 



Over the whole of Eui'ope there is an idea 

 that honey is very useful in the treatment of 

 consumption; and recent discoveries tend to 

 confix'm this, for it is clear that a food which 

 so quickly enters the blood and repairs the 

 working tissues may be useful in warding 

 off or dispelling the germ of consumption. 



The words of Lefevre, "If one gives to 

 the organisms glucose [honey) exclusively, 

 all the calories will pass into work, since 

 they will not have to undergo the prepara- 

 tory transformation," ought to be written in 

 letters of gold and displayed in the honey- 

 house and apiary, becaitse they indicate hon- 

 ey is the best food of its sort ever obtained 

 by mankind. 



