THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



315 



fields in a certain very large district, 

 that it could put the price of coal to 

 $10 per ton V No. they could not hold 

 those prices three days before coal 

 would be coming in from West and 

 South and North and East to fill the 

 markets at such a price as the market 

 will allow. Controlling a market is 

 a preposterous proposition, if we have 

 not demand to act as tlie chief factor. 



The honey interest has not the ad- 

 vantages which exist in other indus- 

 tries, such as iron, coal or petroleum ; 

 for in the first instance mines and 

 wells can be bought outright and 

 controlled, but who can buy up the 

 flowers of the field, or who control the 

 flow of nectar? Only lie, under 

 whose providential care bee-culture 

 always rests. 



Suppose that the members of the 

 Oneida Bee- Keepers' Association 

 were combined together, and declare 

 that section honey should be sold by 

 the members for not less than 20 cents 

 per pound for the best quality, and I 

 was an outsider not belonging to your 

 association. Is there any law to pre- 

 vent me from bringing my own honey, 

 and as much more as I chose to buy 

 in other parts, and selling it under 

 your very noses at 18 cents a pound 'i 

 Where would you get your money 

 from to continue your business, if you 

 found buyers loath to pay 20 cents per 

 pound for the same article they could 

 obtain from me at 18 cents V 1 leave 

 the answer to yourselves. 



What would you think of a lot of 

 enthusiasts getting together to control 

 the egg market, in country towns and 

 elsewhere ? How many farmers' 

 wives would they control when it 

 came to the question of selling a 

 dozen eggs to pay for a new shawl, or 

 to buy bread for the children? In 

 this case the egg men have an advan- 

 tage over the honey men, in that eggs 

 are a far greater necessity than honey, 

 and consequently there is a constant 

 demand. 



Suppose that a man depended on 

 honey production for a living, and 

 the combination of bee-keepers, to 

 which he belonged, should say the 

 honey market must be 20 cents, and 

 some fellow comes along offering 

 honey at 18 cents in this man's mar- 

 ket, and gluts it. Where is the mem- 

 ber to get bread from ? He will go 

 out of the bee business next year, and 

 the fellow will reap the harvest in a 

 market which the first bee-keeper has 

 toiled so many years to create. Com- 

 bination, you see. would be a curse 

 there, instead of a blessing. 



I offer the following suggestions, 

 not as a solution of the problem, but 

 something toward a solution : I would 

 propose the formation of a honey 

 company headed by some e.xperienced 

 men in the honey business, and the 

 establishing of head-quarters in New 

 York city with branch establishments 

 at the different centres of commerce. 

 This to be a stock company that shall 

 buy honey outright and not sell on 

 commission, and whose principal 

 work shall be the creation of a market 

 by circulating pamphlets tending to 

 educate people to the numerous uses 

 to which honey can be put, and above 

 all, inspiring the minds of the general 1 



public with the absolute contidenee 

 ihat when honey is bought from this 

 company and labeled " pure honey," 

 it is " the truth, the whole truth, and 

 nothing but the truth." 

 Barrytown.cx N. Y. 



For tQe American Bee Joamai 



IflYiiiE Bees on the Cars, 



ESAU RUSSELL. 



I moved my apiary from Tiffin, 

 Iowa, on April 6, to this place. The 

 weather being cold when I started, I 

 simply nailed wide boards on top of 

 the hives tight, and placed screens in 

 front, so that the bees could all come 

 out if they wanted to; but very few 

 bees came out until the next day; 

 then the weather got warm and lots 

 of bees would crowd the ventilators. 

 I piled the hives 6 high in the car, and 

 then packed tight, giving free circula- 

 tion of air. I used a stock-car, and 

 scarcely a comb was broken, as I 

 placed little bunches of straws be- 

 tween the hives to prevent the sud- 

 den jar of the cars. The bees are 

 doing well now, are building up rap- 

 idly, and some hives are halt full of 

 brood. 



Ida Grove,*o Iowa, May 7, 1887. 



Practical Farmer. 



Honey as a Tootli-Preseryer. 



DR. W. Q. PHELPS. 



From a hygienic stand-point the 

 value of honey is scarcely realized by 

 the masses. Were it the case the use 

 of it would have kept pace with the 

 increased use of sugar for the past 25 

 years, which it has not. Years ago 

 honey was to a great extent the sole 

 sweetening medium, and the general 

 health of civilized people was better 

 than of the same classes to-day. The 

 price of honey has gradually placed it 

 among the luxuries, while sugar from 

 its cheapness has been substituted in 

 its stead. " Had the science of bee- 

 keeping," says one writer, " laeen in 

 its present advanced stage when the 

 sugar-cane industry began its rapid 

 growth, the use of sugar would have 

 been considerably retarded by the 

 contemporaneous march of its more 

 wholesome competitor, honey, which 

 then held the field." 



By modern methods employed in 

 bee-keeping, the purity and perfect 

 cleanliness of honey is guaranteed, 

 and had the rational culture of bees 

 marched along with scientific sugar- 

 making at an early date, we should 

 have heard less of cheap and nasty 

 substitutes (as the glucose mixtures 

 for instance, manufactured potatoes, 

 sawdust, rags, etc., frequently) for 

 pure sugar and wholesome honey. 

 The latter 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." 



As some are already aware, honey 

 is a perfect substitute for cane sugar 

 in preserving fruits, in wine and beer 



making, and for cider in manufacture 

 of vinegar, while as a medicine in 

 many forms, it is invaluable. 



A leading medical and scientific 

 journal advances the following good 

 points in reference to its use : " But 

 for cane sugar there would most 

 probably not be so many millions of 

 artificial teeth in daily use. As there 

 are, the grape sugar of honey being 

 at once fit for assimilation, whereas 

 cane sugar (one has noticed how the 

 eating of sweets increases thirst!) 

 calls on a laggard saliva to convert it 

 into grape sugar, and rests in nooks 

 and corners among the teeth, fit food 

 and breeding-ground for caries, 

 schizomycetes, sphseromycetes, and 

 what not, w hich turn it into acid, the 

 said acid acting upon the lime of the 

 teeth and dissolving them." 



Because cheap cane sugars have 

 been taken into the stomach in un- 

 reasonable quantity, the liver has 

 been unable to transforoi them, re- 

 resulting in disordering both organs. 

 Dyspepsia and biliousness are prob- 

 ably caused more by the use of cane 

 sugar than most of us think ; indeed. 

 Dr. Cheshire tells us that if cane 

 sugar be injected into the blood, it is 

 at once excreted, which is not the 

 case with grape sugar. Let us then 

 remember that it is only grape sugar 

 which the system can at once use as 

 heat-giving, fattening food, and this 

 it is which honey supplies ready pre- 

 pared for us by the bee in Nature's 

 laboratory. 



Honey will carry along with itself 

 into the stomach for digestion more 

 bread (starch, etc.) than butter, each 

 helping the other; and a pound of 

 honey at 8d. or 9d. per pound, will 

 consequently go as far as 2 pounds of 

 butter, costing 3s. Here then is de- 

 cided economy. 



It can be used for almost every 

 purpose we now use sugar for ; and 

 by the principles of modern bee-keep- 

 ing, it is becoming more plentiful and 

 cheaper year by year. A great ob- 

 jection to its free use in past years 

 was its comparative high price, owing 

 to the restricted supply caused by the 

 annual destruction of bees. This is 

 now removed. 



Another serious objection was thei 

 fact that honey disagreed with many 

 people. The wonder is that it agreed 

 with any one, for a common way of 

 obtaining it (after smothering the 

 bees) was to cut out the combs con- 

 taining young bees and pollen, besides 

 honey, and squeeze the whole in a 

 cloth, straining the r«sult for use. 



It will thus be easily seen, without 

 entering into details, how much ob- 

 jectionable matter was thus imported 

 in the honey, which would tend to 

 disorder delicate stomachs. All this 

 is now changed. No brood (young 

 bees) is now allowed by the bee- 

 keeper to be hatched in the clean, 

 snow-white sections of white bass- 

 wood we see in the shop-windows of 

 fruiterers and grocers who sell the 

 honey, the whole of which honey and 

 comb may be spread on bread and 

 eaten, the cells being so thin that it 

 takes six cell-walls to equal the 

 thickness of ordinary note paper. 

 Galena, (^ Md. 



