TIO 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



is being gathered in localities where 

 much of the basswood honey is pro- 

 duced. 



As 1 have shown in this article that 

 the basswood and linden honey pro- 

 duced in the Southern States is as 

 good in every way as that produced 

 in the Northern States; and in my 

 previous article, that the Northern 

 States "produce Just as fine bass- 

 wood honey " as that produced in 

 Canada, it seems to me that the 

 " Managing Committee " were not 

 posted in regard to the quality of the 

 " fine, richly- flavored " United States 

 basswood and linden honey, or were 

 dishonestly trying to reap some, if 

 not all, of the benefits of the success- 

 ful efforts already put forth by the 

 " Yankees " to make a market for 

 United States honey in England ; and 

 I have no doubt but the misrepresen- 

 tations made, have, in a measure, 

 accomplished the desired results. 



Here is another fallacy: "But it 

 should be kept in mind that this strip 

 or belt bears but a small proportion to 

 that of the whole of the United States. 

 In writing the article complained of, 

 I referred 10 the United States as a 

 whole." Yes ; " the United States as 

 a whole." Well, " the United States 

 as a whole," as I have shown, does 

 not produce basswood or linden 

 honey. (Some parts produce bass- 

 wood, some linden, and some neither.) 

 As near as I have been able to learn, 

 about latitude 3S-' is near "the dis- 

 tinctive southern limit " of the bass- 

 wood and linden honey production, 

 and on the Pacific Coast the southern 

 limit is several degrees farther north. 



Wm. Mutli-Easmussen, of Califor- 

 nia, says : •• Tljere is no basswood in 

 this locality, and as far as 1 know, 

 none in California." 



E. A. Moore, of Nevada, writes: 

 " In this State, nor on this coast, do 

 I think you will find any basswood, 

 and, of course, no basswood honey." 



Now, about 42° is the southern 

 limit of Canadian honey production, 

 and 490 the northern limit of United 

 States honey production, except what 

 is produced in Alaska. (We "Yan- 

 kees " are so big hearted and sympa- 

 thetic, that we may some day be 

 obliged to extend our nothern limit 

 several degrees beyond 49°, but I hope 

 not, for we are happy the wav it is.) 

 This gives a "strip or belt "of 4^ of 

 basswood and linden honey-produc- 

 ing territory south of the Southern 

 Canadian limit, and " a strip or belt " 

 of 7° north of the Southern Canadian 

 limit. So we see that there is nearly 

 twice as wide a strip north of the 

 Southern Canadian limit, as there is 

 south of it, and I have yet to learn 

 that that produced at the southern 

 limit is inferior to that produced at 

 the northern limit. 



Here is an evidently truthful asser- 

 tion, and although some other quota- 

 tions I have made may have been as 

 honestly given, I am sorry to be 

 obliged to believe they are not as 

 truthful as this : " Canadians would 

 be vei-y sorry indeed to have their 

 fine, bright, sparkling linden honey 

 classed with late, dark honey, and 

 the price ruled down to that article." 

 1 do not doubt it at all, and I believe 



the beekeepers on "this side of the 

 line " feel just the same about the 

 " fine, bright, sparkling " basswood 

 and linden honey produced in the 

 United States, and will not submit to 

 our Canadian friends (no, neighbors, 

 for friends do not deliberately try to 

 injure each other), classing it with 

 " late, dark honey," without a most 

 vigorous protest. 

 Auburndale,'^ O. 



Selected from a Sermon. 



ForlJiililen Honey Ate liy Jonatlian. 



EBV. T. DEWITT TALMAGE, D. D. 



" Forbidden Honey " was the sub- 

 ject of Dr. Talmage's recent sermon 

 iu the Brooklyn Tabernacle. His text 

 was a portion of the forty-third verse 

 of the fourteenth chapter of First 

 Samuel : " 1 did but taste a little 

 honey with the end of the rod that 

 was in my hand, and lo ! 1 must die." 

 From it we re-produce the following 

 points : 



The honey-bee is a most ingenious 

 architect, a Christopher Wren among 

 insects, a geometer drawing hexagons 

 and pentagons, a free-booter robbing 

 the fields of pollen and aroma, a won- 

 drous creature of God, whose biog- 

 raphy, written by Huber and Swam- 

 merdam, is an enchantment for any 

 lover of nature. Virgil celebrated 

 the bee in his fable of AristiBus, and 

 Moses and Samuel, and David, and 

 Solomon, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel 

 and St. John used the delicacies of 

 bee production as a Bible symbol. 



A miracle of formation is the bee ; 

 five eyes, two tongues, the outer hav- 

 ing a sheath of protection, hair on all 

 sides of its tiny body to brush up the 

 particles of flowers ; its flight so 

 straight that all the world knows of 

 " the bee-line." The honey-comb is 

 a palace such as no one but God could 

 plan and the honey-bee construct ; its 

 cells sometimes a dormitory, some- 

 times a store-house, and sometimes a 

 cemetery. These winged toilers first 

 make cups of wax, and by their an- 

 tennee, which are to them hammer, 

 chisel, square and plumb line, fashion 

 them for use. Two and two, these 

 workers shape the wall. If an acci- 

 dent happens they put up buttresses 

 or extra beams to remedy the damage. 



When about the year 1776 an insect, 

 before unknown, in the night-time 

 attacked the bee-hives all over Eu- 

 rope, and the men who owned them 

 were in vain trying to plan some- 

 thing to keep out the invader that 

 was the terror of the bees of the con- 

 tinent, it was found that everywhere 

 the bees had arranged for their own 

 protection, and built before their 

 honey-combs an especial wall of wax, 

 with port-holes through which the 

 bees might go to and fro, but not large 

 enough to admit the winged combat- 

 ant, called the Sphinx Atropos. 



Do you know that the swarming of 

 the bees is divinely directed':* The 

 mother-bee follows the bees, and all 

 alight on the branch of a tree, and 

 cling to each other and hold on until 

 the return of a committee of two or 



three that have explored the region 

 and found the hollow of a tree or rock 

 not far off from a stream of water, 

 and they have set up a new colony 

 and ply their aromatic industries, and 

 give themselves to the gathering of 

 the sacharine edible. But who can 

 tell the chemistry of that mixture of 

 sweetness, part of it the very life of 

 the bee, and part of it the life of the 

 fields y 



Plenty of this luscious product was 

 hanging in the woods of Beth-aven 

 during the time of Saul and Jonathan. 

 Their army was in pursuit of an 

 enemy that by God's command must 

 be exterminated. The soldiery were 

 positively forbidden to stop to eat 

 anything until the work was done. If 

 they disobeyed they were accused. 

 Coming through the woods they 

 found a place where the bees had 

 been busy, a great honey store ; honey 

 gathered in the hollow of the trees 

 until it had overflowed upon the 

 ground in great profusion of sweet- 

 ness. All the army obeyed orders 

 and touched it not, save Jonathan, 

 and he, not knowing the military 

 order about abstinence, dipped the 

 end of a stick he had in his hand into 

 the liquid, and as (yellow and brown, 

 and tempting) it glowed on the end of 

 a stick, he put it to his mouth and 

 ate the honey. Judgment fell upon 

 him, and but for special intervention 

 he would have been slain. In my text 

 Jonathan announces his awful mis- 

 take : " I did but taste a little honev 

 with the end of the rod that was in 

 my hand, and, lo, I must die." Alas, 

 what multitudes of people in all ages 

 have been damaged by forbidden 

 honey, by which I mean " tempta- 

 tion," delicious and attractive, but 

 damaging and destructive. 



Literature, fascinating but death- 

 ful, comes in this category. Where 

 one good, honest, healthful book is 

 read now, there are one hundred 

 made up of rhetorical trash consumed 

 with avidity. 



The devil does not own all the 

 honey. There is a wealth of good 

 books coming forth from our publish- 

 ing houses that leaves no excuse for 

 the choice of that which is debauch- 

 ing to body, mind and soul. That 

 young man or young woman can by 

 the right literary and moral improve- 

 ment of the spare ten minutes here or 

 there in every day, rise head and 

 shoulders in prosperity, and charac- 

 ter and influence above the loungers 

 who read nothing, or read that which 

 be-dwarfs. See all the forests of good 

 American literature dripping with 

 honey. Why pick up the honey- 

 combs that have in them the fiery 

 bees which will sting you with an 

 eternal poison while you taste it? 

 One book may for you or me decide 

 every thing for this world or the next. 



It was a turning point with me, 

 when in Wynkoop's book-store, Syra- 

 cuse, one day I picked up a book 

 called " The Beauties of Ruskin." It 

 was only a book of extracts, but it 

 was all pure honey, and I w-as not 

 satisfied until I had purchased all 

 his works, at that time expensive be- 

 yond an easy capacity to own them, 

 and what a heaven I went through in 



