1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



199 



fine everything in our lives as acts of 

 military necessity or policy." 



Although women are eager to con- 

 serve sugar, they are asking some- 

 what impatiently, "Why is there a 

 sugar shortage?" and "Where is the 

 sugar?' 'and the reply is the usual 

 one, "C'est la guerre!" If you will 

 look at a map of the world showing 

 the regions where sugar cane and 

 sugar beet (our only two sources of 

 granulated sugar) are grown, you 

 will see immediately why there is 

 less sugar for us today. The largest 

 producer of sugar cane is India, but 

 with her enormous population she 

 has no sugar for export. Second in 

 production is Cuba, and most of the 

 sugar for us and for Europe comes 

 from that island and the other West 

 Indies. The Barbadoes have had 

 over sixty per cent of the surface 

 cultivated for cane for two hundred 

 years. But sometimes the crop fails 

 in Cuba, and nowadays the ships to 

 carry a crop are few and far be- 

 tween. It also happens occasionally 

 that a submarine interferes with our 

 obtaining the sugar we expect. Here 

 at home we find cane growing only 

 in Louisiana along the lower delta 

 of the Mississippi. 



However, within the last half cen- 

 tury we have had a new industry 

 arise — the manufacture of granulated 

 sugar from the sugar beet, so that 

 we no longer depend wholly upon 

 sugar cane. The sugar beet grows in 

 the north in regions where the sum- 

 mer temperature is around 73 de- 

 grees, and where there is considera- 

 ble summer rainfall. In America it 

 is produced principally in Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, 

 Utah, Idaho and California. In Eu- 

 rope, unfortunately for the world, the 

 areas devoted to sugar beet cultiva- 

 tion are the parts 'of northern France 

 and Belgium now occupied by Ger- 

 mans, so that any sugar produced 

 there goes for German consumption. 

 Germany is the only other European 

 country to raise sugar beets to any 

 great extent, with the exception of a 

 small area in southern Russia, also of 

 no use to us. So it is that our allies 

 must depend upon us for sugar. 

 When we remember, too, that sol- 

 diers need more sugar to provide fuel 

 for their bodies than when they were 

 leading civilian lives, we will see how 

 necessary it is for us to use as little 

 as possible. Have you not heard 

 stories of soldiers so starved for 

 sugar that they would trade almost 

 anything they owned or undergo any 

 hardship for the sake of getting a 

 tiny piece of chocolate? 



I find that the easiest way to con- 

 serve sugar is to ration the family. 

 I buy only so much each week, and if 

 it does not stretch to the end of the 

 week, we do without and eat honey. 

 We generally find that it does 

 stretch to the week following. Our 

 great grandmothers had no granulat- 

 ed sugar, nor did the old Greeks and 

 Romans, who were famous for their 

 sweets, and indeed until a little over 

 a century ago, everyone was depend- 

 ent upon honey, maple syrup, sor- 

 ghum or corn syrup. Honey is the 



most concentrated as well as the 

 most ancient of these natural sweets. 

 Beekeepers' wives are particularly 

 fortunate in knowing this good food, 

 and in having the opportunity of 

 feeding it to their growing children. 

 There are so many who do not use it 

 at all, that beekeepers' wives might 

 do missionary work in teaching its 

 value, as well as in advertising their 

 husbands' business, by talking for 

 honey as a food. Granulated sugar 

 is so refined in its manufacture that 

 there is nothing in it but pure su- 

 crose, while honey, manufactured 

 only by the bees, contains not only 

 predigested sugar, but also small 

 quantities of valuable mineral salts, 

 gums, and one of the two recently 

 discovered mysterious chemical sub- 

 stances which are necessary to 

 growth, called "water-soluble-B." 

 There is an added value in honey_ to 

 me. and that is its romantic quality. 

 In its limpid beauty I see the myriads 

 of flashing wings carrying into the 

 dark hive the watery nectar, which 

 by some strange alchemy known only 

 to the bees, is transformed into this 

 wonderful aromatic sweet. I think of 

 the millions of generations of work- 

 ers who have faithfully carried out 

 the life of the hive as it was thou- 

 sands of years ago. Probably back 

 as far as the Stone Age, our fore- 

 fathers searched the woods for bee- 

 trees, in order to carry home to their 

 caves the precious stores of honey. 

 Can't you see the naked brown babies 

 standing at the mouth of the cave, 

 brushing their hair from their eyes 

 in order to see better when father 

 might appear down the leafy vista? 

 Can't you imagine their joy when he 

 comes bearing a sticky, dripping 

 mass of broken comb on a grape leaf, 

 and hear them murmur "Ugh! Ugh!" 

 as they cram honey, pollen and brood 

 into their mouths, all at once? That 

 is Stone Age talk which means 

 "Thank you, kind father, for this fine 

 honey. It is too bad you cannot find 

 bee-trees oftener." 



It is for us who know honey not 

 only to spread the knowledge of its 

 value as a food, but now, we may well 

 give up the use of sugar almost en- 

 tirely, using honey instead. 



Children are especially fond of 

 honey, and there are many ways in 

 which it may be used for them. Try 

 making cocoa with honey and you will 

 find there is a smoothness of texture 

 and delicate flavor that is delicious. A 

 pinch of cinnamon makes a pleasing 

 variation. Then very often for school 

 sandwiches, I mix honey and peanut 

 butter, a combination much enjoyed. 

 If you do not already own the Bulle- 

 tin on "Honey and Its Uses in the 

 Home," (Farmers' Bulletin 653), send 

 to the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C, for it, for it 

 contains many good recipes and sug- 

 gestions. 



I suppose that every beekeeoer's 

 wife has experimented with honey in 

 canning. It gives satisfactory results, 

 although the flavor of the fruit is 

 generally a little changed, particu- 

 larly if a strong honey is used. Ap- 

 ples canned in honey taste almost 

 like quince, and they make a specially 



good pie. This year I shall preserve 

 my currants in honey, making the 

 famous Bar-le-Duc preserve, but I 

 do not believe I shall pick out the 

 currant seeds one by one with a 

 needle. 



Currants in Honey. (Bar-le-Duc.) 



Take equal weights of honey and 

 currants. Bring the honey to boiling 

 point, add the currants and boil gen- 

 tly until the fruit is tender. If the 

 currants are so juicy that they make 

 the honey watery, remove the fruit 

 and boil the liquid down until a 

 rather thick syrup is obtained. 



I believe that the patriotic thing to 

 do this year with regard to fruit is 

 not to make jelly if the fruit can be 

 used in any other way. Canning re- 

 quires least sugar, but if you have 

 fruit which you wish to preserve, by- 

 all means make jam. Any house- 

 keeper who has rows of shining 

 glasses of clear jelly, cannot show 

 them with pride to her friends this 

 year. Instead, she would need to 

 hide them with shame — but surely no 

 American woman will let it be said 

 of her that she is not strong enough 

 to forego the pleasure of making and 

 eating jelly when she has the 

 strength to send her men to the bat- 

 tlefield with a smile. The brave 

 women of England who have been 

 getting along on the meagre ration of 

 8 ounces a week per person for many 

 months, have succeeded in saving 

 from that little bit enough to help 

 preserve the large fruit crop. Now 

 they are to be allowed an extra sup- 

 ply of as much as ten pounds for 

 each member of the family. Any 

 sugar over that amount necessary to 

 save the fruit of their own gardens 

 will be granted, provided that the jam 

 made be sold to the government for 

 the use of gardenless folk. 



Many fruits may be dried for win- 

 ter use. particularly apples, cherries 

 and peaches. Others may be canned 

 with no sugar or honey, as green 

 gooseberries, or with thin Syrup. 

 Then, when they are to be used, more 

 sweetening may be added if desired 

 In all my canning and preserving, I 

 keep at mv elbow all the government 

 bulletins I can get on the subject. 

 Those that were almost worn thread- 

 bare last season, and which I shall 

 follow closelv again this year, are 

 Farmers' Bulletin 841, Drying Fruits 

 and Vegetables in the Home; Farm- 

 ers' Bulletin 853, Home Canning of 

 Fruits and Vegetables (especially rec- 

 ommended for housewives in the 

 south), and Farmers' Bulletin 839, 

 Home Canning by the One-Period 

 Cold-Pack Method (recommended for 

 housekeepers living in the northern 

 and western States). All of these 

 may be obtained by writing to the I . 

 S Department of Agriculture. Wash- 

 ington, D. C. We cannot afford to 

 have fruit spoil before or after can- 

 ning this year, and so we must make 

 ourselves as efficient as possible 

 when it comes to preserving the fruit. 

 We hear so much of German efficien- 

 cy that I scarcely like to use the 

 term, but if we can beat the German 

 at his own game, we will surely win 

 the war! 



