1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



241 



The beekeeper of the South is 



about the effects of honey and of 

 sugar and each one is left to judge 

 for himself whether it is advisable 

 or not to eat less sugar and more 

 honey. And it is not very hard to 

 suppose that some might think some- 

 what after the following fashion : 

 "Honey has flavoring matter, harm- 

 ful to some people ; most people are 

 able to take honey only in moderate 

 quantities; some people are made ill 

 by eating honey; a large amount 

 produces discomforts, often head- 

 ache; and there's some sort of trou- 

 ble about a poison bag. Doesn't look 

 like a very safe thing to eat honey. 

 Sugar seems to be a bad thing, too, 

 but only when taken in concentrated 

 form and in considerable quantity. 

 So the only danger with sugar seems 

 to be in having it in concentrated 

 form. Well, I don't need to take it 

 in concentrated form; it's easy to di- 

 lute it so as to make it perfectly 

 safe; but there are several things 

 wrong with honey that I don't know 

 how to remedy; so it's sugar for me." 

 Now. it u not at all likely that Good 

 Health thinks the average person is 

 in any more danger from eating 

 honey than from eating sugar. What 

 a pity it didn't say so. In fact it 

 has said in previous issues in effect 

 that honey is the safer of the two, 

 and why not now? To be sure, 

 there's that one sentence, "Honey 

 has the advantage that it requires no 

 digestion but is ready for immediate 

 absorption," but that sentence con- 

 tains so few words in its favor as 

 compared with the many against it. 

 and the number of words is likely to 

 have undue weight with the not too 

 careful reader. As a matter of fact, 

 however, that matter of "immediate 

 absorption" is a thing of so much im- 

 portance that it overbalances by far 

 any real objections that may be 

 made against honey. 



It would be interesting to be told 

 what flavoring matters in honey are 

 harmful to some people, and just 

 how many people in a thousand have 

 been thus harmed. 



Most people are able to take honey 

 only in small quantities, a flargel 

 amount producing discomforts, often 

 headache, we are told by Good 

 Health. Will it tell us whether honey 

 is any worse in this respect than 

 sugar? 



...ler 



nethods fast. 



There is an intimation that there 

 is something unwholesome in the 

 pollen gathered by bees. It is true 

 that many pounds of pollen are gath- 

 ered, but nearly all of it is stored 

 separately, and does Good Health 

 really know of any harm coming 



from the minute qu^.itity of pollen 

 that is found floating in honey? 



"It is said that bees introduce into 

 the honey minute quantities of a 

 substance from a poison bag." That 

 seems to be a resurrection of a silly 

 notion that had some currency a good 

 many years ago, but was supposed to 

 have found its final resting-place 

 years ago; the whole of it being that 

 the bee uses its sting as a trowel to 

 manipulate its wax, and just before 

 sealing up a cell of honey it drops a 

 tiny drop of poison from its sting. 

 Has Good Health any proof that 

 anything, good or bad, ever passes 

 from the poison bag or sting into the 

 honey? And does it know that any 

 real harm has come from the minute 

 quantity of formic acid that honey 

 contains? 



It is not believed that so reliable 

 a journal has any desire to give 

 honey anything but a fair show, and 

 it may not be unresasonable to ask 

 it to tell beside the advantage of im- 

 mediate absorption , whether honey 

 contains vitamines and minerals not 

 at all contained in sugar, and if so, 

 what is the importance of them. 



the South— F. M. Baldw 



Keep Bees Better — Keep More 

 Bees — A bulletin on bee culture has 

 recently been put out by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washing- 

 ton, D. C, headed as above. It is an 

 urgent appeal to beekeepers not only 

 to run their own bees for the most 

 honey, but to rent or lease unproduc- 

 tive bees and get the maximum 

 amount from them. 



The bulletin says: 



"There are in the United States 

 about 800,000 persons who own bees, 

 but there are not enough who keep 

 bees efficiently and with the greatest 

 possible profit to themselves. The 

 war has created a need for abund- 

 ant production of all food supplies 



and honey is a non-perishable, con- 

 centrated food. Efficiency in honey 

 production comes only from study 

 of the best practices perfected and 

 recorded by others. The study of 

 the bees themselves must not be neg- 

 lected, for all beekeeping practice 

 depends on a knowledge of bee ac- 

 tivities. California beekeepers will 

 do well to study the literature on 

 eastern methods. Local differences 

 are often unduly magnified. 



"This circular is compiled to make 

 easily available certain material 

 which cannot well be presented in 

 bulletin form. If' your beekeeping 

 questions are not answered here or 

 in the Bureau bulletins, please indi- 



