56 



THE BEE-KEEPERS REVI^^,. 



comparatively cheap food. This fact in 

 tself ought to be sufficient to insure its gen- 

 eral use, and no doubt will when the fad 

 is generally known. Owing mainly, per- 

 haps, to the fact that honey yields such ex- 

 quisite pleasure to the human palate it is for 

 the most part regarded as a mere luxury, 

 and its valaablo qualities as a food and 

 even a medicine are generally overlooked. 

 NoJF, cornmeal porridge is a wholesome and 

 ch( ap food, but it is not sufficiently palata- 

 b'e to catch many mouths watering for it. 

 There are many excellent articles of diet 

 that pi-e quite neglected simply because they 

 f'o m t commend themselves to our perver- 

 tei tastes, everybody, however, admitting 

 their wholesomeness. Bat because honey is 

 so superlatively pleasant to all tastes — both 

 normal and abnormal — the hasty conclusion 

 is forthwith reached that it is merely a lux- 

 ury to please the palate, having no special 

 value as a regular article of diet. This pop- 

 ular conception is very erroneous, and must 

 be corrected before this rich product of na- 

 ture can take its proper place on the tables 

 of all classes of people as a common article 

 of diet. True, occasionally a person is 

 found who cannot eat honey. It disagrees 

 with a few, or. as they put it. " acts almost 

 as a poison " to them. But this fact no 

 more proves that honey per se is essentially 

 injurious than the fact that potatoes "act 

 like poison '' to some people proves that 

 potatoes are essentially unwholesome. The 

 fault is not in the honey or potatoes 

 hut in the subject himself. In some pecu- 

 liarity of constitution or abnormal condition 

 of the system may always be found the true 

 cause of the difficulty. 



The dietetic elements which honey con- 

 tains are quite indispensable to first-rate 

 health in this and more northerly climates — 

 indeed to all outside the Torrid zone. The 

 carbonaceous, no less than the nitrogenous, 

 elements of food are required by the human 

 system in these zones ; and as we go north 

 from the tropic of Cancer more imperative- 

 ly required than the latter. Now, as honey 

 furnishes these indi pensable, heat-produc- 

 ing elements in greater purity than almost 

 every other article of human diet it there- 

 fore stands at the very head of the carbon- 

 aceous ingesta. If the animal heat of the 

 system is produced and maintained by the 

 combustion in the blood of the oxygen nf 

 the air taken in by the lungs and certain 

 elements of the food, as the most eminent 

 authorities maintain, then it is absolutely 

 certain that for six or eight months of the 

 year in this climate there is no more whole- 

 some or necessary food than pure honey. 

 True, in our ordinary dietary we can get the 

 necessary heat-forming materials from 

 other sources, but we also get at the same 

 time from these other sources disease-pro- 

 ducing impurities — fat pork, for instance, 

 and other oleaginous substances so common 

 on our tables. The conclusion is therefore 

 as plain as it is loeical that during the sea- 

 sons of A'ltumn, Winter and Sp-ing in these 

 latitudes honey is the very best food of its 

 class which we can get. Let there be less 

 Ijork, butter, and the dirty unwholesome 



syrups used in the familes of our land and 

 more honey, and the certain result will be 

 the greatly improved health of the people. 

 Sickness and the common ailments of life 

 will be greatly diminished. Considering 

 the relative wholesomeness, purity, and nu- 

 tritive properties, pure, extracted honey at 

 10 to V2}<2 cts. per pound is much cheaper as 

 a regular article of diet than pork or the 

 average quality of market butter at the 

 same price. In Nature's materia medica 

 honey has also valuable properties as a 

 curative agent. In pulmonary complaints, 

 common colds, sore throats and that class 

 of diseases, honey has frequently proved 

 most efficacious. Many instances are re- 

 corded of remarkable cures by honey in 

 such cases when other medicaments had 

 utterly failed. That honey possesses restor- 

 ative and remedial properties of an impor- 

 tant character is already well known by the 

 bee-keeping denizens of country places and 

 their neighbors who frequently call upon 

 them for honey in cases of sore throat, colds, 

 croup, etc., while the bee-keeper knows well 

 that every druggist in every country town as 

 well as in the city lays in a stock every year 

 for medicinal purposes. 



We may also lay honey under tribute in 

 the production of one of the most wholesome 

 beverages in existence ; to supersede tea 

 and coffee on the family table. We give the 

 formula and process and advise all to try it. 



Take three quarts of good, clean, wheat 

 bran and bake in the oven till it becomes 

 quite brown. Then add one quart of liquid 

 buckwheat honey and stir thoroughly ; put 

 it back in the oven to bake still more, stir- 

 ring it frequently until it gets dry, granu- 

 lated, and very brown — a little scorching 

 will not hurt it. Draw it the same as coffee 

 and use with milk and honey or milk and 

 suffar to suit the taste. 



This makes a perfectly wholesome and 

 palatable drink and the sooner it takes the 

 place of tea in every family the sooner the 

 public health will improve. In the writer's 

 family this wholesome and really palatable 

 beverage has been on his table for years 

 with the best results ; and were a ton of tea 

 and- coffee unloaded at the door gratis we 

 would say, ' no thank you ' so far as drink- 

 insr either is concerned. The buckwheat 

 honey is preferable to the clover in making 

 this beverage for the double reason of its 

 brown color and more pungent taste. " 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



(^O friend Aspinwall's method of non. 

 K^ swarming, during the first season of its 

 trial, scored a measure of success, and de- 

 veloped a measure of weakness. Colonies 

 where the perforated wooden sheets were 



