THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



129 



Boston, Mass., by pu l']ui^lishmau in 1G70. 

 The object in bringing bees to this country 

 was twofold. First, because of their health- 

 ful and delicious product, and second, the 

 enormous benefits derived from their work 

 in tlie fertilization of blossoms. The great 

 naturalist, Darwin, truly says: ' The more 

 bees the more flowers; the more flowers the 

 more seeds : the more seeds the more flow- 

 ers ; the more flowers the more bees. ' 



The same is true of fruit as well as of 

 seeds. Take out of this country all the 

 honey-bees, and. after a year or two, they 

 would be brought back at almost any cost, 

 so marked would be the diminution in our 

 seed and fruit crops. 



Of their product, honey, it may be truth- 

 fully said that it is the most wholesome and 

 easily absorbed by the system, not only of 

 any sweet, but likewise of any food known 

 to man. Owing to the peculiar conditions 

 and environments of honey-bees during 

 their period of confinement in the hive, their 

 surplus honey, stored by them for the pur- 

 pose of carrying them through this period, 

 is something entirely different from any 

 other substance used as food, by man. /( is 

 alreadu prepared by the bees before it is plac- 

 ed in the cells. This is a very important 

 fact. When we eat honey we have only to 

 assimilate its varied life giving elements, 

 the labor of preparation, which the system 

 has to effect with all other foods, having 

 been performed by the bees. This is the 

 only food partaken of by man, of which it 

 can be truthfully said that some other ani- 

 mal has specially prepared it for our assim- 

 ilation thus precluding the necessity of that 

 labor on our part. 



Another important fact in considering 

 honey as a food, is that it is not quite half 

 so sweet as cane sugar, although the differ- 

 ent acids it contains give the impression to 

 the sense of taste that it is sweeter; which 

 accounts for the fact that for hundreds of 

 years honey has been termed ' the sweetest 

 of all sweets. ' Here we have the pleasure 

 of the sensation produced by sweetness 

 without the danger of retarding the action 

 of the liver, kidneys or stomach when honey 

 is eaten in large quantities, as is the case 

 with cane sugar. But for this fact, the an- 

 cients never could have lived upon honey as 

 a main article of diet, as they did in certain 

 lands at certain times, as we learn from an- 

 cient history. 



Honey, either in the comb or extracted, 

 requires much skill in its production to 

 avoid the deterioration of some of its fine 

 qualities. It is more common to find im- 

 perfect honey in the comb than in the ex- 

 tracted form, because the capping being por- 

 ous, honey in the comb is subject to every 

 change in the humidity of the atmosphere, 

 while extracted honey is not. The expert 

 bee-keeper of today knows how to produce 

 and take care of both comb and extracted 

 honey so as to take the honey from the bees 

 in perfect condition with that rich, ripe 

 flavor and smooth consistency so grateful to 

 the consumer, and care for it in a manner 

 that will keep it so. 



It is a well known fact that the comb of 

 the honey-bee is entirely indigestible. 

 Mechanically and chemically it is smooth 

 and favorable to the human stomach, and 

 because it is wholly indigestible the stom- 

 ach makes no effort whatever to digest it. 

 The particles chewed fine mingle all through 

 the pastry eaten with them, thus making 

 avenues for the gastric juices of the stom- 

 ach, amounting to a radical, mechanical aid 

 in the digestion of the pastry and bread eat- 

 en. This is the philosophy underlying the 

 common practice of eating comb-honey 

 with warm biscuits. The particles of comb 

 guarantee the digestion of the more obsti- 

 nate warm bread. Thus we find that either 

 comb or extracted honey is the most whole- 

 some not only of any sweet, but of any 

 food known to humanity. 



As a remedial agent, honey has, and will 

 for all time, play an important part. Its 

 chemical nature is such that in many cases 

 it has proved a complete cure for constipa- 

 tion, diseases of the mouth, throat, lungs, 

 and other vital organs, many cases being on 

 record of radical and permanent cure of 

 persons supposed to have consumption. All 

 well read physicians know of its superiority, 

 and will use no other sweet in the concoc- 

 tion of medicines for a large class of diseases. 

 As a sweet sauce it is the best food and tonic 

 for the nerves, because of the large amount 

 of very fine nitrogenous matter distilled 

 from the flowers, in its most concentrated 

 form. So honey is not only warming to the 

 system, but it is among the best, if not the 

 best food known for brain workers. 



One great hindrance to the consumption 

 of this best of all known articles of food 

 has been the fear of adulteration imbibed 

 mainly from silly, ridiculous articles which 

 have been published in the columns of sen- 

 sational newspapers. Comb honey cannot 

 be adulterated, and the editors of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal and Gleanings in Bee 

 Culture have offered large rewards to any 

 person who would show where any comb 

 honey was being adulterated, or could show 

 any process by which it could be. Every 

 practical honey producer knows very well 

 that every such offer is made with absolute 

 safety ; impossibilities can never be achiev- 

 ed. Extracted honey has rested under 

 greater suspicion than that in the comb, 

 mainly because of its being offered at a 

 much lower price. Consumers did not know 

 why it could be sold for less, unless it was 

 mixed with some cheaper article. They did 

 not know that about double the quantity of 

 extracted honey could be secured from a 

 given number of colonies of bees as could be 

 taken in the comb in the same season. 

 They were not aware that in connection 

 with the extraction of the pure, clear honey, 

 the comb was preserved and returned, not 

 only saving the bees labor, time and mate- 

 rial necessary for building the comb which is 

 produced from pure honey, but that many 

 times, for several days in succession, the 

 flow from the nectaries of the flowers is so 

 profuse that five colonies of bees could not 

 build comb fast enough to furnish room for 



