312 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



could be at least partially restored to its former place as a common article 

 of diet. The almost universal craving for sweets of some kind shows a 

 real need of the system in that direction^ but the excessive use of sugar 

 brings in its train a long list of ills. Besides the various disorders of the 

 alimentary canal, that dread scourge — Bright's disease of the kidneys — 

 is credited with being one of the results of sugar-eating. When cane- 

 sugar is taken into the stomach, it cannot be assimilated until first changed 

 by digestion into grape-sugar. Only too often the overtaxed stomach fails 

 to properly perform this digestion, then comes sour stomach and various 

 dyspeptic phases. Prof. A. J. Cook says: 



"If cane-sugar is absorbed without change, it will be removed by the 

 kidneys, and may result in their breakdown; and physicians may be cor- 

 rect in asserting that the large consumption of cane-sugar by the 20th 

 century man is harmful to the great eliminators — the kidneys — and so a 

 menace to health and long life." 



Now, in the wonderful laboratory of the bee-hive there is found a 

 sweet that needs no further digestion, having been prepared fuKy by those 

 wonderful chemists — the bees^for prompt assimilation without taxing 

 stomach or kidneys. As Prof. Cook says : "There can be no doubt but 

 that in eating honey our digestive machinery is saved work that it would 

 have to perform if we ate cane-sugar ; and in case it is overtaxed and 

 feeble, this may be just the respite that will save from a break-down." 



A. I. Root says: "Many Deople who cannot eat sugar without having 

 unpleasant symptoms follow, will find by careful test that they can eat 

 good, well-ripened honey without any difficulty at all." 



HONEY THE MOST DELICIOUS SAUCE. 



Not only is honey the most wholesome of all sweets, but it is the most 

 delicious. No preparation of man can equal the delicately flavored product 

 of the hive. Millions of flowers are brought under tribute, presenting their 

 tiny cups of dainty nectar to be gathered by the busy riflers; and when 

 they have brought it to the proper consistency, and stored it in the won- 

 drously-wrought waxen cells and sealed it with coverings of snowy white- 

 ness, no more tempting dish can grace the table at the most lavish banquet; 

 and yet its cost is so moderate that it may well find its place on the tables 

 of the common people every day in the week. 



IT IS ECONOMY TO USE HONEY. 



Indeed, in many cases it may be a matter of real economy to lessen 

 the butter-bill by letting honey in part take its place. A pound of honey 

 will go about as far as ^ pound of butter; and if both articles be of the 

 best quality the honey will cost the less of the t\\o. Often a prime 

 article of extracted honey (equal to comb honey in every respect except 

 appearance) can be obtained for about half the price of butter. Butter 

 is at its best only when "fresh," while honey, properly kept, remains in- 

 definitely good — no need to hurry it out of the way for fear it may become 

 rancid. 



