FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 313 



GIVE CHILDREN HONEY. 



Prof. Cook says: "We all know how children long for candy. This 

 longing voices a need, and is another evidence of the necessity of sugar in 

 our diet. . . . Children should be given all the honey at each meal- 

 time that they will eat. It is safer, will largely do away with the inordi- 

 nate longing for candy and other sweets; and in lessening the desire will 

 doubtless diminish the amount of cane-sugar eaten. Then if cane-sugar 

 does work mischief with health, the harm may be prevented." 



Ask the average child whether he will have honey alone on his bread or 

 butter alone, and almost invariably he will promptly answer, '*Honey." Yet 

 seldom are the needs or the tastes of the child properly consulted. The 

 old man craves fat meat; the child loathes it. He wants sweet, not fat. 

 He delights to eat honey; it is a wholesome food for him, and is not 

 expensive. Why should he not have it? 



HONEY BEST TO SWEETEN HOT DRINKS. 



Sugar is much used in hot drinks, as in coffee and tea. The substi- 

 tution of a mild-flavored honey in such uses may be a very profitable 

 thing for the health. Indeed, it would be better for the health if the 

 only hot drink were what is called in Germany "honey-tea" — a cup of hot 

 water with one or two tablespoonfuls of extracted honey. The attain- 

 ment of great age has in some cases been attributed largely to the life-long 

 use of honey-tea. 



COMB AND EXTRACTED HONEY. 



At the present day honey is placed on the market in two forms — 

 in the comb, and extracted. "Strained" honey, obtained by mashing or 

 melting combs containing bees, pollen, and honey, has rightly gone out of 

 use. Extracted honey is simply honey thrown out of the comb in a 

 machine called a honey-extractor. The combs are revolved rapidly in a 

 cylinder, and centrifugal force throws out the honey. The comb remains 

 uninjured, and is returned to the hive to be refilled again and again. For 

 this reason extracted honey is usually sold at a less price than comb 

 honey, because each pound of comb is made at the expense of several 

 pounds of honey. 



DIFFERENT KINDS AND FLAVORS. 



Many people think "honey is honey" — all just alike; but this is a 

 great mistake. Honey may be of good, heavy body — what bee-keepers 

 call "well-ripened" — weighing generally twelve pounds to the gallon, or it 

 may be quite thin. It may also be granulated, or candied, more solid 

 than lard. It may be almost as colorless as water, and it may be as black 

 as the darkest molasses. The flavor of honey varies according to the 

 flower from which it is obtained. It would be impossible to describe in 

 words the flavors of the different honeys. You may easily distinguish the 

 odor of a rose from that of a carnation, but you might find it difficult to 

 describe them in words so that a novice smelling them for the first time 

 could tell which was which. But the different flavors in honey are just 



