Advantages of Bee-keeping. 3 



Many other instances might be mentioned, but they 

 can at any time be obtained. 



Advantages to be Derived. — Besides the pecuniary 

 advantages of keeping bees, there is the fact that they 

 collect and prepare for the use of man the most 

 wholesome article of food known. This was dis- 

 covered in the earliest times. ' ' My son, eat thou 

 honey, because it is good, " are the words of the wise 

 king, and it was used and its qualities were well known 

 long before him. Honey is not exactly the produce 

 of the flower nor of the bee, but of the two combined. 

 There is a sweet liquid secreted in flowers which is 

 called nectar. This is extracted by the bees, and 

 swallowed by them. It passes into a sac, and a 

 chemical transformation takes place as the bee flies 

 along home, and when disgorged by them into cells, 

 it is pure honey. But even then it is rather thin, and 

 the excess of moisture evaporates before the bees seal 

 it over. It is true that there are many persons who 

 do not like honey, but even those may ' acquire ' the 

 taste, and when acquired, they will find it highly 

 conducive to health. One of the principal constituents 

 of our food is sugar, and in honey we have the most 

 wholesome and nutritious sugar known. It is assimi- 

 lated at once by persons who could not eat ordinary 

 sugar without indigestion. Besides being ah excellent 

 food it is also a curative agent of the first water. In 

 former times honey was about the only sweetening 

 thing known, and very probably much of the health 



