Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-08-15
THE HONEY BEE BUSINESS.
IT HAS BECOME A GREAT INDUS
TRY IN THIS COUNTRY.

91 < LIN Ia46 OS0H = AsAs
California the Heaviest Distributing
Point-Difference in Honey-Curi
GUS Ways of Bees.
To learn all about honey, honey bees
and the honey industry of the world hai
been the life work of Brooklyn man,
Mr.. w. M. Hoge, who returned from
Paris not long after showing Parisian'
what kind of honey America can pro
duce. To reporter of the New York
Sun Mr.. Hoge said:
s'I have thoroughly canvassed every
large city in Europe and America in sell
ing honey, and it is true that moro honey
is bought for table use in and near New
York city than in any other spot in the
world. There are in New York and
Brooklyn eight concerns which deal ex-
clusively in honey and keep twenty six
wagons carrying on business with the re-
tail grocers. In this way about a ton of
honey day is sold, or considerably over
312 tons year. This, of course, does
not include the large quantity distributed
to outside towns by wholesale dealers.
However, while local consumption of
honey is greater in New York and vicin-
ity than any where else on earth, the
largest general distribution is from Cali
fornia. We shipped from Southern
California last year, mostly to Eastern
States, 100000 pounds of extracted
honey, while 100000 pounds were
sent out in 1883, 950,000 pounds in
1887, 100000 pounds in 1886, and
1,270,000 pounds in 1885. To Europe
from San Francisco last yenr 1745 cases
of extracted honey were sent. In the
past seven years an average of $500 cases
per year was sent by sailing vessels to
foreign ports, mostly to England. We
send honey to Australia, the Sandwich
Islands, British Columbia, and even to
India. This foreign demand was aroused
by the 100 tons of American honey
which took to England in 1877.
"To most persons honey is honey, and
nothing else, continued Mr.. Hoge,
"but there is great diversity in the
flavor and color, caused by the different
plants from which it is gathered. 1t
varies as the flowers vary in the various
districts where the honey is gathered,
and, by a little practice, a blindfolded
man can distinguish the different favors
in wines. Bee culture has so far pro-
gressed of late that beekeepers, by little
intelligent management, can keep the
various favors of honey separate. To
those who persist in the habit of eating
honey and hot biscuits for supper,
slow educational process has been of adj
vantage in learning the different favors
of honey, and there has come to be scale
of value in the market according to the
flavor. The favorite favors are white
clover, Eastwood, white sage, spanish
needle, golden rod, eucalyptus and
orange blossom. The medicinal principle
of plants, furthermore, is contained in
the honey in greater purity than the
pharmacists have yet discovered. A tea
spoonful of honey gathered from smart
weed causes profuse perspiration. You
remember that Xenophon noticed that
soldiers of the Ten Thousand, on their
march through Colchis, who ate honey
gathered from the poppy flower, 'lost
their senses They fell asleep through
opium eating, that was all. Honey
gathered from blossoms of the fig tree is
laxative, while honey from the hore-
hound flower s,with many,a specific for
coughs and sore throats. 1t has been
discovered also that bee stings made into
lotion are specific for rheumatism,
gout and lumbago. have made some
liniment myself by pulling out the bee
stings. The operation is naturally de-
licate one. 1 take up the bee-alive, of
course-with pair of jewelers.
tweezers, and by squeezing it the bee
thrusts out the sting. This is
grasped with another pair of tweezers
and the sting and little poison sack
pulled out. l have made. as believe,
several cures of rheumatism by the aid of
the lotion.
cit is a curious fact" continued Mr..
Hoge, "that a bee will return time after
time to the same flower, although its
hive may be mile or more distant. How
did discover its By sitting down be-
side flower blossom, and when bee
alighted sprinkling little flour on him.
While sitting and watching for the bee
to return, another strange thing l OBJ
served. The nectar from which the bee
dlstils his honey gathers slowly on the
petals of the flower and forms very tiny
drop at the bottom of the cup. If bee
happens to alight at that instant on the
blossom he sucks the nectar into his
honey sack and flies off to the hive with
it, but if the bee does not come just at
that minute then the drop of nectar is
evaporated by the sun and wind. Per-
haps this happens score of times in a
bee district before bee visits blossom.
Taking into consideration all the flowers
that bloom in this big country, and the
nectar that is evaporated only to perfume
the air, there is as much wealth lost every
summer from failure to gather the honey
as there is gold dug out of the mines in
California. I can remember the time
when in Southern California the natural
In Of, ,,1a 70 ~ ,haolra1 ~,