Factors Governing the Benefits of Honey

Factors Governing the Benefits of Honey


There are numerous health benefits of honey; it can be used as an antioxidant, has antimicrobial, antibacterial and antifungal properties, boosts athletic performance, and is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Milk and honey are used by many due to its skin care benefits. However, the benefits of honey that we get greatly depend on its quality. Honey available in different honey jars are not of same quality and hence do not provide same benefits.

The high dependence of the health benefits of honey and its price on its quality have made it important for both honey manufacturers and consumers understand the various factors that affect the quality of honey. Some of these factors include the type of fowers used, the blending process, storage conditions, temperature of heatng, etc. These factors have been explained in detail below:

• Type of flowers: According to the Honey Research Center at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, there is not enough evidence to draw conclusion on the properties of honey especially the antimicrobial properties based on the type of flowers used for honey production. However, extensive research has been carried out on honeydew honey obtained from the conifer forests in central European mountains and manuka honey obtained from New Zealand. The above mentioned honeydew honey has been found to have high microbial activity while manika honey has been found to have high non-peroxide activity.
• Blending: It is also believed that polyfloral honey (honey obtained from more than one flower) provides more benefits than monofloral honey. Hence many companies sell blended honey. Blended honey offers benefits of variety of honeys and hence is considered to be healthier than non-blended honey.
• Storage: Honey when stored for a long duration becomes dark in color. It loses some of its properties and may also ferment if the water content is high. Hence prolonged storage of honey should be avoided and newly harvested honey should be preferred.
• Heating: Heating honey leads to drastic changes in its chemical composition. As a result, heating to high temperatures reduces the benefits of honey. No wonder many people prefer raw honey or organic honey or raw organic honey. While raw honey by definition signifies less process (and no heating), organic honey is prepared using stringent organic honey production and processing standards, in which heating to high temperatures is not allowed.
• Water content: Honey can also udergo fermentation occasionally. If the water content of honey is high (above 19%), the chances of it getting fermented are high. You can find the water content of honey using a refractometer. Further, freely flowing honey either contains higher water content or has been heated to disturb the natural crystallization process.
• Color of honey: Color of honey is a very useful tool to judge its quality. Light colored honey is more valued than dark colored honey as the former has a delicate flavor. Honey becomes dark upon storage and heating.

Benefits of Organic Honey

Benefits of Organic Honey


Some people have the opinion that all honey available in the market is natural honey obtained from the wild. Others feel that honey production carried out on chemically sprayed farms cannnot get contaminated with the pesticides sprayed on the crops and weeds.

However, the truth is that honey bees may also get affected by the extensive pesticide usage which goes on the chemically treated farms. Moreover, non-organic honey production involves extensive usage of antibiotics for disease control. It should be noted that so far, there is no proof that organic honey is healthier than non-organic honey.

Then why should one eat organic honey? People prefer to be cautious. Most of our decisions are based on our beliefs and conscience. Since organic honey production involves following stringent guidelines, people feel secure when they eat organic honey as compared to when they eat non-organic honey.

Given below are some of the ways in which pesticide and antibiotic contamination of honey can take place:

Contamination of Pesticides in Honey
Honey can be contaminated with the pesticides sprayed on crops through one or more of the following ways:

• In some cases, when the plants and weeds containing flowers have been sprayed with pesticides, the honey bees are poisoned with pesticides.
• At times, the pesticide gets sprayed on the honey bees directly.
• In many occasions, honey bees collect nectar and pollen that is contaminated with pesticides.
• When pesticides are sprayed, part of it gets accumulated in water on or near the plants. When honey bees drink this water, they are also contaminated.
• In few occasions, the pesticide gets sprayed on the honey bee hives or gets transported to it from the sprayed plants.

Residues of Antibiotics in Honey
Conventional honey bees are given large doses of antibiotics to help them protect from diseases. Unfortunately, the honey also gets contaminated with these antibiotics. In 2002, samples of Chinese honey were tested for the presence of antibiotics in Europe. Several samples were found to contain traces of antibiotics, which led to a ban on the imports of Chinese honey in Europe. (The ban was later removed in 2004 due to improvements in Chinese veterinary standards and imports of honey from China were resumed.)

What leads to this antibiotics contamination? Unlike organic honey production, conventional honey production does not involve stringent guidelines for the quantity and mode of transmission of antibiotics to the honey bees. As a result, apiculturists have a free hand in using these antibiotics. When farmers use excessive quantities of antibiotics the chance of contamination increases.

What is the problem with residues of antibiotics being found in honey? The antibiotics given to the honey bees are veterinary antibiotics such as chloramphenicol, streptomycin and sulfonamides. Large doses of chloramphenicol administered into the human beings may cause cancer and aplastic anaemia. Similarly, high doses of streptomycin and sulfonamides are harmful to the human body.

Many countries have not banned the usage of these harmful drugs in apiculture. The EU has banned all three while the US has banned chloramphenicol.

Benefits of Honey in Weight Loss

Benefits of Honey in Weight Loss


The benefits of honey can be seen in your weight loss program as well. If you are trying to lose weight, honey can be of great help to you. But before we move on to the benefits of honey in weight loss we should address the concerns people have regarding honey.

Many people ask: Isn't honey a type of sugar? Does it not add any weight? Won't the calories in honey negate your weight loss efforts?

You are right - honey contains sugar. But unlike refined sugar, honey contains vitamins and minerals too. Normally, to digest sugar, the vitamins and minerals stored in body are utilized, rendering the body devoid of these nutrients. These nutrients are essential to dissolve fats and cholesterol. Thus when you eat too much sugar, you tend to increase weight not just because of the calories, but due to lack of vitamins and minerals. On the contrary, honey being a good source of nutrients, helps you in reducing weight.

Honey and warm water: Normally fat remains as an un-used resource in your body adding bulk and weight. It is believed that honey mobilizes this stored fat. When this fat is burnt to provide energy for your daily activities, you see a gradual decrease in your weight and obesity levels. It is suggested that you drink this honey (about one tablespoon daily), with equal amount of warm water.

Honey and lemon juice: Honey can also help in weight loss, when consumed with warm water and lemon juice. Many people drink this formula, first thing in the morning to reduce their weight.

Honey and cinnamon: Another useful recipe is cinnamon powder with honey and warm water. Take one tablespoon of cinnamon power, one tablespoon of honey and one cup of warm water, mix the ingredients properly and drink this mixture empty stomach. It is not clear how this mixture helps in weight loss; however, many people claim to have derived benefits from its regular consumption.

Honey also improves your digestion and helps in weight loss. Hence honey is also consumed after dinner after overeating.

Finally, many people stop eating food to reduce their weight. Beware of such practices. If you don't eat sufficient food (which involves calories, vitamin, minerals, fibers) your immune system will become weak. Your weight loss program should focus on reducing the intake of calories and not stopping the intake of calories. Further, you should also increase the daily expense of calories by regular exercise.

Health Benefits of Honey and Ginger

Health Benefits of Honey and Ginger


The health benefits of honey and ginger in treating respiratory problems are unmatched by any other concoction. Further, honey is an excellent medium for transmitting the benefits of herbs such as ginger to the body.

Both honey and ginger have their individual health benefits and the combination provides additional uses. (Click here for health benefits of honey, factors governing the benefits of honey and health benefits of ginger root.)

The health benefits of honey and ginger spice include the following:

• Respiratory problems: The mixture of honey and ginger is an excellent expectorant and therefore provides instant relief to a person suffering from cough, cold, sore throat, and runny nose.
• Asthma: It is also believed that a mixture of honey and ginger along with black pepper is capable of treating or reducing the effect of asthma.
• Indigestion: Ginger and honey are also available in the form of ginger honey tonic. It is believed that this tonic or syrup is a good digestive aid due to the inherent digestive properties of ginger. Further both ginger and honey have antioxidant properties thereby increasing the immunity of the body. Therefore, consumption of one tea spoonful of ginger and honey tonic is very useful for people who have a weak digestive system.

Therefore, many people, especially in India, always keep both ginger and honey in their house and prepare mixture whenever someone falls ill due to cold or cough.

The best way to consume ginger and honey is to mix one tea spoonful of ginger root juice with one tea spoonful of honey. Ginger honey crystals are also available in the market. The crystallized ginger and honey retain most of the health benefits present in a fresh preparation and are meant for instant preparation of a drink of ginger and honey.

Ginger honey candies are also very popular. If your throat is congested and you are not able to speak properly, you should eat candied ginger and honey as it clears the throat immediately. Ginger honey candies are also useful during traveling. They help in dealing with motion sickness.

Honey can also be added to ginger for improving its taste. Honey acts as sweetener, thereby making ginger more palatable. Further, honey can be added to ginger bread, ginger cookies, ginger ale, ginger beer, carrot ginger soup, ginger punch, ginger biscuits, ginger snap, ginger cake, and various other ginger recipes to enhance the taste of these recipes.

Honey is also often added to ginger root tea or ginger and cinnamon tea. You can replace sugar (if you add any) with honey while preparing the ginger tea and thus make your ginger tea healthier.

Health Benefits of Honey and Milk

Health Benefits of Honey and Milk


The health benefits of honey and milk include skin care and stamina development. This article elaborates the health benefits of milk and honey taken together. For health benefits of honey click here. For health benefits of organic milk click here.

Skin Care: Both honey and milk posses antimicrobial and cleansing properties. These properties are enhanced when the two are taken together. Numerous cleansers are prepared using milk and honey as the mixture gives a glowing skin. One can also enjoy a milk and honey bath, by mixing them in equal quantities. The combination is used in various spas throughout the world.

Stamina: A glass of milk and honey daily in the morning is known to improve the stamina of people. While milk contains proteins, honey contains the necessary carbohydrates required for effective metabolism. Milk and honey provides strength to all including children and old men and women.

Anti Aging: Milk and honey combination acts not only on the skin but also on the entire body by making it agile and youthful. People in many ancient civilizations including Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Indians drank milk and honey to preserve their youth. Since milk and honey ensure long life, the combination was known as the elixir of life.

MilkAnti Bacterial: Research has shown than milk and honey have higher activity on staphylococcus bacteria than milk or honey taken alone. It is also believed that honey added to warm milk cures constipation, flatulence and intestine disorders. It is also good for treating respiratory disorders such as cold and cough.

The benefits of honey and milk to the human body are so enormous that the phrase “land of milk and honey” meaning “a place which has plenty” is commonly used. Jerusalem is referred to as the land of milk and honey in the Old Testament.

Benefits of Organic Honey Certification

Benefits of Organic Honey Certification


Increasing number of farmers, all over the world, are shifting to organic farming as it provides numerous benefits over conventional farming. Honey bee keepers are also favoring organic honey production as it is considered to have numerous benefits over conventional honey.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries, Australia provides the pros and cons of becoming a certified organic honey bee keeper in the document 'Organic Certified Production with Bees'.

Pros of organic honey production
Some of the advantages of organic honey production to the manufacturer are given below:

• Increased price of honey: Organic honey and organic raw honey both fetch a higher price in the market as compared to conventional honey.
• Increased marketability: It is easier to sell organic honey and raw organic honey as they are considered to have greater health benefits over non-organic honey. Reports of increased usage of antibiotics in Chinese honey have increased awareness about potential ill-effects of non-organic honey among health conscious consumers.
• Qualtiy honey assurance for buyers: Customers are assured of a quality product as the production and handling standards for organic honey are clearly defined by the certifying body. If the honey is not manufactured according to the set guidelines, the organic label is not granted.
• Satisfaction of producing a clean product: Many farmers shift to organic farming due to its benefits to the environment. Same is the case with organic apiculture. Organic honey bee keepers feel content at the end of the day when they do not use chemical pesticides and antibiotics.
• Every organic honey jar can be traced: Certified organic honey involves proper labeling of the product. Every organic honey jar can be traced to the honey bee hive from which the honey in it is obtained.
• Increased management awareness of the enterprise: Many conventional honey bee keepers are not aware of effective techniques to manage their apiaries. Since certified organic honey production involves following stringent guidelines, manufacturers are also educated about efficient management of their enterprise.

Cons of organic honey production
There are some disadvantages of organic honey production. Some of these disadvantages include the following:

• Availability of suitable apiary sites: It is difficult to get suitable apiary sites that favor the organic honey standards in all seasons.
• Limitation on disease management practices: Organic honey does not involve wide usage of antibiotics. Hence disease management is restricted.
• Limitation on feeding management practices: An organic honey bee keeper has to ensure that there is no non-organic farm in the vicinity of his honey bee hives. Further, there are other restrictions on the feeding practices.
• Transition cost and time: A conventional honey bee keeper cannot shift to organic honey production all of a sudden. As in case of organic milk production, there is transition time and cost involved in shifting to organic honey production as well. There is also one year probation period in some countries such as Australia before becoming a certified organic honey manufacturer.
• Other costs: Organic honey production also involves other costs such as cost of joining the certifying body, cost of certification, auditing cost, sampling cost, etc.
• Increased record keeping: Organic honey involves keeping detailed records throughout the manufacturing, processing and retailing processes.

Honey as Antibiotics

Honey as Antibiotics


Honey as the traditional medicine on preventing of a growing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Staphylococcus bacteria that resistant to methicillin and other drug-resistant infections kill or hasten the death of 8,000 British patients per year, while MRSA now kills more people in US than annually AIDS. At the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England, many wounds are now being disinfected with Manuka honey rather than pharmaceutical antibiotics.

Honey has been used in healing for long ago, but now have been develop of new product that associated with honey and bring it into a modern healthcare setting. Honey is known as one of the oldest forms of medicine, and was employed both as food and antibiotic by the ancient Egyptians and more recently, by German doctors during World War I. High of sugar content in honey make this substance almost chemically inert, it make unavailable for bacteria growth, fungi and viruses growth. A naturally occurring enzyme known as glucose oxidase also make honey acidic enough to create a hostile environment for most bacteria.

Honey for antibiotic that is used in Royal United Hospital is not the same as honey that is usually sell in supermarket or minimarket. Honey that is usually use for antibiotic called as Manuka honey, which is produced from manuka plant, a natural honey from certain plant in New Zealand. This honey is then irradiated to kill any trace bacterial spores.

According to the manuka honey product criteria, this honey has proven effective at killing MRSA in scientific trial. Honey already contains a variety of chemicals that can be beneficial to the body, such as antioxidant pinocembrin, which only occur in honey.

Organic Honey Standards

Organic Honey Standards


The standards for organic honey production are much different than those for producing other organic livestock products. Managing honey bees is very difficult and hence the general rules applicable for other livestock cannot be implemented in case of organic honey production.

The National Standard of Canada, Government of Canada has provided standards for organic honey production in their document Organic Production Systems General Principles and Management Standards. The North London Beekeeping Association has also summarized the organic honey standards widely used in the UK in one of its information sheets. The commonly used organic honey production guidelines have been given below (please note that the guidelines and the numbers given below are indicative):

• Location of Organic Apiary: An organic apiary should be placed on a piece of land that is maintained organically. The nectar, honeydew or pollen used by the honey bees should come from organic sources. Normally a honey bee can travel upto 3 km for gathering honey. Hence the chemical farms in the vicinity should be located outside a distance of about 3 km.
• Organic Bee Hives: The bee hives used for organic apiculture should be made of natural timber or metal. Treated timber cannot be used for making the hives. Further non-lead based paints should be used, and if plastics are used they should be covered with bee wax.
• Transition Period: Like organic milk production, there is a transition period involved when a farmer shifts from conventional honey production to organic honey production. This transition period is about 12 months. Non organic wax should be replaced with organic wax during the transition period.
• Origin of Honey Bees: The replaced or introduced honey bees can come from organic as well as non organic apiaries. The apiary where new honey bees have been introduced can be included in organic honey production only after a period of about 60 days, after ensuring that the replacement of bees and management of the apiary has been carried out using organic means.
• Feed for Organic Honey Bees: In organic apiculture, the honey bee hives should not be placed in or near farms where chemical farming is practiced. Also artificial feeding can be carried out; however, only when it is difficult to provide access to organic foraging to the bees. When non organic feed is used, the apiary should be removed from organic honey production, depending on the duration of artificial feeding.
• Queen Honey Bees: The queen honey bees can be replaced whenever required. A healthy queen should be selected for replacement to ensure preventive disease management. Sometimes artificial insemination is permitted. Cutting of wings of the queen honey bee is not permitted.
• Organic Honey Disease Control: Stress should be laid on using preventive methods of disease control such as selecting healthy queen honey bees and replacement bees. Further, antibiotics cannot be used for treating diseases. Whenever antibiotics are used, the apiary should be isolated and kept out of organic honey production for at least a year.
• Organic Honey Extraction: A live brood cannot be used for extracting honey from a brood comb. The surfaces that come in contact with the honey should be made of food-grade material or should be coated with beewax.
• Organic Honey Processing: Organic honey should not be heated above 35 degree Celsius. Gravitational settling and filtration should be used for removing extraneous solids.
• Organic Honey Labeling: Every apiary should be properly managed and records of the apiary should be maintained. One should be able to trace the honey stored in an organic honey jar to the apiary it has been obtained from.

Health Benefits of Honey

Health Benefits of Honey


Natural honey has been used by mankind since the past 2,500 years, all over the world. While the numerous health benefits of honey have made it an important aspect of traditional medicines such as Ayurveda, scientists are also researching the benefits of honey in modern medicine, especially in healing wounds.

Known as Honig in German, Miele in Italian, Shahad in Hindi, Miel in French, Miel in Spanish, Mel in Portuguese, in Russian, Honing in Dutch, and in Greek, there is hardly any region in the world where honey is not cherished.

What makes honey so popular? It is the ease with which it can be consumed. One can eat honey directly, put it on bread like a jam, mix it with juice or any drink instead of sugar, or mix it with warm water, lime juice, cinnamon and other herbs to make a medicine. It is savored by all due to its taste as well as health benefits.

The health benefits of honey include the following:

Sweetener:
Sugar can be substituted with honey in many food and drinks. Honey contains about 69% glucose and fructose enabling it to be used as a sweetener.

Energy Source:
Honey is also used by many as a source of energy as it provides about 64 calories per tablespoon. One tablespoon of sugar will give you about 50 calories. Further the sugars in honey can be easily converted into glucose by even the most sensitive stomachs. Hence it is very easy to digest honey.

Weight Loss:
Though honey has more calories than sugar, honey when consumed with warm water helps in digesting the fat stored in your body. Similarly honey and lemon juice and honey and cinnamon help in reducing weight.

Improving Athletic Performance:
Recent research has shown that honey is an excellent ergogenic aid and helps in boosting the performance of athletes. Honey facilitates in maintaining blood sugar levels, muscle recuperation and glycogen restoration after a workout.

Source of Vitamins and Minerals:
Honey contains a variety of vitamins and minerals. The vitamin and mineral content of honey depends on the type of flowers used for apiculture.

Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties:
Honey has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and hence it can be used as a natural antiseptic.

Antioxidants:
Honey contains nutraceuticals, which are effective in removing free radicals from our body. As a result, our body immunity is improved.

Skin Care with Milk and Honey:
Milk and honey are often served together as both these ingredients help in getting a smooth soothing skin. Hence consuming milk and honey daily in the morning is a common practice in many countries.

Honey in Wound Management
Significant research is being carried out to study the benefits of honey in treating wounds. Nursing Standard provides some of these benefits in the document - The benefits of honey in wound management. These have been given below:

• Honey possesses antimicrobial properties.
• It helps in promoting autolytic debridement.
• It deodorizes malodorous wounds.
• It speeds up the healing process by stimulating wound tissues.
• It helps in initiating the healing process in dormant wounds.
• Honey also helps in promoting moist wound healing.

The healing powers of honey are not hyped. The Waikato Honey Research Unit provides details about the world-wide research that is being carried out on the benefits of honey in medicine. Further, BBC reported in July, 2006 that doctors at the Christie Hospital in Didsbury, Manchester are planning to use honey for faster recovery of cancer patients after surgery. Such research will provide scientific evidence to the so-called beliefs held by honey lovers all over the world and help in propagating benefits of honey to more people.

Now that you know the benefits of honey, how do you eat it? You can eat it raw, add it it in water and different beverages and you can add it in several recipes also.

Bee Killing Honeybees

Bee Killing Honeybees


Beekeepers use herbicides, fungicides and insecticides in around beehives. Because of their live threat that often faces to the bees they have no choice to use this two kind of chemicals from attacking of other insects. Honeybees increasingly suffer from bee diseases and parasites, forcing their keepers to fight using their powerful chemicals, but in modern beekeeping practices put severe stress on honeybees, possibly this cause the bee have weakened resistance to diseases and parasites. The treatment on modern beekeeping such as unnatural feed, migratory beekeeping, artificial insemination, and chemical treatments.

Naturally honeybees just eat of nectars and pollens, these food collect from certain kind of Bloom for certain bees. This natural food will give vital nutrients that optimize the health of these tiny insects. But currently beekeeper commonly feed their honeybees by artificial syrups and patties that form a high fructose corn syrup (HFC). The quality of these artificial syrup will very different with natural food from nectar and pollen and worse again about 85% of all corn grown in U.S. is genetically modified, so what its mean?

The crops product that modify genetically will produce food that resist to insect, but bees are insect too. There are no investigation yet how honeybees will react to this genetically feed. In addition bees also forage for pollen and nectar on GM crops, adding to their exposure. So current honey product will have bad honey quality compare with natural honey that resulted from forest.

Honey In Food and Medicine

Honey In Food and Medicine


There are many benefit of honey, some are for food ingredient like adding on cream ice or on beverage, the others are for medicine purposes. The benefit for honey are vary and have proven by many scientist, honey also belief can add some power to out body, building immune system to prevent from many diseases and can use as medicine.

Honey has power when added to drink such as tea or milk, make fresh of your body while nourishing at the same time. Honey will sweetened drink while helping your body feel completely fulfilled at the same time. Just a teaspoon or two, depending on your sweet needs is what should be added.

Honey has function for children as source of vitamin and mineral beside as a good sweetener for children drink like tea and milk. Honey will balance your body and help you retain more calcium, if you are a mother need regularly drink honey especially when pregnant because your body will need more calcium. Adding honey to a warm liquid is going to cleanse your body if you are constipated, acting as a very mild laxative as your body absorbs what it requires from the honey to be more balanced.

Honey can use to reduce coughs, cure bladder infections and more other function. Some claim that honey can reduce of arthritis pain with frequent honey intake. Honey contains an antibacterial agent that makes it a nice addition to remedies targeted at infections. A glass of warm water featuring honey and some cinnamon can be used to fight bladder infection.

Honey has been linked to reduce cholesterol levels, which can decrease the risk of heart attack and strokes. Honey is a source of antioxidants that strengthen the immunes system and fend off the dangerous free radicals. Honey also can use a topical treatment for sunburn, burns and minor abrasions, It seals off the area from foreign substances, fights infection and many others.

The Uses of Honey

The Uses of Honey


Honey is a natural product that has many advantage for our body. People use honey for many purposes, honey can use as medicine, honey also can use as multivitamin and calorie doping to keep our stamina. Honey is heavy syrup with 12 to 20 percent moisture and 80 to 85 percent sugar. It is a good source of quick energy for the human body. Genuine honey is expensive, because of this many people then make an artificial honey to cheat others.

Because of many benefit of honey, people than use for many purposes, beside for diet, honey also use for skin treatment. Honey bath use by Cleopatra queen, to keep their beauty to attract others. So now many industry produce a soap that contain of honey like on transparent soap or UV whitening soap.

There are many flavors of wild flower honey. The flavors vary from year to year. Not only are the flavors varied but honey also comes in many different forms. Comb, chunk, fine textured, liquid, and even solid honey that is sometimes called granulated are all forms of honey. In the United States, we are most familiar with liquid and fine textured forms. Liquid and fine textured honeys are recommended for baking.

Honey boasts many medical benefits. Honey has aided in bad coughing spells for years. An effective mix for coughing is to peel and finely chop one pound of onions. Add two ounces of honey and ¾ of a pound of brown sugar in two pints of water. Simmer gently over low heat for three hours. When cool, put in an airtight container and take four to six tablespoons a day. As in any illness, it is best to consult a doctor. It is also a mild laxative. People have also boasted that chewing the thin wax capping sliced from the comb of honey once a day for one month before the start of the hay fever season greatly reduces hay fever symptoms. Chewing these capping has also helped sinus sufferers.

Honey and beeswax are used in the beauty industry to soften and heal the skin tissue and help attract moisture to the skin. Most lipsticks are made with a beeswax base. Honey can be used in making effective facials. Mix one or two tablespoons of honey with one-third cup finely ground oatmeal. Oatmeal can be ground in a blender. The amount of honey used depends on your thickness preference. Blend in a teaspoonful of rose water or tap water. Clean face thoroughly. Spread facial mixture evenly over face. Relax for ten minutes to one half hour. Remove with a soft washcloth and warm water. Rinse with cold water or use an astringent. Use this facial once a week for improved softness in the skin. This treatment also works well for oily complexions.

Many Kinds of Honey and Benefit

Many Kinds of Honey and Benefit


Honey savor has been known since ancient Egyptian Era. Even Cleopatra Queen was using to treat the health and beauty. In addition, honey is also used for embalming herb (embalming) to preserve Kings Ancient Egypt Mummy. Japanese tradition is the honey in order to wake up every night to sleep in a fresh and healthy.

One of the honeys unique because honey is containing a antibiotics substance. This is the research results of Peter C Molan (1992), researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Waikoto, New Zealand. According to Honey has proven contain active antibiotic substances against various attacks pathogenic bacteria cause disease.

In addition, researchers from the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya in Malaysia, Kamaruddin (1997) also mentioned the fact that in the honey can function as anti microbial substances, which can prevent the disease.

Some diseases causes by various pathogenic infections can be prevented and cured with honey drink regularly are: respiratory tract infection on (ISPA), cough, fever, stomach disease injury, alimentary tract infections, skin disease.

Along with the increasing of Science and Technology development, and sometimes often used for crime. Such as forgery honey, by mix a little honey with the original cane sugar or brown sugar and citric acid added to get a sense and enzyme to cause an impression.

In addition there is a false or mistaken opinion about the quality of honey. Some assume that a good honey is cause explosion when the cup open or not surround by ant. Exactly honey has been damaged due to fermented by enzyme and leads occurrence of gas and alcohol that is why ant does not want to close to.

At this time more people known of Arabic honey, or Kalimantan honey and Sumbawa honey of Indonesia. While the quality of honey depends on the original nectar that is sucked by bees. So naming a common known at this time is not only more of the manufactured home, as mentioned above, but from home as Honey of Randu Flower nectar (Ceiba petandra), Flower Honey Coffee (Arabica Coffee), Honey of Klengkeng Flower (Euphoria longana sp), Honey Rambutan Flower (Nephelium lappaceum), Honey of many types of flowers (Flower Mix), Honey of Durian Flower (Durio sp), Honey Flower Coconut (Cocos nucifera), etc.. Each type of honey from various plants features have a unique and different aroma and savor.

Honey Definition

Honey Definition


Honey is the sweet liquid produced by bees from the nectar of flowers. The honey source of the nectar the honey is made from determines its color and flavor. Most of the honey produced in the United States is from clover or alfalfa, which produces light colored and delicately flavored honeys. Other common honey include buck-wheat, which is darker and more sharply flavored, and the pale orange blossom and sage honeys. Much of the commercial product is a blend of several honeys.

All honeys are complex mixtures of the sugars fructose and glucose with water, organic acid and mineral and vitamin traces, as well as some plant pigments. Honey is harvested in in the form of comb honey, which may be cut in squares and sold. More often, the honey is strained out of the comb and bottled as a clear liquid. The cream-colored opaque, creamed honey that has been crystallized.

Because honey has the ability to absorb and retain moisture, it is commonly used in the baking industry to keep baked goods moist and fresh. Its high sugar content and its acidity make it an excellent food preservative, and it has long been used for this purpose, as well as for sweetening and as the basis for Mead, a weak alcoholic drink.

Artificial Honey

Artificial Honey

Although we know that the vendors of fake honey is loose in urban and rural, but it is not unethical if we rebuke them directly to the merchants that sell honey that is not genuine.

Besides, we cannot directly prove that the goods were counterfeit goods, also possible that traders only sell this tour but did not make their own honey.

The trader with no doubt explain that the original honey, and when opened out of gas that characterized the original honey, even though we know that honey with gas out when open means honey is damaged, honey already fermented, and actually indicate of not good quality honey. They also tried to make potential victims be sure to bring a hive of doused with artificial honey was still there a few bees hanging on the hive.

In addition to regular honey they bring, they also bring the royal jelly honey which he says white is much more expensive price because have better benefit, well this is more dangerous, because the white color is more easily made and they possible use of hazardous materials to make the color white.

So, still better to buy honey made of clear factory that the honey packaging explains about the honey composition that is a mixed of original honey with some additional material needed such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K and so on, because despite how honey still contains the original levels.

Honey The Honey

Honey The Honey


What is a good quality honey? As generally many customer in this world don’t understand what like of good quality honey. Like me also don’t really what like of good quality honey, just believe to honey producer that they will give us a pure honey. Myself often buy a honey directly to honey farmer, because so many producer have mix this honey with many kind of additive.

Pure natural honey are only small quantity can get from the bee nest so many farmer also feel make a financial loss if just sell just a small quantity, so then they mix with some other additive substance, like water, sugar and many others.

Basically good honey quality have an essentially low water content, and will fermented is keep on the container for long time. But by mixing with original honey this mixture really difficult to differ because they are very similar with the original one, may be just chemicals laboratory people can differ that by some of chemical analyzes.

Row honey moisture contain no more than 14 % of water, and usually deemed as more valuable and hence is relatively more costly. Honey containing of up to 20% of water is not recommended for mead making. The honey mixing will no longer have a benefit for our health, we just like drink of sugar concentrates on water.

Bee Diseases

Bee Diseases


We all know that our health always need this honey that source from bee, all many kind of bees. Honey have benefit for human health, this not just advise by doctor that to consume honey to add our stamina, but also advise by God that is write on their Book like Al-Qur’an. Unfortunately this creature also died when the season is not suitable for their conditions, and also ded after a certain period, below is the research result of this bee live.

Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent. The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed bee hives. The data is being prepared for submission to a journal.

About 29 percent of the deaths were due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn't.

As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania's Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced that the state would pour an additional $20,400 into research at Pennsylvania State University looking for the causes of CCD. This raises emergency funds dedicated to investigating the disease to $86,000.

The issue also has attracted federal grants and funding from companies that depend on honey bees, including ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs. Because the berries, fruits and nuts that give about 28 of Haagen-Daazs' varieties flavor depend on honey bees for pollination, the company is donating up to $250,000 to CCD and sustainable pollination research at Penn State and the University of California, Davis.

Royal Jellly

Royal Jellly


Honey have two kinds different of bees product, bees produce two kinds of honey, real honey and Royal Jelly. Each of these products is believed have different function to our body. Here will describe a definition of Royal Jelly.

Royal jelly is the food of queens — not human monarchs, but queen bees. It's actually a substance secreted from the glands in the heads of worker bees that's fed to bee larvae. After a few days, the larvae that have potential to develop into queens continue to be fed this nectar. Since queen bees are much bigger, live longer, and are more fertile than all the other bees, this potion is believed by some to impart mystical qualities. In reality, royal jelly is comprised of 60 to 70 percent water, 12 to 15 percent protein, 10 to 16 percent sugars, and 3 to 6 percent fats, with vitamins, salts, and free amino acids making up the rest.

People who are allergic to bees and honey and those who have asthma can face real dangers if they take royal jelly. Reactions ranging from bronchial spasms, skin irritations, and asthma attacks, to more severe anaphylactic shock, and even death, have been reported from its ingestion. As with many supplements, pregnant and breastfeeding women and small children should refrain from using royal jelly. To be on the safe side, anyone with a compromised immune system should also steer clear.

So, what's the entire buzz about royal jelly? This supplement has been taken for a host of ailments. In addition to its use as a general health tonic, people take royal jelly to:

• enhance immunity
• prevent arthritis and multiple sclerosis
• slow the signs of aging
• stimulate hair growth
• improve sexual performance
• reduce symptoms of menopause
• heal bone fractures
• lower cholesterol
• alleviate cardiovascular ailments
• remedy liver disease, pancreatitis, insomnia, fatigue, ulcers, and digestive and skin disorders

Royal Jelly Quality Check

Royal Jelly Quality Check


Royal jell is a white part of the bee nest, this substance also have benefit to human health, many method to analyze the quality of this product, one of the quality check method use analytical methods. Analytical methods for residues of tetracyclines and acaricides in royal jelly.

After the ban on importations of royal jelly (RJ) from China and the recent increase in the production of European countries, this bee product has gained increasing interest. One of the main concerns for the quality of RJ is the presence of residues of chemicals used in beekeeping, but very few studies are found in literature on the analysis of this particular matrix.

Two analytical methods are proposed for the determination of acaricide and tetracycline residues in RJ. For the determination of acaricides, two sample preparation methods were established: the first one requires an alkaline dissolution of the sample, an extraction on a copolymeric sorbent and the subsequent elution with organic solvents; the other one requires mixing the sample with diatomaceous earth, a solid-liquid extraction with acetone:hexane and a florisil SPE purification. The second method is somewhat slower but preserves the analytes from alkaline breakdown. Both the sample preparation methods employ a GC/ECD determination. The method was tested for Brompropylate, Coumaphos, Fluvalinate and Flumethrine.

The method for tetracyclines requires an alkaline dissolution of the RJ sample and the solid phase extraction of the analytes on a hydrophilic-lipophilic copolymer, followed by an elution in acid solution. The eluate is then injected in an HPLC-DAD system with detection at 353 nm. The method was tested for Oxytetracycline, Tetracycline and Chlortetracycline. Demeclocycline can be used as internal standard.

Temperature Effect to Honey Quality

Temperature Effect to Honey Quality


Honey quality can change of temperature effect, this is because of honey contains itself can broken to high temperature, also vitamin contain can damage by high temperature effect. This is why; honey should be placed in certain condition, safe, cold environment and using glass bottle. The description of honey contain as follows.

Honey is a mixture of many substances. Apart from the carbohydrates which make up the basic components, numerous other substances are included. Among the volatile compounds which are related to honey’s flavor, most are compounds deriving from the original honey source (nectar, honeydew) and some of them arise during processing or storage.

In this work, the effect of heat on the profile of volatiles of pine honey was studied. Pine honey samples were heated to 45 °C, 55 °C, 65 °C, and 75 °C and for 1, 6, 24 and 48 hours. All samples were analyzed using a Purge & Trap - GC – MS system.

The results indicated that nine volatile compounds changed. All these substances were furan derivatives. It was found that the above changes were significant for temperatures higher than 45 °C. Also, the changes were depended on duration of heating. Furfural was the compound that had increased more than other substances. Moreover, the increasing rates of HMF and furfural concentrations were studied. It was concluded that furfural was more sensitive to heating than HMF. So as totally the honey quality will change or degrade and will lessen the function of honey to human body.

Greek Honey

Greek Honey


Honey is generally considered as a high-quality natural product. All sorts of factors in the environment of the bees, however, affect honey quality. This means that honey may contain residues of pesticides as well as toxic plant-produced substances. Bees accumulate honey source from pollen, this pollen affected to honey quality.

As a natural, pollen can make human asthma or allergy, but through a bee organ this pollen can change become a quality goods that is need by human as supplement or even for medicine. Pollen analysis of honey can be used to determine the botanical origin of the honey. Bees have the expertise for conducting such studies.

Compared to honey produced in other countries like from Australian or China, Greek honey is internationally known to be a special honey, with distinct biological and organoleptic characteristics.

Its supreme quality reflects the country's long sunshine periods and the abrupt changes in the landscape. This special landscape makes Greek flora so rich, that from the 7500 different species of plants growing in Greece, 850 of them are found exclusively here.

That is the reason why certain varieties of honey do not exist anywhere else in the world. There are varieties that come from coniferous trees and others that come from flowers and aromatic plants.

The best honey in Greece comes from thyme, by far the best honey in the world. Of exceptional quality is the honey coming from flowers, thyme and herbs, flowers and forest originated honey such as sylvan honey, pine tree honey and conifer trees honey. The country's honey is known since ancient times and it is part of Greek nutrition used to maintain a healthy human organism. Today Greek producers have managed to lower production costs and offer best quality honey in smart packaging and at competitive prices. After they can modification about the technology and systems.

Good Quality Honey

Good Quality Honey


For general people usually very difficult for choosing a good quality honey, even have compared with the genuine honey. Many disingenuous merchant sell mixed honey, but they said that their honey is pure. Good quality honey can function as medicine, but this is depend on the honey source.

When you navigating through the maze of all the different honey in the shops, you look out for certain specific information to ensure that the honey I buy is value for money. Good quality honey, that is, honey of value can be judged by five key factors, namely:

1. Water content
2. HMF(Hydroxymethylfurfural)
3. Inverted sugars
4. Impurities
5. Colour

Good quality honey essentially has low water content. Honey is likely to ferment if the water content of honey is greater than 19%. The reason is that all unpasteurized honey contains wild yeasts. Due to the high sugar concentration, these yeasts will pose little risk in low moisture honey because osmosis will draw sufficient water from the yeast to force them into dormancy. In honey that has a higher proportion of water, the yeast may survive and cause fermentation to begin in storage.

HMF is a break-down product of fructose (one of the main sugars in honey) formed slowly during storage and very quickly when honey is heated. The amount of HMF present in honey is therefore used as a guide to storage guide to storage length and the amount of heating which has taken place.

High levels of HMF (greater than 100 mg/kg) can also be an indicator of adulteration with inverted sugars. Cane sugar (sucrose) is "inverted" by heating with a food acid, and this process creates HMF. Many food items sweetened with high fructose corn syrups, e.g. carbonated soft drinks, can have levels of HMF up to 1,000 mg/kg.

For most consumers, good quality honey is expected to be visually free of defect -- clean and clear. Honey which has very high pollen content appears cloudy.

Honey defined by color graded into light, amber, and dark categories which do not really have any bearing on quality. Some of the most distinctively and strongly flavored honey varieties, such as basswood, are very light, while very mild and pleasant honeys such as tulip poplar can be quite dark.

Honey by Definition

Honey by Definition


Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals (Stepaniak).

Any definition of veganism would talk about not exploiting animals, and honeybees (Apis mellifera) are, without a doubt, animals. Honeybees are in the phylum Arthropoda the same as lobsters and crabs. So in addition to crustaceans, if honeybees don't merit respect, that would also leave earthworms vulnerable to dissection in biology classes. Similarly, iscallops, snails, and oysters would be fair game they are not as "high up" on the evolutionary scale as bees.

James and Carol Gould (respectively, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton and a full-time science writer) point out that "Honey bees are at the top of their part of the evolutionary tree, whereas humans are the most highly evolves species on our branch. To look at honeybees, then, is to see one of the two most elegant solutions to the challenges of life on our planet. More interesting, perhaps, than the many differences are the countless eerie parallels—convergent evolutionary answers to similar problems". Of course, all this talk of higher and lower is fiction. Even Darwin reminded himself to "Never use the words higher and lower".

Australian Honey

Australian Honey


Honey is produced from bee and one species that also life in Indonesia is Australian Origin Bees. Indonesia import this kind of bee from Australia as the honey source. This kind of bee also just take honey from certain flowers, not all kind flowers will sucked by this bee. Every kind of bee have a different kind of flowers that they suck. The different from Indonesian genuine bee is the sting, Australian bees is not too pain when the bee sting to our skin.

In the partnership with Steve Irwin’s family, a portion of the purchase price of specially marked Capilano Honey packs will help keep Steve’s legacy alive and assist Australia Zoo in its many wildlife projects. Look for specially marked packs in Woolworths, Coles and selected Independent Supermarkets from October.

Steve’s passion for wildlife and the environment is why we joined forces. Without forests bees can’t make honey and without pollination wildlife will suffer. The Irwin family is committed to carrying on Steve’s important work to ensure that all wildlife has a future on this planet and your contribution through Capilano will help continue his dream.

Honey Source

Honey Source


Honey has two meaning in general, honey sometime used to called for their people they love, but honey on this blog tittle is honey that produce from bee, from plant and may from other source. Honey from bee is produce by bee that accumulate from plant that exert their substance from their plant body usually from their flower.

Honey have many kind, this depend on the kind of bee itself, certain bee is collected honey from certain plant while other bee more prefer to collect honey from other kind of plant, so this why the kind of honey is different of every kind of bee. Basically bee have the same process production for the collected honey from plant, if the source is different so the product result also will differ. The honey produce from certain bee may different with other bee just because of certain bee have a different substance to process honey.

Even though people know the source of honey are from plant but people can not convert directly from sugar from plant into qualified honey. To process sugar from honey need certain substance that available just inside honey body, and people can't produce this substance in laboratory. This substance is God creation that through bee They give to bee a special ability for this purpose. As human we as proper as be grateful can exploit the bee ability.

Honey In Cosmetics

Honey In Cosmetics


The beneficial effect of honey on the skin has an age-old repute. Poppea, the comely wife of Nero, who employed a hundred slaves to attend her beauty, used honey and tepid asses' milk as a face lotion. The patrician women of Rome followed her practice for centuries. The famous beauty, Mme. Du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, used honey extensively in her toilet preparations; so did Mme. du Sevigné, Marguerite of Navarre and Agnes Sorel. The latter called honey "the soul of flowers."

Many face creams and lotions, even today, contain honey. Honey has a nourishing, bleaching, astringent and antiseptic effect on the skin. The noted beautiful hands of the Japanese women, devoid of all wrinkles, is attributable to their daily use of fresh honey as a hand lotion. The Chinese women use a paste made from crushed orange seeds and honey for pimples and also to clear their complexions. Crushed seeds of peaches or apricots with honey they use for softening their hands. Honey, yolks of eggs and sweet almond oil is the best softener of hands. For chapped lips and skin, honey (30 gm.) lemon juice (30 gm.) and Eau de Cologne (15 gm.) is an excellent remedy. Honey, glycerine, alcohol and lemon juice or citric acid are the ingredients of most lotions for sunburn, chafed skin and freckles. Many skin-soaps contain honey. The famous Balm of Gilead was made of mutton tallow, castile soap, honey, beeswax and alum. Honey as a cosmetic remedy has an advantage over cold creams because it does not grow hair. As a cleanser of hands, honey equals even mechanic soaps in efficiency without making the skin rough.

Honey packs, honey masks and honey facials are getting more and more popular. The Creole women of Louisiana rub their entire bodies with a lotion consisting of honey and water, to which all possible assortments of spices are added. They use it not only as a cosmetic but as a cure for all kinds of skin trouble and sore throat. This application is also supposed to have the power to drive away evil spirits and to accord a clear view of the future. The Egyptian women chewed perfumed pills made of honey and spices to sweeten their breath. In ancient Rome a high-priced semisolid paste, called "honey-mint," was used for bad breath.

Needless to say the cosmetic effect of honey is not restricted to its external application because the consumption of honey in itself will greatly improve not only the color but the texture of the skin. The beautiful complexions of Spanish and Italian women are due not solely to olive oil but also to honey. Many a "pimply-face" has blessed the author for suggesting honey as the principal sweet.

Honey In Beverages

Honey In Beverages


Honey added to beverages offers another grateful field for wholesome mixtures. Honey added to a cup of coffee or tea imparts an exquisite aroma, besides sweetening and laxative effects. Soft drinks, for example lemonades, sodas and fruit punches, mixed with well-ripened honey are delicious. Honey milk-shake, egg-nogg, spiced milk must be tried only once. In cases of grippe several tablespoonfuls of honey with lemon juice in a cup of boiling water or red wine, sipped while hot, will keep the doctor away more successfully than a basketful of apples. Honey mixed with carbonated water binds the gases.

Alcoholic drinks, cocktails and whisky mixed with honey are delectable. A quart of old sherry with an equal amount of water and whole cloves, sticks of cinnamon, allspice, a few grains of salt and honey, to suit the taste, boiled slowly for several hours and then allowed to stand a while, will make an unforgettable drink on cold winter evenings. It must be served hot after being strained. The author delights in offering this drink to his guests and it is often commented upon during a cheerful evening. The cup produces warmth, benefits the digestion and stimulates without invading, as do most hard drinks, the head, feet, heart, kidneys, and not infrequently, the liver—as a rule—all at once.

Honey In The Home

Honey In The Home

IN COOKING, BAKING AND CONFECTIONERY
HONEY is far superior for cooking and baking purposes than corn syrup, molasses, maple or refined sugars. Sugar does not possess the fragrance and flavor of honey. Honey is high in calories and in sweetening power.

There are thousands of uses for honey in cooking and baking. The list of recipes issued by the American Honey Institute of Madison, Wisconsin, is almost endless. In practically every copy of apicultural magazines, domestic or foreign, there are new suggestions for the use of honey in preparing cakes, bread, biscuits, muffins, jelly-rolls, waffles, griddle-cakes, puddings, fritters, moussés, and all kinds of confectionery. Preserves, jams, jellies, candies, ice-cream, icings, hard sauce, meringue, salad dressings (plain or French), cinnamon or pecan toast, etc., are more delicious when made with honey. Apples baked with honey are very delectable.

Honey is excellent for baking pastries and bread. They remain sweet, moist and palatable for an indefinite period. When bread and pastries, baked with honey become dry—often only after many years—and are transferred for a few days to a damp place, they will change to their original condition on account of the great hygroscopic property of honey. (Some people say that honey pastries are so tasty that they are consumed long before they have a chance to become stale). Honey jumbles are sometimes as good ten years later as on the day they were baked. Cakes and bread made with honey are easily masticated and digested and have a distinct laxative effect. Martial (XIV. 222) refers to the fact that honey was extensively used in antiquity for baking purposes when he remarks: "Bakers prepare for you sweet cakes in thousands of forms because the bees work for them."

Honey cakes were extremely popular in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Egyptians fed honey cakes to their sacred bull Apis and the sacred crocodiles. On the wall-painting of the tomb of Rekh-Mi-Re the mixing and baking of honey cake is reproduced. In the tomb of the Pa-Ba-Sa a man kneels and prays before honey cakes. They were used in Egypt during all ceremonial oc-casions. Cerberus, the three-headed dog, and the serpents guarding Hades were fed on honey cakes, likewise the sacred serpent guarding the Acropolis.

Cheese-cake baked with honey was a favorite subject and highly praised by all Greek poets. Cheese-cake was glorified by Euripides and Aristophanes and honey cake by Anacreon and Sophocles. Horace praised the "ova mellita", eggs with honey. In Rome, libum was a sacrificial honey cake, the root of German "Leb"-kuchen; placenta was baked for festive occasions; scribitta was decorated with inscriptions and savillum was eulogized by Cato as the most savory of all cakes.

The pain d'epice (gingerbread), made with honey, has always enjoyed great popularity in France. Mention of it is made as early as 1530. The panis mellitus of the Romans, baked with honey and anis, was a similar pastry. The Lebkuchen of Nuremberg (Germany) has a world-wide reputation. The German Lebkuchen is made of flour, honey, spices, alcohol, almonds, citron and orange peel. In its manufacture the main requirement is to allow the dough to rest for a considerable time before baking. This will accomplish the amalgamation of the flavors of its component parts. The dough is often kept for several months before it is placed in the oven. In Hungary and in all Slavic countries honey cakes are made in the shape of hearts, human or animal figures and are in great demand at country fairs.

Wheat, corn, groats, sago, tapioca, barley, beans and lentils are often mixed with honey, vinegar, oil, mustard and spices. In Turkey a great assortment of confectionery is made with honey. They call it chalva. Pastry made with honey and nuts, called baclava, is the favorite dessert of all Orientals. The Arabs make up bars similar to our chocolate-bars, from sesame oil, ground nuts and honey which they call halva. Sesame seed, honey and nuts, called sahm-sahm, is another favorite confiture of the Arabs. Most oriental sweetmeats were prepared with honey. The snow-white Anatolian honey, collected by the bees from the blooms of the cotton plant, was a great favorite of the seraglios of ancient Constantinople. Recently in California confections have been made with apples, oranges, walnuts, raisins and honey.

Candy made with honey has a more distinguished taste and cannot be compared with candy made with sugar. Honey preserves the aroma and prevents staling. Honey candy seems to satisfy the craving for sweets more quickly and there is no desire to keep on ruminating unremittingly as in the case of sugar candy. Several pieces of honey candy go as far as a whole box of the cane-sugar variety. The ordinary chocolate candy contains as much as 40 to 6o% cane or beet-root sugar. The cheaper the candy the more sugar it contains. Honey possessing much higher sweetening power requires a smaller amount of admixture. The same applies to honey ice cream, which, in addition to being smooth and delicious, is also more satisfying and cloys the appetite against further indulgence. But, of course, sugar is cheaper and freezes at a higher temperature. Adding honey to chocolate candies would also require less cocoa, which in itself is a harmful substance. The cocoa plant absorbs a great amount of manganese from the soil. Manganese is a metallic substance which produces symptoms similar to those caused by lead or mercury. It is supposed to impair the intellect and affect the stomach and gall bladder. Cocoa, be-sides, contains oxalic acid.

Honey with butter, cream or cottage cheese are very satisfactory and wholesome combinations. Honey preserves butter from becoming rancid if the honey is previously heated and the yeasts and enzymes destroyed. The mixture will keep for two or three weeks under refrigeration. It is an excellent spread for children and grown-ups over bread and pancakes and will also overcome one of the greatest objections to honey, i.e., its extreme fluidity. It is an oversight on the part of the great milk companies not to market a delicious honey cream, which would preclude the use of unsavory cod-liver oil and the purchase of expensive vitamin pearls.

The best Italian Zampaglione, the Dutch Avocat and the Danish Rôdgrid d are prepared with honey: likewise the German red groats, Rote Grütze, Kaiserschmarren, the French Biscuit de Savoie and the Tourte â la Frangipane.

Foreign cookbooks, especially the older ones, contain valuable suggestions and numberless recipes for baking bread, muffins, cakes, cookies, etc., with honey. There are choice combinations to improve the flavor of honey with spices, e.g., anis, coriander, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, nutmeg, etc. The Farmers' Bulletin No. 653 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Honey and its Uses in the Home, is a valuable pamphlet and covers the subject well. In cooking and baking, honey has unlimited possibilities. Let us be guided by the oft-repeated statement of our ancestors, "Honey bread is good to the last crumb".

Wandering Beekeepers

Wandering Beekeepers


THE traditional manner in which the ancient races furnished the bees with new pastures, when their natural surroundings did not afford a sufficient supply of nectar, is highly interesting. The old "tillers" of Egypt placed the hives on boats and drifted along the Nile to provide the bees with fresh flowers which grew on the banks of the receding river, especially on its expansive delta. There was hardly any other pasturage for the bees in Egypt; there were no forests or meadows with wild flowers. Ancient Egypt had, by all means, less vegetation than present-day Egypt, because a considerable number of plants have been imported during the past thousands of years. On the other hand, the lotus, brought in all likelihood from India, and considered sacred, was more extensively cultivated than it is today, when it is nearing extinction. Lotus honey was in great favor in ancient Egypt.

The inhabitants of Lower Egypt well knew that the blooming of fruit-trees and flowers of Upper Egypt preceded theirs by several months. Toward the end of October, the villagers embarked on boats or rafts, packed with pyramided hives, and conveyed them down the Nile into Upper Egypt, just at the time when the inundations had subsided and the flowers had begun to bud. The bees soon exhausted the supply of nectar two or five miles around a new locality; then the floats were moved to another station and remained there as long as it proved desirable. These wanderers returned to their homes about February, the hives well-stocked with honey, gathered from the orange blossoms of Said and Arabian jessamine. The hives were carefully numbered and delivered to their respective owners. Niebuhr reported seeing such a flotilla of four thousand hives on the Nile.

We learn from the Zenon papyri that the Egyptians had wandering beekeepers even on land. These papyri, originating from the third century B.C., were discovered in 1914 by peasants digging for antiquities on the site of ancient Philadelphia on the edge of the Fayoum. Zenon was a high official of Apolloneos who sent him to Philadelphia when Egypt was under Greek influence. In one of the papyri there is an appeal of the beekeepers to Zenon, entreating him to return the donkeys which they had lent him and which they needed at once to bring home their hives from distant fields. Some farmers threatened the beekeepers that they would ruin the hives because it was necessary to burn the brushwood and inundate the fields. "The donkeys were loaned for only ten days" —said the petition—"and now it is eighteen days and the donkeys have not been returned." They begged Zenon to deliver the donkeys with the assurance that after the hives had been brought home they would be immediately returned in case he needed them. "We pay a large tax to the King and if the donkeys are not restored at once the tax will be lost. May you prosper"

The Greeks imitated the custom of the Egyptians. Columella describes how the inhabitants of Achaia took their hives overseas as far as the Attic peninsula to avail themselves of the benefits of its wonderful pastures. Solon mentioned bee-caravans and bee-floats in 600 B.C., and his laws demanded that each group of hives should be kept three hundred feet apart. It would not be surprising if the Egyptians journeyed as far as Greece with their hives. The ancient Greeks called the Egyptian bees "cecropic" bees. Cecrops was an Egyptian, who, about 1500 B.C., wandered to Greece and probably introduced apiculture.

The Romans, in the third century, took their hives with them to old Alemannia, and drifted down the Rhine. Wandering bee-keepers have been known since earliest times. Pliny reported that when the local sources of honey were exhausted, the inhabitants of Hostilia, a village on the Po, placed their hives on boats and sailed during the night five miles upstream, where next day the bees helped themselves in their new location. The temporary stations were changed each night, until the bees had collected so much honey that the boats were heavily laden. Then the villagers drifted downstream, homeward-bound. The French "bee-barges," with a capacity of sixty to a hundred hives, were frequently referred to. The Provence and the forests of Orleans were covered during certain seasons with visiting hives.

The same antiquated custom prevailed in the Mississippi Val-ley, starting from New Orleans. The blossoms of the river-willows yielded excellent virgin honey. Perrine, of Chicago, traveled in a large boat up the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Paul, anticipating that the shores, after the flood had receded, would supply ample pasturage for the bees. The scorching heat, how-ever, ruined his plans; he was even compelled to pour water over the hives, which alone destroyed many colonies.

That this procedure was known also in England is shown by an article published in the London Times, 1830: "As the small sailing vessel was proceeding up the Channel from the coast of Corn-wall and running near land, some of the sailors noticed a swarm of bees on the island; they steered for it, landed, and after they succeeded in hiving the bees they took them on board and proceeded on their voyage. As they sailed along the shore, the bees constantly flew from the vessel to the land to collect honey and returned again to their floating hive; and this was continued all the way up the Channel."

On land, the hives were placed on wagons and when the combs were filled, the traveling beekeepers returned home. In Pales-tine, the orange groves of Jaffa offered a rich pasturage. The hives were carried by night on camels, sixteen hives to a load. Such journeying was called "giving the bees a pasture." In medieval Spain, they had similar customs except that the hives were trans-ported on mules. The Russians and Armenians around the Black Sea traveled like nomads, migrating with thousands of hives, pitching their tents where abundant wild flowers were to be found. Such bee-caravans, ambulatory establishments like gipsy-hordes, are often described in Greece, Italy, Germany, Austria and France. In Scotland, they conveyed the hives on carts to the Highlands, when the supply of nectar in the Lowlands was exhausted.

They closed the entrances of the hives with wire screens which secured ample ventilation. The luxuriant blooms of the mountain-heather, which last over two months, supplied plentiful nectar to the bees in the autumn when no other flowers are available. The shepherds and gamekeepers took the hives under their protection for a modest quittance; as a rule, a shilling a hive. Wandering beekeepers were also known in Switzerland, where the hives were taken to the valleys when the buckwheat, which produces excellent honey, was blooming. In the Lüneburger Heide, nomadic troupes of beekeepers were traditional, especially in the springtime and late summer. The ancient laws well protected them.

This almost archaic practice still seems to prevail in the United States. Many beekeepers make the bees work the year round. Early fall they truck about two hundred hives to a load to the winter pastures of wild flowers and orange groves of Florida. By May, when they return homeward, the colonies have multiplied considerably and produce a double crop of honey.

Hunting For Wild Honey

Hunting For Wild Honey


PAINSTAKING efforts to collect wild honey were just as ancient a sport as hunting and fishing. When the bees were not yet domesticated and nested in hollow trees and rocks, to find the nests and rob them of honey was a profitable and favorite pastime. Special hunters devised all kinds of schemes to ferret out their habitations.

The bees' well-known sense of orientation, as acute as that of homing-pigeons, was an important aid in tracking their lair. Columella (60 A.D.) describes how the hunters followed the bees. Washington Irving (A Tour of the Prairies, 1835) gives an account of his experience with honey-hunters in quest of "bee-trees." They placed a honeycomb, which served as bait, on a low bush. Soon the bees appeared and after they had provided them-selves with enough honey, they flew into the air and in a "bee-line" to their nest. The hunters followed the bees' course and traced them to some hollow tree-trunks where they found their caché sometimes sixty feet above the ground. Then they chopped down the trees and with knives and scoops emptied the cavities, replete with honey. John Burroughs (Idyl of the Honey-Bee) described an identical performance.

Tickner Edwardes (The Bee-Master of Warrilow) also tells how to discover wild bees' nests. It is useless to search the woods for wild honey, for one may travel a whole day and find nothing. The only plan is to follow the laden bees as they return. The bee-master produces a saucer covered with honey which is in no time black with crowding bees. The saucer is then covered with a wire cage. These captured bees are the guides to the hidden treasure-chambers. By opening a small door In the trap, one bee is allowed to escape and she immediately rises into the air, makes a circle and speeds away in a certain direction which one must follow. After a while, another bee is set free, and the same procedure is repeated until the nest is located high in the hollow of a dead tree. The Russian name of a beekeeper is "tree-climber"; in Lithuanian, a "bee-climber". The inseparable adjunct, almost an emblem of the Hungarian shepherd, is a stick with a little hatchet on its end. This, called fokos, was originally a beekeeper's implement for cutting the trunk of the tree to remove the welcome treasure. A similar tool is still used in the District of Hanover, Germany. It is called Beide and is the symbol of bee keeping.

It was a most ancient custom that the finder had the right to mark the trees with a special design or initials, after which he or his tribe had the sole privilege of collecting honey from such trees. The laws were strict and severe punishment was meted out for altering or destroying these markings. In Germany, if one were caught in the act of trespassing, he had to pay a fine and, besides, received twenty lashes. (Plate VII.)

On almost every continent there are birds which are fond of honey. They show the honey-hunters where the bees' nests are located. The birds receive their share for these services. Vasco de Gama related how the "honey-birds" of India guided the natives to the rocks where honey was to be found. The ajaje birds lead the Lango tribes, and the honey-ratels the Hottentots to the wild bees' nests. The honey-guide (Cuculus indicator), a tropical bird, shows the South African natives where the honey is located. She flies before the hunters to show them the way. As a reward, the bird receives part of the spoils. The natives faithfully obey this tradition and give the birds their liberal share; otherwise, they believe, out of revenge the birds will surely lead them the next time to a lion's den or a snake's nest, and then fly away with a merry chirp. According to a Rhodesian folk-tale, these vindictive creatures lead the travelers to the nests to retaliate for an old injury which they suffered from the bees.

Among primitive races honey-hunting was an important event and began with solemn rites. Chastity had to be observed the night before, otherwise the hunters would be badly stung by the bees or some other misfortune would befall them.

In the Middle Ages honey-hunting was a royal sport. The German archives describe the Nuremberg forests as a hunting ground of royalty not only for game but for wild honey. Charlemagne began to domesticate wild bees in the Nuremberg forests out of gratitude because, after he had been stung by bees, he recovered from an obstinate gout. The Nuremberg forests were called the bee-garden of the Holy Roman Empire and under the reign of Charles IV (134.7), the bee garden of Germany. From the honey collected there, the famous Lebkuchen was baked which is still popular the world over after twelve hundred years.

In many countries special permits were issued, and the amount of honey had to be accounted for and taxes paid on it. The Domes-day Book mentions that the Bishop of Worcester, under the reign of Edward the Confessor, was privileged to hunt for honey in the forests of Malvern.

The ancient origin of honey-hunting is demonstrated in mythology. (Plate VIII.) The Satyrs (Fauns), the attendants of Dionysus, were extremely fond of honey. In one of the legends the jolly old, red-nosed, bloated and, as a rule, intoxicated Silenus, the schoolmaster and foster-father of Bacchus and the alleged inventor of the flute, was anxious to find the wild bees' nest and plunder it of honey. As the story goes, Silenus stood on his donkey's back, reaching for honey-combs, when the bees flew at him and stung him on his bald head. He fell on top of the donkey, which, when also stung, kicked him and escaped, to the great merriment of the other Satyrs who witnessed his plight. Ovid describes the scene and tells how Dionysus laughed and taught Silenus how to ease the pain of the sting with mud. (Plate IX.)

Innumerable fables and legends refer to honey-hunting. One of the oldest legends, often mentioned in ancient literature, is that of Antophilus, the Greek poet, who was a great lover of honey and who sang its praise in his poems. Antophilus, while searching for wild honey, climbed a precipice and swinging on a rope, emptied the contents of a nest. Some honey trickled down the rope. His dog, also very fond of honey, chewed the rope and Antophilus fell from the perilous height and was killed.

The following, a rather amusing little story from Poland, is credited to Demetrius, the Russian Ambassador to Rome: "A man, searching in the woods for honey, slipped down into a great hollow tree, where he found himself up to his breast in a veritable lake of this sweet substance. He stuck fast there for two days, making the lonely woods resound in vain with his cries for help. Finally, when the man had almost abandoned hope, a large bear appeared upon the scene, bent on the same business that had taken the man there. Bruin smelled the honey, which had been stirred up by the struggles of the prisoner, and straightway climbed the tree and let himself down backward into the hollow. The man, whose wits had been sharpened by the adversity, caught him about the loins and made as vigorous an outcry as he could. Up clambered Bruin in a panic, not knowing what had got hold of him. Our man clung fast, and the bear tugged, until by main force he had pulled himself and his captor out of the tree; then he let go and Bruin, considerably frightened, took to the woods with all speed, leaving his smeared companion to his own congratulations." Wilhelm Busch, the graphic humorist and pastmaster of comical sequence, must have been quite impressed by the story since he illustrated it with a complete serial of pictures.

In connection with honey-hunting we find among the primitive tribes of far-off continents many fanciful tales which relate the identical and characteristic yarn. The honey-hunter usually finds among the honeycombs in a tree an enchanted bee-woman who will cook for him and will prepare a delicious honey-wine. The hunter proposes marriage to her, which she accepts under the condition that he should never mention to anybody where he had found her, otherwise, she would disappear. This actual proviso is typical also of many other myths; the story of Psyche, the Lohengrin Saga and the story of Undine, are only a few instances. This peculiar secrecy seems to be analogous, in certain respects, with the curious marriage customs of primitive races, according to which a wife was not permitted to pronounce the husband's name or it was unlawful for a husband to see his wife's face until after she had given birth to her first child.

The following is a popular legend along the Orinoco River (Amazon region) : There was a man who possessed great skill in detecting bees' nests, with which the forest abounded; in fact, he was better in this respect than anyone else. One day the man tried to drill a hollow tree, with the intention of removing honey, when suddenly he heard a loud scream, "You are killing me!" He carefully opened the tree and to his amazement, saw a beautiful naked woman before him. He made her a loin-cloth and bade her marry him. The woman consented to be his wife under one condition, that he would never call her Maba (bee), or tell anyone that it was her name. Our man promised and the two became husband and wife. The hunter remained just as efficient in finding the bees' nests as in former days. His wife made the best honey-wine that was ever brewed; a cupful was sufficient to supply all the guests. On one occasion, many visitors arrived, and they all became intoxicated. The host promised his guests that the next time his wife would prepare more and still better honey-wine, and in the same breath referred to her as Maba. In an instant, like a shot, Maba flew away. From that time on the man's luck changed and honey became scarce in the region. His wife had been one of the legendary bee-women.

There are similar tales in Indonesia. The Bornean version, quoted in The Mythology of All Races (Vol. IX), is as follows:

A man named Rakian was out hunting for honey, when in the top of a mangis tree he saw many bees' nests, in one of which were white bees. (Several Christian legends allude to snow-white bees producing virginal honey.) Since white bees were a rarity, he carefully removed the nest and took it home. The next day he was working in his garden and when he returned to his house in the evening he found a meal cooked for him. He was surprised because he lived alone. The following day the same thing occurred, his meal was again cooked. This continued for some time. Finally he resolved to investigate the mystery.

He pretended to go to the garden but silently returned, hid himself and watched. The door of the house soon creaked and a beautiful woman came out, and went to the river to fetch some water. While she was gone, Rakian entered the house, and found that the bees' nest was empty. He hid the nest and secreted himself again. The woman returned and upon finding the nest gone commenced to weep. In the evening Rakian entered the house as was his custom. The woman sat there silent. "Why are you here?" he asked, "perhaps you want to steal my bees?" The woman answered, "I don't know anything about your bees." Rakian asked her to cook for him because he was hungry, but she refused, as she was vexed. The woman demanded her box but he was afraid that she would disappear into it again. She promised not to, and that she would become his wife if he would not disclose her identity. Rakian agreed; they were married and by and by she bore him a child.

One day Rakian went to a feast at his neighbors. All asked him whence his beautiful wife had come. He evaded the question. After a while, when they all were intoxicated, he forgot his promise and revealed to his friends that his wife had been a bee.

When he returned, his wife did not speak to him. Later she reproached him for having broken his promise and said that she must return to her home. "In seven days my father will pass here and I shall go with him, but the child I leave with you." Rakian wept. He could not change her mind. Seven days later he saw a white bee flying by, whereupon his wife came out of the house and exclaimed: "There is my father." She turned into a bee and flew away.

Rakian picked up the child and pursued the bees. For seven days he followed them until finally he lost sight of them. Soon a strange woman appeared who directed him to his wife's home. Rakian climbed into the house and found it full of bees, except the middle room. The child began to cry, when suddenly Rakian's wife appeared. Rakian was happy but she reproached him for revealing her secret. Finally they became reconciled and all the bees dropped down from the roof-beams to the floor and became men. Rakian and the child remained in the bees' village.

There are similar fables among the African tribes.

An old Hungarian fable suggests that Christ, Himself, was a honey-hunter. Christ and St. Peter were wandering. Peter said, "It must be wonderful to be a God, help the widows and orphans, reward good deeds and punish the wicked. If this could be accomplished, there wouldn't be any vice on earth." While Peter was talking, Jesus looked around and noticed a bees' nest in the hollow of a tree. Christ suggested to Peter that he put the swarm into his cap, "Maybe they will be useful." Peter obeyed and put cluster after cluster into his cap until one of the bees stung him on the finger. With a loud cry of pain, he threw the cap, full of bees, to the ground, saying, "Oh, the devil shall take this swarm; how one of them has stung me!" Christ said, "Well, why don't you find the one which stung you?" "How can I," said Peter, "they all look alike." Then Jesus said, "If you were God, you would do the same thing; if one of your people sinned, all the innocent would have to suffer."

During the pioneer days of America honey-hunting was a profitable pursuit and a favorite occupation of the Southwestern backwoodsmen. Wild honey was sold for a quarter of a dollar a gallon and some bee-trees yielded as much as a dozen gallons of honey. The honey-hunter with his old sombrero, open hickory shirt and deer-skin breeches is often described in contemporary writings. He is portrayed as a real character; fond of nature, solitude and the stillness of the woods, listening to the drowsy hum of the bees. His power of vision became extremely keen through education and he could follow the bees with his eyes for hundreds of yards. His equipment consisted of an axe, several buckets, a fishing outfit and, of course, a rifle to protect him from Indians and bears.

The honey hunters, as a rule, built their log-cabins near navigable rivers and grew their vegetables on the land surrounding their shacks. They depended on their rifles to procure the necessary meat. Honey was an important article of barter. After the hunters had collected several barrels of honey, they rolled them down to the river bank, placed them on boats, and paddled their cargo to the nearest settlement where they exchanged the honey for flour, gunpowder, lead and other necessities. Hunters who lived on or near the banks of the Mississippi traded their honey with the skippers of the steamboats. The rivermen took the honey to New Orleans, where they sold it at a fair profit.

The importance of felling bee trees is best proven by the dispute which occurred in 1840 between the States of Iowa and Missouri. A farmer of Clark County (Mo.) cut down several bee trees filled with honey on the boundary line between the two States. This strip of land had been claimed by both States and ended in the so-called Honey-War. The United States Supreme Court finally decided the matter in 1851 and settled the exact boundary between the two States.

Adulterated Honey

Adulterated Honey


Honey always was, and still is, adulterated. Since the strict enforcement of the Federal Pure-Food Law, violators are severely punished and gross vitiations are now extremely rare. The fact that honey was one of the leading articles which the Food Standards Committee considered when the law was passed, attests the importance of the product as a food and it also reflects the frequency with which it was adulterated. Adulterated honey, of course, does not mean artificial honey but honey that has been mixed with sucrose, commercial glucose, starch, chalk, gelatine, water and other substances. The greatest problem for the chemists of the Food and Drug Administration today is to detect commercial invert sugar which is not so easily traced as other adulterants.

The fact is that good honey could no more be successfully imitated than milk, a bird's egg or a genuine pearl. The apprehension most people have that certain honeys are adulterated is due to the fact that they taste differently from honeys previously consumed. Honeys have the same flavor, color and aroma only when the nectar is gathered from the same flowers; otherwise, these characteristic attributes will greatly differ. Procuring comb honey is not a protection against being deceived. Beekeepers, when there is a scarcity of flowers or during an unusually rainy season, feed their bees with sugar-water which they place before the entrance of the hives. The bees gorge themselves with this sugar and quickly de-posit it in the combs without giving it a chance to undergo in-version. The result is a poor quality of honey in the comb which lacks most of the important constituents of real honey. Most extracted honeys on the market are now chemically pure.

Since the Federal Pure Food Law went into effect, January 1, 1907, as mentioned, there is hardly any adulterated honey to be found. Previously "factitious" honeys were quite common on the markets. When Dr. H. W. Wiley, during his campaign for pure food laws pleaded before Congress, he presented, among many other fraudulent articles, a bottle of honey, on the surface of which there was a dead bee. The tricky dealer believed that the buyer, seeing the bee, would not doubt the genuineness of the honey. This was just a trap because the bottle contained a sticky sweet substance which resembled honey in appearance but was never produced by bees and contained many injurious ingredients.

Date and fig-honey were known in ancient Palestine. The Bible mentions that a substance made from dates and figs was sold as honey. Quintillian and Herodotus referred to denatured honey. Diophanes in Geoponica gave already a method of how to detect it.

The United States Federal Food and Drugs Act is in need of several amendments regarding honey. In jams and jellies, for instance, the standard recognizes only sugar and not honey. In a word, if some manufacturer adds honey to these products it is technically considered an adulteration. W. S. Frisbie, Chairman of the Food Standards Committee, admits that a departure from a definite standard is an adulteration even if the substitution is effected by a more valuable ingredient instead of one of less intrinsic value. The use of gold in our copper coinage would be considered an adulteration. The Administration, however, does not bar the use of honey in jams and jellies provided the labeling calls attention to the fact that honey is used as a sweetener.

Preserving Quality Of Honey

Preserving Quality Of Honey


Honey was used for ages as a preserver of organic matters. In medieval England meats and leather were cured in honey. In Sudan they boil meat in honey to preserve it. In Ceylon honey is used instead of salt as a conserver.

Honey is excellent to preserve fruit because it intensifies the original flavor of fruit to which it adds its own aroma. The milder flavored honeys are preferred for preserving fruits, the stronger flavored ones are better for pickling. Jams, jellies and marmalades made with honey are superior to those in which sugar is used. The world-famous Bar-le-duc (currant jam) of France is made with honey. Pickled fruits are prepared with honey, vinegar and water to which ginger, cloves, cinnamon and allspice are added. The spiced honey of the Turks is well known.

Ripe fruits contain a considerable amount of sugar. Of course, if they were pickled prematurely (green) and they were not long enough exposed to the sun and only incompletely ripened, the creative force of Nature was interrupted and resulted in a failure to convert the acids into natural sugar. Such fruits, when they are preserved, require the addition of a great amount of refined sugar to make up for the deficiency, that is, for the natural sweetness.

Plant-grafts, birds' eggs and valuable seeds which must be transported to different climates can be preserved in honey for a considerable time.

All sweet media had an age-old repute to preserve not only organic matters but life itself. This can be verified by the experience of our own Benjamin Franklin, one of the greatest of the great. While in France, he received from America a quantity of Madeira wine, which had been bottled in Virginia. In some of the bottles he found a few dead flies, which he exposed to the warm sun, in the month of July; and in less than three hours these apparently dead insects recovered life, which had been so long suspended. At first they appeared as if convulsed; they then raised themselves on their legs, cleaned their eyes with their forefeet, dressed their wings with the hind legs, and began in a little while to fly about. This acute philosopher proposed, therefore, the following question:—"Since, by such a complete suspension of all internal as well as external consumption, it is possible to produce a pause of life, and at the same time to preserve the vital principle, might not such a process be employed in regard to man? And if that be the case," added Franklin, like a true patriot, "I can imagine no greater pleasure than to cause myself to be immersed along with a few good friends in Madeira wine, and to be again called to life at the end of fifty or more years, by the genial solar rays of my native country, only that I may see what improvement the State has made, and what changes time has brought along with it."

The preserving and hygroscopic powers of honey could be converted to divers uses in several branches of industry. It is a regret-table oversight on the part of the cigar and cigarette manufacturers, for instance, that an admixture of honey to the tobacco is not employed more universally. Honey preserves the original flavor of the tobacco, to which it adds its own aroma and sweetness; besides, it would protect the stock from becoming dry. Many foreign pipe-mixtures and chewing tobacco contain honey which considerably enhances their mellowness. Lately, American packers have been experimenting with honey-cured meats. Jewelers darken natural onyx with honey. There are about a million and a half golf balls manufactured yearly in the United States containing honey in their centers which is supposed to greatly enhance their resiliency. Carbon paper and sail cloth are more tenacious when treated with honey. Chewing gum is another product for which honey could be utilized to advantage, on account of its ability to retain moisture.

Honey has innumerable chemical and technical possibilities. Brewers ought to pry into the secrets of how the ancient Saxon "beor", honey beer, was made (beo = bee, from which the term beer was derived). Apparently there is a tendency today to pro-duce variety instead of quality because it offers a wider field for exploitation and a better opportunity to play the favorite modern sport—called competition.