BEE-KEEPING.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1917, Page 7

BEE-KEEPING.

(By "Clematis")

[To make tli is column interesting, ''Clematis" would like the assistance of ,heekeepers, and would be glad to receive assistance in any form. Address, Vo Daily News.]

The main crop of honey has by now been extracted, and will be placed 011 the market through various channels. Honey now conies under lb" I'"pod and Drugs Act, and those putting it up for sale must have a label 011 each package denoting weight of contents and name of packer. To be attractive, have a small neat label, and see that the honey before _bottling or tinning is free from particles of wax or sediment which one often sees on tlitf top of containers. HONE? AS A FOOD. "Eat thou honey, because it is good!" Honey is not only a medicine, but also a food, direct from nature, the nectar of flowers, gathered, modified and evaporated by the bees. No purer or better food has been given to man. Every flower produces a different flavor; if you don't like one kind, try another. There is more nourishment in a pound of lioney than there is in a pound of beefsteak. Meat contains 05 per cent, of water, besides the fibre, which is indigestible. Honey is 20 per cent, water, and is almost all digested, leaving nothing to burden the system. It is all used in producing heat and energy. One can eat three pounds of honey at the price of one pound of butter. Mr. A. J. Boot says:—Mfiny people who cannot eat sugar without having unpleasant symptoms following, will find, by careful test, that they can eat good well-ripened honey without any difficulty at all. Professor Cook says:—There can be 110 doubt but that in eating honey our digestive machinery is saved work that it would have to perform if we ate cane sugar, and in case it is overworked and feeble, this may he just the respite that will save a breakdown. Children should be given all the honey at each meal time that they will eat. HONEY IN THE TRENCHES. Germany seems to have a better idea of the food value of honey than we 'have In New Zealand, for all their crop goes to the soldiers in the trendies. It is considered a nutritious food in a highly concentrated form, and a medicine which counteracts the evils of bad food to a marked extent. Would it not be an advantage all round, both to soldiers and producers, if our Government were to. commandeer, say, a proportion of our honey crop for our boys in the trenches? Those lighting for us would think it a treat, and the Government would be sending them a nourishing food, and a medicinal stimulant combined, at a cost far below that of butter, and a "food'' easily carried to the trenches. DISPOSAL OF HONEY. I have been asked the best way of disposing of honey, and whore. Note my remarks at tho beginning of these notes. If one does not care to pack for local trade and comply with the Eure Foods Aet (otherwise he is liable to prosecution) take up shares in the New Zealand TToncy Producers' Association, Hawera. This company receives honey direct from the extractor in bulk from shareholders. Terms are very lenient to suppliers of honey. I have often thought that some local merchant would have taken up this business ere now. Through the want of shipping space 110 doubt the export of honey tlii3 season will be diflicult, and, worked systematically, a local venture should be a complete success, and tend to create a larger local consumption of honey.