THE BEE-KKKPHRS' REVIEW. 



137 



oonvoiiiciict's. The chisct, wluMi tlicrr 

 is one, is usually in tlie corner of the 

 ivitelien. P.ut we are free from yellow 

 fever and sniallixix. 



As to honey piotlnct ion, some have 

 had \\\ix crops, and we have lieard of 

 them, but many have had poor erops 

 and nothinsi' has Iteen said of them. 

 31y nearest neighl)or has uone down 

 from SdO to Ad. in Ids home yard, in 

 thri'e years. Another put in a ranch 

 hetween here and <,)uanajay, and the 

 liees all died the hrst seas(»n. One of 

 my ranches gave me 14 gallons to the 

 Inve the tirst season, TV-.' the next, and 

 l^ this year. Tliis n^dm-tion of yield 

 comes from the tiowers heing plowed 

 up to make room for sugar cane. One 

 man had a tine system of ranches 

 along the stone road hetween here and 

 I la \ ana, hut this year he is moving 

 them l)ack into the wilderness. Stock 

 iiiid general farming liave cleared out 

 the honey plants. 



The present price of honey is 27 

 cents a gallon. Wax is 31 cents a 

 pound. But this is Spanish gold iipon 

 which there is a discount of about 10 

 per cent compared with American 

 money. Supplies and freight must be 

 paid for with American mone.v. Things 

 that we buy are high. Put a tariff of 

 33 1-3 per cent, freight and profit on 

 top of American prices, and yo\i will 

 get something of an idea of the cost 

 of some things. A few things are 

 cheaper — sweet potatoes, for instance. 

 A prominent queen breeder has 

 scarcely been ai)le to keep liis own 

 colonies in (jueens tlie past winter, 

 when he had expected to have them 

 to sell to tlu> rest of us. 



Some strange stories have been told 

 of the honey plants here. One man 

 tol ! of lianana honey. If he got any, 

 he took it from the wasps, for the 

 horey bee is not able to get into the 

 bannna blossom. Another told of 

 cocoa nut honey. I have climbed 



many cocoannt palms, but have never 

 seen a bee gatliering honey from their 

 l)lossoms. There are vast tracts of 

 land here in natural meadows, and 

 others in scattei-jng forests of a species 

 of palm which yields no honey. Other 

 great tracts are in cane, or some other 

 crop that yields no honey. The honey 

 country that is not already exploited 

 is nearly all situated so far from 

 transportation as to make its occupa- 

 tion unproHtable. 



One of the best known l)ee men in 

 the Ignited States spent a month trav- 

 elling over the island, and then went 

 home in disgust because he could not 

 find things as he wanted them. 



Then the people. There have been 

 two murders within a mile of me, and 

 two more within six miles, this spring. 

 Rol)beries are too frequent to keep any 

 account of them. This week some 

 one went through the house of my 

 American neighbor. I found GO frames 

 in one pile, at one of my ranches, 

 where the comb had been cut out and 

 carried away. 



I don't mean to imply that Cuba 

 is all bad. I like it well enough to 

 stay here, l)ut there are two sides to 

 the (inestion. 



Artemisa, Cuba, March 30. 1903. 



£::?T-p<\HREE MONTHS CAGING OF 



A QUEEN. LONGEVITY OF 



BEES. BY M. A. GILL. 



Editor Review: About the middle 

 of last July a party here had a thi'ee- 

 frame niu-leus of Ijlack bees into which 

 he put a self-introducing cage contain- 

 ing an Italian Queen from the South. 

 He gave it no more attention, further 

 than to turn back the quilt after three 

 weeks to see if Italian bees had made 

 an appearance, and, as he found none, 

 he naturally concluded that the nu- 

 cleus was queenless. 



