THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



387 



opinion, Mr. Ileddoii buiUled better than 

 many gave him credit for when he invent- 

 ed the hive that bears his name. For 

 contraction and expansion, for tiering-up, 

 for accomplishing a great many things 

 without the handling of a frame, the Hed- 

 don hive sia.i\ds />iirt\vtv//e!nT. 



CUBA AS A BEK COUNTRY, 



Also Soincthinii Regarding its Insects and 

 Climate. 



Now that white-winged peace is again 

 hovering over the "Queen of the An- 

 tilles," enterprising young Americans 

 with plenty of push and grit are casting 

 longing eyes towards the nectar-laden 

 fields of this sunny isle. Quite a number 

 are already there; and, whether we "stay- 

 at-homes" like it or not, it is quite prob- 

 able that we may find, ere many years, 

 that Cuban bee-keeping under Yankee 

 management is far different from what it 

 was in the dark days of Spanish rule. 

 With these facts in mind, the following 

 article, written by H. G. Osborn, and 

 pul)lished in Gleanings, is of unusual in- 

 terest. Mr. Osborn says: — 



After the lapse of four years, Septem- 

 ber, 1900, finds me once more on Cuban 

 soil. But what a sight meets the eye of 

 the visitor if he takes a ride in the coun- 

 try as I did a few days after my return ! 

 Charred and crumbling ruins on every 

 hand bear silent testimony of the awful 

 ravages of war. That this fertile island, .so 

 lavishly endowed with nature's wealth, 

 should have been chosen by fate to be the 

 slaughter-ground of tens of thousands 

 of her brave sons between 1492 and 1900 

 seems indeed an underserved fate. 



That the nineteenth century will mark 

 the dawn of an era of prosperity and free- 

 dom for a young and deserving genera- 

 tion, there can be no doubt. The soil 

 over which has run so much blood, which 

 three different armies have fought for, 

 holds in its embrace vast wealth awaiting 

 the advance of modern civilization. .Al- 

 though we are only 90 miles from thi 

 nearest point on the I'lorida coast, still 

 in that distance great changes have taken 

 place. We find a different climate and 

 a far different people; a country that is 

 very rich, and a climate that is compar- 



atively mild, with the exception of abr ut 

 three months in midsummer, when one 

 would almost wish he were in (ireenland, 

 in hopes that the change would do him 

 good. But we can not have climate and 

 conditions made to order, and so I will 

 venture to say that any man with a little 

 money, and lots of push and persever- 

 ance, willing to put up with a hot damp 

 climate, and who is not afraid of flea-bites 

 or sticky mud, can, I think, make a good 

 living here now, as the price of every- 

 thing is high, and there is an unlimited 

 demand for everj'thing raised here at the 

 present time. 



The bee-keeping industry, so far as I 

 CRU find in the short time I have been 

 back, is advancing quite rapidly. Sev- 

 eral parties of northern capitalists have 

 come here and started in the business on 

 a large scale, knowing absolutely nothing 

 about the climate or the difficulties to be 

 overcome, some not even know ing a work- 

 er from a queen, but fully aware of the 

 fact that flowers produce honey, and that 

 bees gather honey; and also, having read 

 or heard some one sav that flowers grow 

 profusely here, they thought by bringing 

 a few thousand hives here, or buying 

 them here, they can set them down any- 

 where, and the bees will goto work and 

 fill the hives with wealth, and all the 

 owner.s have to do is to gather it and sell 

 it. But one or two summers, when the 

 moon gets just right for the moth to have 

 its summer appetite, and the fast-spread- 

 ing foul brood commences at the other 

 end of his apiary, he will wish he were a 

 boy again unless he knows just what to 

 do and how to doit. 



The advi-sability of first coming here to 

 vi.sit those of us who have large apiaries, 

 offering a fair price for information that 

 has taken us years to acquire; inquiring 

 into and studying the conditions that go 

 to make up a successful year or crop; 

 acquainting oneself first with the most 

 successful hive in use here, together with 

 the other fixtures that go to make up a 

 large apiary; the best strain of liees for a 

 winter honev-flow, and many other im- 

 portant hints that they might pfck up, 

 which would be of vast importance to a 

 beginner here, all of this had never been 

 taken into consideration until it was too 

 late, .\fter one has spent thousands of 

 dollars, and brought here carloads of fix- 

 tures which may be all right at home but 

 not in Cuba, the sad truth dawns at last, 

 and the new comer becomes fully aware 

 of the fact that he has made a bad mis- 

 take. He returns home and paints a 

 dark picture of bee-keeping in Cuba 

 among his friends, saying, "I have made 



