344 



October, 1916. 



American Bgc Journal] 



accomodation on any Amevican or 

 English vessel. 



Tlie trip was not as unpleasant as 

 it would have been if in mid ocean. 

 Passing the island of San Domingo 

 the boat kept close to the south shore, 

 and steamed the entire distance by 

 daylight, laying over night at San 

 Domingo City. On the wes ern end of 

 the island the country Is level, with 

 mountains in the distance, but after 

 passing S. D. City the mountains are 

 close to the ocean and in places are so 

 high as to pierce the clouds, and 

 everywhere is a dense growth of trop- 

 ical forest. The land that has been 

 cleared for cultivation is less than 

 214% of the entire area. 



If ever there was a trcpicil paradise 

 it is the island of San Domingo, not 

 only for bees, but for all other kinds 

 of tropical farming that is If the 

 country had a good government, but 

 under present conditions it is no place 

 for civilized people. 



San Domingo City is an old time 

 place, said to be the first on the west- 

 ern hemisphere to have been colon- 

 ized. There are a fevy a*trac'inns f-r 

 which the place is deserving of cndit. 

 The city is situated at the mouth of 

 a river and gets the full benefit of 

 the ocean winds. There are plenty of 

 shade trees, which with the original 

 forest g''owth maka the atmjsplitre 

 cooler than it would be if eve''yihing 

 was cleared off. 



In the center of the city is a good 

 sized plaza which is equal in b a ty 

 to Boston Common, or the A'ami da in 

 Mexico City. On the sea front is an- 

 other beautiful park, the side facing 

 the sea having been terraced, which 

 sets off the entire city, giving it the 

 look of a seaside pleasure report. 



The streets are wider, and the build 

 ings more scattered than in other 

 Spanish-Ame ican towns. The rains 

 of the cathedral that was built by a 

 brother of Christopher Colombus still 

 stands. On board the ship the cabin 

 was so Iiot that 1 had been sleeping on 

 deck, but the night that she lay in 

 San Domingo harbor the temperature 

 was coo! enough, so that it w-as pos- 

 sible to sleep in the state room. 



I would have liked to have met some 

 of the bee and honey men, but the s'lip 

 did not tie up to the dock until a little 

 before closing time, and pulled out 

 the first thing in the morning. In 

 one warehouse on the dock I counted 

 over 200 barrels of honey, and on 

 board of the Clyde steamer, Algonquin, 

 bound for New York, were 145 barrels 

 of honey. 



It was on this steamer that in 1895 

 I had been twice a pasenger between 

 Jacksonville and New York. At that 

 time the Algonciuin was the finest 

 ship of the Clyde Line, and she is still 

 a magnificent boat with well venti- 

 lated cabins, roomy state rooms and 

 accommodations that are in every 

 way superior. I lost no time in get- 

 ting on board and visiting a scene of 

 twenty years ago. None of the crew 

 that had been employed on the ship at 

 that time were there, but I had a 

 pleasant visit with one of the officers. 



Another two nights and a day of 

 unpleasantness on the Cuban ship and 

 we landed at Santiago, Cuba. Although 



it was mid-winter the weather was 

 hot. As Spanish-American cities are 

 usually built it seems that they try 

 to make everything as hot and un- 

 pleasant as possible. The streets are 

 narrow and the houses close together. 

 There are two small parks in the 

 center of the city with no shade trees 

 to speak of. There are several mod- 

 ern hotels, and the city is the eastern 

 terminus of the Cuban Central Rail- 

 road. 



I took the train for Havana. A 

 few words as to the railway and its 

 equipment. The tracks are s aiidard 

 guage and there were at least ten full 

 size passenger cars on the train. Got 

 a second class ticket, wh'ch costs 

 three cents a mile. First class fare 

 costs six cents a mile. 



The second class cars were net 

 over-crowded and no pigs or chickens 



After crossing the< divide which is 

 only a few miles from Santiago, and 

 getting on the northern slope, the tem- 

 perature is several degrees cooler. The 

 first fifty miles of the route was 

 through settled country which was 

 white with aguinaldo, the famous hon- 

 ey flower of Cuba. 



What a treat it would have been to 

 have stopped off for a visit with Mr. 

 D. W. Millar who is located at Hol- 

 guin, in Santiago Province, but it 

 would have been necessary to take a 

 different route and to make a side trip 

 frojii the main line. Brother Millar 

 has written several interes'ing arti- 

 cles for the Journal and a good writer 

 is usually a good entertainer. 



For about two thirds of the distance 

 from Santiago to Havana the country 

 is dense virgin forest, much like San 

 Domingo, although more land has been 



PELLETT HIVE-CART WITH DERRICK RAISED TO LIFT FULL SUPERS OF 

 HONEY FROM THE HIVES 



(about which more will later be said) 

 were allowed as hand baggage. The 

 accommodation was fairly comfortable 

 except for the fact that there were no 

 cuspidors and, it seems, no rules 

 against expectorating. 



For the tourist who wants to pay 

 six cents a mile, the Cuban Central 

 compares favorably with any first 

 class road in the U. S. or elsewhere. 

 There were two sleepers on the train, 

 and meals and lunch counters at the 

 more important stations. The train 

 was on time and there was close con- 

 nection with trains on the branch 

 lines. 



The run to Havana could have been 

 made in twenty-five hours but want- 

 ing to see what there is to see and 

 travel the entire distance by daylight 

 1 stopped over night at Ciego de Avila. 



cleared and is in cultivation. The 

 land is level or slightly rolling and 

 sometimes mountains may be seen in 

 the distance. After passing Santa 

 Clara, and from there to beyond Pinar 

 del Rio the country is much more open 

 der cultivation 



The dense forest growth would be 

 much more of a bee keeper's para- 

 dise if there was plenty of aguinaldo 

 as there is on land that has been un- 

 der cultixation. 



It looks queer that the eastern part 

 of the island where the soil is better 

 than in the western portion, should 

 be more thinly settled, but the land 

 is probably held in big tracts by 

 owners who refuse to sell, which is 

 usually the case in Spanish countries. 



I arrived in Havana a little after 

 dark, and as the reader has probably 



