October. Ifllfi. 



American Hee Journal 



345 



liciird lots about that city which h;is 

 been so extensively ailvertisul I will 

 say notliins except that I never did 

 and never would like that place. I 

 must wait ten days for a steamer to 

 Nassau, and did not feel like si.cndinK 

 that much time in Havana. 



So I took the train for Candeliria, 

 fifty miles to the west and near 

 where I had lived in 1902 and 190S. 



People who visit the old home after 

 an absence of several yea''s are us- 

 ually disappointed. In this case there 

 was the usual disappointment as not 

 many of the old timers were left. Most 

 of them had returned to the States, 

 and several had crossed the Great 

 Divide. 



But there was an agreeable sur- 

 prise in meeting four of the old 

 friends. They were: Mr.s. Unruh. Mr. 

 Moe, Mr. Mulil, and Mr. Somerford. 



Mrs. Unruh had bought a farm of 

 thirty-three acres at least a half mi e 

 from town, but during the twelve 

 years that she has owned «he pUce 

 the town has grown to such an extent 



on the side. He has a nice liomi' and 

 everything neat and in good nrder. 

 Tlie shady front yard that is planted 

 in Bermuda grass and kept clean with 

 rake and lawn mower would be an 

 example for many home lovers to fol- 

 low. The little frame shack that I 

 had built was still there anil had been 

 through two cyclones. 



It was at Taco-Taco tliat the late 

 .lohn H. Martin better known as 

 "Rambler" took his last stand and 

 made good, after several years of 

 failure in California. It was early in 

 the spring of 1902 that Mr. M. arrived 

 in Cuba and built up a big apiary, 

 and got a good crop of honey. For a 

 year he wrote interesting articles for 

 each number of Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture. )n May 1903 he dijd, it was said 

 from over work. 



That visit to the old home was an 

 experience not soon to be forgotten. 

 The honey season was on and for the 

 first time in twelve years 1 had 

 enough to eat of the delicious aguin- 

 aldo honey. 





A VILLAGE SCENE IN BAHAMA 



that the property now adjoins the city 

 limits and she has a good speculation. 



Mr. Muhl is still in the bee business. 

 He is located on the south coast in a 

 south-east direction from town, where 

 the country is white with aguinaldo. 



Mr. Somerford is also located near 

 the south coast, in a south-west dir- 

 ection from Candelaria, and is in a 

 good aguinaldo district. 



Mr. Moe still has his apiaries a 

 short distance in the country, but is 

 residing in Havana where he is en- 

 gaged in the fruit business. 



Although Candelaria is a fair sized 

 town claiming at least 3.000 popula- 

 tion there is no hotel that is worthy 

 of the name. I was taken care of by 

 Mrs. Unruh and her sister M s. Travis, 

 and never expect again to have such 

 a pleasant visit 



Six miles to the west of Candelaria 

 is San Cristobal, and six miles further 

 is Taco-Taco. It was between these 

 two places that I was located. Mr. 

 Webster is now living on the old 

 place and is growing fruit, with bees 



Time goes . by at aeroplane speed 

 and it was nearly time to take the 

 ship to Nassau. Coming out from 

 Havana on a second class ticket (98% 

 of the people travel that way) most 

 of the passengers were neat appearing, 

 but what a difference going back', the 

 train was crowded with what appear- 

 ed to be farm laborers and stand ng 

 room was at a premium. Nearly 

 every passenger had from one to three 

 live chickens, and there were several 

 pigs and dogs in the car. 



This road which runs from Havana 

 to beyond Pinar del Rio is known as 

 the Western Railway of Havana, and 

 is under English ownership and man- 

 agement. First class passengers are 

 allowed to carry as hand baggage, one 

 live chicken, and in the second cars 

 three chickens or one pig may be tak- 

 en. If live stock is carried in the bag- 

 gage car, excess charges have to be 

 paid. Two and a half hours of misery 

 and the train pulls into Havana. 



Twenty-four hours aboard of the 

 floating palace "Mexico" of the Ward 



Line and I landed at Nassau, capital, 

 main sea port and commercial me- 

 tropolis of the Bahama Is ands. 



It has always looked a little curi- 

 ous that so little is known and said 

 of tlie Bahamas as near as they are 

 to Florida, Cuba and San Domingo. 

 Some of the smaller islands are not 

 over 50 miles from Florida, and the 

 capital is not over 200 miles from 

 Miami. We hc'ar more about Guam 

 and St. Helena which are small and 

 insignificant islands and are thou- 

 sands of miles from nowhere. 



The Bahama G''0up consists of 

 29 islands and Gfil keys or smaller is- 

 lets. They extend between latitude 

 21 and 27, and longitude 71 and 79. 

 The area of the group is 6,000 square 

 miles and population 55 to 60 thous- 

 and. If the population is 60.000 that 

 means a density of ten to the square 

 mile. Something different from Porto 

 Rico w-ith 3.500 square miles and 

 1,300,000 population 



The Bahamas are owned by Great 

 Britain and are governed pretty much 

 the same as other English colonies on 

 this side of the Atlantic. 



It is the popular impression that the 

 islands are a lot of wind-swept rocks, 

 out in the ocean, with sponge fishing 

 and wrecking as the only industries 



The wind and rocks are there and 

 lots of both. There is a delightful 

 climate except for the wind, and plen- 

 ty of tropical vegetation although it 

 does not grow as luxuriantly as in the 

 West Indies. 



The land is mostly soft rock and 

 the little there is of soil is decayed 

 vegetable mold. In many places close 

 to the sea are strips of sand which is 

 good land for cocoanuts. There is lots 

 of swamp land in which grows the 

 mangrove, a well known honey plant 

 of Florida. Most of the land of New 

 Providence, the island on which the 

 capital is situated, is a pine barren, 

 although there are considerable areas 

 of hard wood near the sea shore. 



The principal growth on the islands 

 of Andros, Abaco and Great Bahama- 

 is pine trees and the islands further 

 to the east are grown in hard woods. 

 The cocoanuts grow as tall as in the 

 West Indies. There is lots of aguin- 

 aldo, which is here called the Christ- 

 mas flower. It grows as in Cuba on 

 land that has been cultivated. On 

 some of the abandoned sisal plan- 

 tations are patches that are white 

 with the bloom. 



Oranges and grape fruit do well, 

 that is if the hole in the rock in 

 which to plant the tree has been blast- 

 ed out with dynamite and dug deep 

 enough. The soil, the little there is 

 of it, is rich and does not require fer- 

 tilizer. 



There was a time when p'nea'-p^e 

 growing was a great industry, but it 

 was killed by the V. S. tariff. Toma- 

 toes are grown in immense quantities. 

 It is nothing unusual for 10 to 20 thou- 

 sand crates to go to New York on one 

 steamer. And such luscious and 

 juicy tomatoes! On the island of 

 Elutheria they were to be had for the 

 picking. What a paradise for the epi- 

 cure who never before had enough 

 ripe tomatoes. 



There are no mountains and the 



