136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



Here location is every thing, men something, 

 and hives nothing as factors in big crops. 

 Artemisa, Cuba, Jan. 20. 



CUBA FOR BEES AND HONEY. 



A Favorable Statement. 



BY ROBT. I,. LUACES. 



For some time past I have been finding ar- 

 ticles on Cuba as a bee country; foul brood in 

 Cuba; Cuban honey in the American markets, 

 etc., that are sure to create the impression that 

 bee-keeping here is bad business, and growing 

 worse from day to day. Now, all this is not 

 so. The value of Cuban honey exported for 

 the six months from July 1 to Dec. 31, 1899, 

 amounted to $19,506. Of this, half went to 

 Germany and half to France and the United 

 States. These data are taken from oflBcial re- 

 ports, and show that Cuban honey finds its 

 market in Europe and not in the United States, 

 so American bee-keepers need not fear compe- 

 tition from Cuba in their home markets. 



In Gleanings for April 1, 1900, page 260, 

 Mr. Harry Howe gives his experience in look- 

 ing up a location, coming to the conclusion 

 that these are few and all taken up ; also that 

 bees are scarce, and foul brood plentiful. On 

 page 261 Mr. Geo. Rockenbaugh, Jr., goes on 

 to say that Cuba as a bee country is done for ; 

 foul brood has killed it, and gives doleful ac- 

 counts of prices and railroads. Mr. F. H. 

 Somerford gives us a funny story, and sums 

 up his experience, saying Cuba is no better 

 than Texas. 



Now, I will ask the readers of Gleanings 

 to take into consideration the following : None 

 of the gentlemen I have mentioned, accord- 

 ing to their own statements, have been more 

 than 30 miles away from Havana, and, of 

 course, they can speak of the different places 

 where they are ; but it is straining a little to 

 judge all Cuba by what small portion of it 

 they have seen. Mr. R. forgets to say that 

 the prices he gives are mostly in Spanish sil- 

 ver, and Mr. S. ought not to expect big crops 

 from places that, from their own saying, are 

 overstocked, overeaten by cattle, and full of 

 all kinds of broods and worms. 



I live fully 300 miles from Havana, at Puerto 

 Principe; and the bee-keeper whom I can't 

 show in one day's ride on horseback more 

 good locations than he can use is hard to 

 please. Bees don't cost here $5.00 to $6 00 

 per colony in log gums, but from $1.25 to$l. 50 

 (Spanish silver). Land does not cost an 

 enormous rental for a few yards. My apiary 

 of 69 hives is situated 3500 meters from the 

 city limits on half a caballeria (some 16 acres) 

 of land that costs me in rental $20.00 currency 

 a year. I have never seen foul brood here, 

 nor heard of it. Moths are plentiful, as in all 

 warm climates. Since September 20 we here 

 have been hard at work extracting royal palm 

 and Indian-vine honey, and since Nov. 1 the 

 pure white aguinaldo (or campanilla, as we 

 cill it here), is in full swing. 



This part of Cuba has always been noted as 



a honey-producer ; and although the late war 

 did lots of harm, the industry of bee-keeping 

 is fast coming to the front again ; and with 

 improved methods, hives, and extractors, we 

 shall soon beat our own record. 

 Puerto Principe, Cuba, Dec. 31. 



TWO ITEMS. 



Fumigation of Queens in the Foreign Mails; Hon- 

 ey Candjing in Uncleaned Sections. 



BY G. M. DOOLIXTLE. 



On reaching home irom my six weeks' ab- 

 sence in the " Sunny South " I am pleased to 

 see that the National Bee-keepers' Association 

 won the Ucter-Utter suit, which was & glorious 

 victory for our pursuit, and one which will go 

 down to all time as a precedent to any who ig- 

 norantly or maliciously wish to attack the bee- 

 industry. And, so far as I know, the bee- 

 keepers have won in all litigations which have 

 been started against them, ever since we or- 

 ganized ourselves into a body to show to the 

 world that we have natural rights in this 

 world as well as others. In view of these re- 

 sults, the strange thing is that, out of about 

 30D,000 bee-keepers in the United States and 

 Canada, less than 600 seem to care enough 

 about these achievements to send in a dollar 

 and join their names and destinies with us. 

 Come, you 299,400 on the outside, wake up to 

 your privileges. 



But this was not what I started to write 

 about. From some facts which have come to 

 me lately, it would seem that the time is at 

 hand when the N. B. K. A. can help the bee- 

 keepers of the world along the line of a " new 

 departure. ' ' Our pursuit would probably have 

 never risen to the prominence it now enjoys 

 had this country never had any other bees 

 than the black bee of our fathers ; for, in my 

 estimation, the importation of the different 

 races of bees we have in this country to-day 

 (outside of the black bee) has been one of the 

 incentives which have raised our pursuit from 

 where it was forty years ago to the eminence 

 it now enjoys. And, if I see clearly, there is 

 something that stands directly in the way of 

 any further improvement of the bees of the 

 world by way of importing choice stock from 

 the Orient to us, and of our exporting our 

 choice stock over to them. All importers and 

 exporters have found out, sooner or later, 

 that, while some shipments of bees have gone 

 through in apparently perfect condition, oth- 

 er shipments have arrived at destination all 

 dead; and we have wondered at this, for, so 

 far as we could see, the same pains and care- 

 fulness were used on the latter as on the for- 

 mer. A year ago last summer I was filling a 

 large order from Jamaica for queens, sending 

 from six to twelve a week. Up to 35 or 40, 

 every one went through in perfect condition, 

 when all at once one shipment went through 

 with every bee dead. I had the cages all re- 

 turned to me ; and as soon as I looked at 

 them I came to the conclusion that the mails 

 containing this shipment had been fumigated, 

 as the bees all had their tongues protruding. 



