1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



229 



fast. This seemed strange to me, but I found 

 that their breakfast was Irom ten to twelve. 



Ill the afternoon I walked up ludependen- 

 cia St., the leading street in the place, as 

 shown below. Except for the height of the 

 buildings, this street is not so very much un- 

 like some of our American streets. It is quite 

 wide, and the sidewalks are much wider than 

 many in Matanzas. 



When I went down to dinner that night I 

 noticed that there were some mosquitoes about. 

 I sat down to the dinner-table alone, and very 

 soon the mosquitoes discovered that there 

 was but little hair on the top of my head. I 

 had got along in Cuba very well so far, but I 

 was simply obliged to cut my dinner short and 

 beat a retreat. The mosquitoes would give 

 me no rest whatever. I consider this the 

 worst difficulty I found in Cuba. Later on in 

 the evening I went to my room, and, as the 

 beds are provided with mosquito-bars, I pass- 

 ed a very comfortable night. 



Early next morning I called at the office of 

 Mr. J. B. Hamel. He had just returned from 

 a trip in the interior. This gentleman, I am 

 told, has been in Cuba some 25 years or more. 

 He is interested in various enterprises, among 

 which is the production and sale of honey, 

 and later he has taken up the sale of bee- 

 keepers' supplies as well. In the afternoon 

 we drove out to his apiary, about three miles 

 from the city, where I found several hundred 

 colonies in frame hives. The harvest was just 

 coming on, and it gave me a great deal of en- 

 thusiasm to open the hives and see the combs 

 so well filled. We returned to the city late in 

 the afternoon, and I went to the hotel for din- 

 ner. I determined that this time I should not 

 be beaten by the mosquitoes, so I went down 

 to the dining-room with my hat on, and kept 

 it on during the entire evening. I don't want 

 the readers to get the impression that these 

 mosquitoes were more ferocious than ordinary, 

 but I should say that they were very fond of 

 Americans, and perhaps I am more sensitive 

 than the average American in this matter. I 

 do not mind a dozen or fifteen bee-stings very 

 much, but I prefer to be excused when it 

 comes to mosquitoes. 



This being the evening of Dec. 24th, it ap- 

 peared very early that the people were prepar- 

 ing for their Christmas festivities. I was told 

 that the custom prevails there of having their 

 Christmas dinner or feast on the evening or 

 night of the 24th, and, as nearly as I can 

 judge, many of the people do not go to bed at 

 all that night — at least I remember a very 

 troubled sleep, for it seemed to me that I nev- 

 er heard more noise all night long than I 

 heard there. Very late in the night I got up, 

 and, looking out, saw a band of people march- 

 ing by to some kind of music, and not long 

 after I saw another of the same. It appears 

 that opposing companies are made up for 

 some purpose — just what, I could not discov- 

 er, although it occurred to me each was trying 

 to outdo the other in the amount of noise it 

 made. Instead of turkeys for their feast, as 

 we have here in the North, roast pig is the 

 principal article. I am told that every family 

 who can afford it has the roast pig. I did not 



discover that the giving of presents was as 

 common there as it is here, although this 

 practice prevails to some extent. 



Dec. 25th I left Cardenas for Havana, and 

 reached that place late on Christmas evening. 

 After some delay I found my way to the hotel 

 La Isla de Cuba, fronting the Central Park, 

 and during my stay here, of some ten days, I 

 found this a most pleasant location. 



Early on the morning of the 26th I engaged 

 an interpreter, and together we started out to 

 find my bee-keeping friends. 



Readers of Gleanings will remember very 

 well some articles in year.s past, from the pen 

 of Fred Cray craft, formerly of Indiana, and 

 later from Florida, and still later.from Cuba. 

 If I remember rightly, his first article appear- 

 ed as long ago as 1882, in Juvenile Glean- 

 ings. Mr. Craycraft is now chief clerk of 

 the Record Department of the Cuban customs 

 service. Before the war he had a large apiary, 

 which was entirely destroyed at that time, 

 and, while he has not lost his love for bee- 

 keeping, he has recently taken the above-nam- 

 ed position, as it is more remunerative. 



I soon found my way to the custom-house, 

 and within a few minutes after finding him it 

 seemed quite impossible to realize that I had 

 not known him before. He seemed exactly 

 like an old acquaintance. This, I presume, 

 comes about because I had known him by cor- 

 respondence as well as his writings, and, in 

 fact, it does not take two bee-keepers very 

 long to get acquainted, anyway. Later in the 

 day I met Mr. F. H. de Beche, who was also 

 a bee-keeper before the war, now engaged in 

 one of the leading houses in Havana, and a 

 partner with Mr. Craycraft in an apiary re- 

 cently established a few miles out of the city. 

 These men found a little leisure time outside 

 of their regular duties, and last fall decided 

 to start an apiary. They ordered about 25 nu- 

 clei with queens from Florida as a starter. 

 Being very successful with this lot they order- 

 ed another, and still another ; and when I vis- 

 ited the apiary they had some 200 or 300 colo- 

 nies. 



In the afternoon of this day I visited the 

 office and warehouse of Bridat, Mont, Ros & 

 Co., large exporters of tobacco and honey. 



Of my visit there and to the apiaries of W. 

 W. Somerford and Harry Howe, both of whom 

 the readers of Gleanings remember, I will 

 write in my next. 



HOW DEEP SHALL TRE UNCAPPING-KNIFE 

 SHAVE? 



CoggshaH's Statement Criticised; Unwholesome- 

 ness of Commercial Glucose. 



BV E. H. SCHAEFFLE. 



Extracting- time will soon be here ; in fact, 

 the hills are covered with wild flowers at this 

 writing, Feb. 23, in the lower part of the State. 

 Here the bees have been shut in for a month 

 past, during a continuous rain that shows no 

 sign of abating. About once a week the bees 

 get a chance to rush out and go to the alders, 

 and come home laden with pollen. We are 



