284 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



Howe on the next day. We started down to 

 Osbjrn's, where I saw the steam extractor and 

 the famous Cuban apiary which have more 

 than once been described in Gi,eanings. We 

 visited with friend Osborn, ate oranges, and 

 then all three rode up to Punta Brava for sup- 

 per. After supper we visited Pedro Luis Gar- 

 cia Zimara and his partner, ^ r. Alfreda Felipe, 

 and later we rode out in the moonlight to see 

 the apiary of Fontanilla Bros., merchants and 

 bee-keepers. While I could not see this very 

 well by moonlight, it appeared to me that it 

 was well kept, and that it must be in the hands 

 of a very progressive apiarist. We finally re- 

 turned to Somerford's late in the evening, and 

 prepared for cur trip to Howe's the following 

 day. 



Our trip down to Artemisa along the stone 

 road was without event. On my way down 

 there I halted our party of four, made up of 

 W. W. and Frank Somerford, Harry Osborn, 

 and myself, to take a shot at the aguinaldo, 

 or bellflower, which is here shown. This is 

 not a very satisfactory picture, but it will show 

 the profusion of the bloom. The plant grows 

 wild, and is found running over walls, hedges, 

 and in every conceivable place. It does not, 

 however, grow in every locality, for, while it 

 is profuse in one place, within a mile or two 

 there may be almost none, so one must not ex- 

 pect to find in Cuba that every locality is a 

 good one for bee-keepers. 



On our arrival at Howe's we found Mr. Glen 

 Moe, of Candelaria, with Mr. Howe, and Mr. 

 Harry Beaver. The latter is managing an api- 

 ary situated a few miles from Artemisa, for 

 Mr. W. L. Coggshall, of West Groton, N. Y. 

 They were busily engaged in extracting ; but 

 on our arrival they discontinued their work, 

 and soon our party of seven was on the way 

 down to Artemisa for dinner. I shall never 

 forget the cocoanut dessert we had at that 

 Cuban dinner. My morning ride had made 

 me very hungry, and gave me a keen relish 

 for this. After dinner we visited in turn the 

 apiaries of W. L. Coggshall and C. F. Hoch- 

 stein, known to readers of Glkanings as 

 " The American Tramp." 



While the Cuban stone road rather surpasses 

 the average American road for bicycling, I do 

 not think I ever undertook to make a trip of 

 four miles over as rough ground as that trip 

 of four miles in the woods to Hochstein's. I 

 had warned the boys that I was not much of a 

 bic\ cle-rider ; but they, evidently, were deter- 

 mined to see what I could do, and, very for- 

 tunately for me, I happened to be pretty steady 

 that day, and succeeded rather better than 

 some who were more used to the route than 

 I. We found Mr. Hochstein busy extracting. 

 The season thus far had not come up to his 

 expectations, though he was inclined to be- 

 lieve the locality was more at fault. We pass- 

 ed several hours very pleasantly with him, 

 and his family of wife, son, and daughter. 

 My chief regret during my visit in Cuba was 

 that I was necessarily obliged to hurry from 

 one place to another, and could scarcely keep 

 all my appointments or stay with my friends 

 as long as I desired. 



My next will contain a view of the apiary of 



F. O. Somerford, of Catalina, who has been 

 in Ciiba some ten or eleven yeais, and per- 

 haps been engaged in bee culture as long as, 

 or longer than, any other American there. 



SPRAYING DURING BLOOM. 



Not Recommended by the New York Experiment 



Station, nor Sanctioned by Green's Fruit 



Grower. 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



This will be about the season for spraying ; 

 and the following, taken from Green's Fruit 

 Grower for March, 1901, is most timely and 

 valuable.^ It is true, that we published an ac- 

 count of the same experiments on page 10:^> ; 

 yet this evidence, sanctioned as it is by one of 

 the leading fruit-papers of the land, should 

 have great weight wdth fruit-growers who aie 

 inclined to regard all testimony offered by 

 bee-keepers as biased and one-sided evidence ; 

 but here we have something that comes from 

 one of their oivn orga7is. If they won't be- 

 lieve this, they would not accept any evidence. 

 So valuable do we consider it that we are 

 printing this in the furm of a leaflet, and will 

 furnish it to the bee-keepers at the mere 

 cost of postage and wrapping. We suggest 

 that bee-keepers in all fruit- growing regions 

 distribute these by the hundred. We will, 

 therefore, send them out postage paid at the 

 following rates : 10 fori cent; 100, 5cts.; 500, 

 15 cts. 



SHALL WE SPRAY TREES WHEN IN BLOSSOM? 



In the coming time, to insure success in fruit-grow- 

 ing the fruit-grower will be obliged to manage his or- 

 chard in accord with scientific principles. Perhaps 

 farmers with little scientific knowledge will be able 

 to manage an acre or two so as to produce all the fruit 

 required for home consumption ; but to grow fruit for 

 market so as to be able to compete with those who 

 grow fine, first-class fruit, he will be obliged to know 

 enough of entomology to know what poisons to use to 

 destroy the different species of insects and also when 

 to apply those poisons to effect greatest results, and at 

 the same time do the least harm to the trees or fruits. 

 He will also need to know enough of fungology to be 

 able to combat the different kinds with remedies, 

 when those remedies will be most effectual. As it 

 happens, most of the inject enemies come into act ve 

 life with the first warm days of spring. A few warm 

 days will hatch the eggs in which the insects have 

 passed the winter, or cause the larvce, which have 

 spent the winter in pupae, to leave their winter aboJes 

 and commence crawling over the tree or plant on 

 which they have wintered, in search of the tender 

 leaves which form their most appropriate food. The 

 instinct of the maternal parent guides her to depi sit 

 her egg close to suitable food for the young larvae. 

 Hence we learn that some of the most formidable in- 

 sect enemies of the fruit culturist— the bud-worm the 

 case-bearer, the apple-leaf folder, the leaf-crumpler, 

 and several others a little le.'s destructive, are ready 

 to enter the opening bud and commence eating before 

 it is fully expanded, and those very formidable ene- 

 mies, the tent-caterpillar and the canker-worm, soon 

 follow. There is no period in the life of those insects 

 when they can be so easily destroyed by arsenical 

 poisons as when they first begin to feed. A weak 

 mixture of arsenic will then destroy them while a 

 much stronger mixture may fail to do so when they 

 have attained to larger growth. It is evident, then, 

 that apple-trees should be sprayed with Paris green, 

 or other forms of arsenic, when the buds first begin 

 to swell, certainly when the leaves begin to unfold. 

 As many kinds of fungi commence to grow with the 

 first warm days of sprirrg, Bordeaux mixture can be 

 profitably mixed with the arsenical poi.son. 



A few years ago, from a mistaken idea Of the time 

 when the codling-moth first lays hereggs, orchardists. 



