1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



423 



RAMBLE 202. 



A Visit at Guanajay; Spanish Honey; Stingless Bees; Effects of the War; Locating an Apiary; Mos. 



quitoes; a Spanish Home. 



BY KAMBLRR. 



Mr. Somerford and I inade a sort of fly- 

 ing- call upon Messrs. Howe, Beaver, Moe, 

 and Hochstine; but as I am doing- up Som- 

 erford now I will reserve the doing-up of 

 the other gentlemen later — especially that 

 lively chap Howe, who greatly defamed my 

 qualities of endurance on page 110. I'll 

 fix him. Before we called upon Mr. Hoch- 

 stine, Mr. Somerford informed me in a con- 

 fidential way that said gentleman was a 

 great talker, and that he might give me the 

 headache if we stopped too long, or possi- 

 bly cause a fit of sickness. 



I took what he said with some mental res- 

 ervations, for I had discovered that Mr. S. 

 is no small talker, and I was feeling a lit- 

 tle queer under his administration. But 

 when Mr. Hochstine took me to one side and 

 informed me that Somerford had killed one 

 man with talk, and that I should beware 

 of him, I believed him, took the alarm, and 

 retired to Havana, rested several days, and 

 was then ready for another trip. I shall 

 be under lasting obligations to Mr. Hoch- 

 stine for his timely warning. 



Mr. Somerford is one of those men who 

 have a good amount of "sunshine" in their 

 souls. As the old adage has it, "his heart 

 is on his sleeve," and he does his thinking 

 out loud. He may have on that old straw 

 hat cocked up in front and down behind, a 

 jumper and overalls the worse for honey; 

 but when the words begin to flow, and the 

 sunshine (smiles) begins to play, 3-ou forget 

 all of the minor surroundings, and think 

 only of the man behind the words. He is 

 ready to talk and advise the humblest, and 

 I believe he would sit down just as uncon- 

 cerned before president or king. 



Mr. S. believes in doing one thing, and 

 doing it well; therefore he is in the honey 

 business for the cash there is in it; and, as 

 previously stated, in a larg-e way. 



In order to still enlarge the field, Christ- 

 mas and the day after were spent in look- 

 ing- up new fields. 



Christmas morning Mr. Somerford and 

 one of his men, Mr. Faulkner, a New Jer- 

 sey boy, and the Rambler, mounted wheels, 



and, after a six-mile spin over the beauti- 

 ful calzada, we arrived in Guanajay. 

 Here Mr. S. had some business with the 

 postmaster, and I was very glad he did. 

 The postmaster is a Cuban, and also a bee- 

 keeper in a small way, but aspires to some- 

 thing larger, and with American hives. 

 Mr. S., with a ready flow of Spanish, gave 

 him many pointers on the construction of 

 the new hives. 



It is no matter how forbidding- and pris- 

 on-like the exterior of a Spanish house may 

 appear, there is alwa3's a cheerful little 

 court in the interior. The photo g-ives you 

 a glimpse of such a court. In the end next 

 the postotflce is the family dining-table, 

 and, using the table for a tripod, I secured 

 the photo. Observe the tile roofs, stone 

 floors, the house-plants, stone water-jars 

 and barrel, and the family g-oat. If the 

 owner has a horse, that is kept here too. 



The most interesting object to me was 

 that little oblong box over the further door. 

 There were several of them hanging- along 

 under the eaves, and they contained swarms 

 of the stingfless bees of Cuba. The bee is 

 much smaller than our common bee, and for 

 a defense it contracts the entrance down so 

 that one bee can barely enter. There is 

 always one inside with its head in the en- 

 trance, ready to thrust out any intruder, 

 and I am told that their bill is not to be de- 

 spised. I hope to make a further stud}' of 

 this interesting bee. 



Again we were off, for Quiebrahacha. 

 Here we had our Christmas dinner with 

 Mr. Ouint, an American who is in the g-ar- 

 dening business, and had on that day as 

 nice tomatoes and egg--plants growing as 

 you seldom see. One of the sad features of 

 this island are the many ruins as a result 

 from the long war. Here was formerly a 

 large town of substantial stone buildings, 

 but it was utterly destroj'ed — on every side, 

 ruins; churches with wrecked walls; per- 

 haps a bell remains in a broken tower, but 

 it has lost its connection with the earth, 

 and is silent. A few palm houses and a 

 few Cubans reside in what was once the 



