§12 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



so disgracefully as do our soldier boys on 

 the stroug-er liquors. 



At Batabano we take a steamer and sail 

 away sixty miles to the Isla de Pinos. The 

 Caribbean Sea here Jis so shallow that we 

 can see the bottom nearly all the way. Here 

 are extensive sponge- fisheries, and there 

 are carloads of them, both large and small, 

 at Batabano. As we approach the " isla " 

 the steamer has to tack here and there be- 

 tween the little tree-covered islands. In 

 this country they are called keys; and we 

 finallj' run up the Santa Fe River and tie 

 up a jucaro {hoo-kah-7-o). Just around the 

 bend in the river is the new town of Colum- 

 bia — not a building there. A short dis- 

 tance inland is the town proper; and when 

 we were there Columbia boasted of two 

 houses. The town is on the Rio del Mai 

 Pais (river of the bad country). In spite 

 of the name, this is where our Iowa people 

 have their 20,000 acres. The people were 

 very enthusiastic in the improvement of the 

 country ; and before a house had been 

 built, orange-trees had been planted, and 

 were putting forth a nice growth. While 

 the orange seems to be the leading fruit in 

 the minds of the settlers, there are many 

 fruits that can be grown here. There are 

 5000 acres along the sea-coast, adapted to 

 the growth of cocoanuts and bananas. This 

 land was in the market at $5.00 per acre, 

 and Mr. Moe and the Rambler became in- 

 terested to the amount of ten acres each. 



The Iowa people are not the only parties 

 interested in the Isle of Pines. A company 

 of New York capitalists owns 

 over 70,000 acres of land, while 

 Johnson & Durham, real-estate 

 dealers, are interested in an- 

 other slice of a few thousand 

 acres. Mr. Moe and I were 

 sort o' under the guidance of 

 Mr. Johnson; and in order to 

 join a party for the interior we 

 made but a brief stop at Co- 

 lumbia, and then cut across 

 country five miles to the larg- 

 est town on the island — Nueva 

 Gerona. We found, as our 

 real-estate men told us, that 

 we could wheel almost any- 

 where on the Isle of Pines. 

 The soil is entirely difterent 

 from that on the west end of 

 Cuba. 



While waiting for our real- 

 estate men to get under motion 

 we " explored " a little around 

 Nueva Gerona, and found two 

 bee-keepers— Mr. Keenan,with 

 about 30 colonies, and Mr. 

 Folksdorf, with a few more. 

 Mr. Keenan was busy putting 

 in an ice-plant, and was evi- 

 dently not much interested in 

 bees. Mr. Folksdorf lived on 

 the other side of the bay, and 

 had purchased a caballeria 

 (33>3 acres) of land, and it 

 was such an ideal place for 

 a home that Mr. Moe wanted 



to invest there too. I did not know that Mr. 

 Moe was a fisherman until we looked off 

 the bluff into the clear water of the bay, 

 and saw fish a foot or more in length. 

 How his hands itched for a hook, line, and 

 pole! and with these temptations before him 

 every day, and a boat handy, Mr. Folks- 

 dorf had never fished there. Comment is 

 unnecessary. 



Mr. F. 's bees also looked as though they 

 needed a little more attention. About all 

 of Mr. F. 's energ-ies were being devoted to 

 the improvement of his land and to garden- 

 ing. I wished to get some idea of the hon- 

 ey resources of the island, and plied Mr. Y. 

 with a few questions; but he would invari- 

 ably get oft" on to the gardening subject. I 

 gathered, however, that the season was 

 different from the season in Cuba. While 

 up to the time of our visit the harvest was 

 on in Cuba, the bees had just about made 

 a living in the Isle of Pines. We saw but 

 a trace of bellflower, either in Columbia or 

 Nueva Gerona. Mr. F. said the bees gath- 

 ered honey later from the near-by hills ; 

 but as to the flora gathered from, he could 

 not specify. It appeared that no one had 

 been long enough on the isle to test many of 

 its resources; and this is especially the 

 case in reference to honey production. 



I herewith present two photos of the small 

 apiaries we found. I would call particu- 

 lar attention to the peculiar shape of the 

 trunk of the palm on Mr. Folksdorf's place. 

 In some locations in Cuba all of the palms 

 have this enlargement. 



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