1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



859 



RAMBLE 212. 

 The Isle of Pines as a Hooey Country. 



BY RAMBLER. 



After visiting- Mr. Folksdorf, and taking- 

 in the beauties of the little bay that broke 

 the monotony of his farm, we all joined 

 our real-estate men and spent a good share 

 of the day in looking- at land and getting 

 to the next important town, Santa Fe, al- 

 most 10 miles inland. The government has 

 graded a fine road to this town, and the 

 wheeling was fine. It was while on this 

 road that we were impressed with the idea 

 that we were indeed upon the Isle of Pines, 

 for the timber was of that kind, and there 

 was much of it. The soil, much of it, was 

 a coarse red gravel, also much soil partic- 

 ularly adapted to the cultivation of tobacco. 



At Santa Fe are mineral springs, and 

 for 150 years it has been a resort for the 

 well-to-do people of Cuba. Yellow fever is 

 unknown here, and the temperature not ex- 

 treme at any portion of the year. 



The hotel-keeper where we abode for two 

 days was also a grocer and storekeeper. 

 He called our attention to quite a pile of 

 beeswax in his store. With Mr. Moe as in- 

 terpreter I learned that the wax was pur- 

 chased from a native bee-keeper who owned 

 about 300 colonies three leagues from town, 

 and secured about 7 lbs. of wax to the hive. 

 The honey was drained off in Cuban style, 

 and all of it fed back to the bees. The hon- 

 ey here is usually put into "garaphones." 



Over on the south side of the island there 

 is a native with 1200 colonies, and his yield 

 was turned mostly to wax. 

 From the size of the native api- 

 aries in that direction, that por- 

 tion of the island is evidently a 

 better place for bees. 



Some have compared the pin- 

 ey portion of the isle to the pine 

 barrens of Florida, with the ex- 

 ception that a different and bet- 

 ter soil prevails here. But cer- 

 tainly Mr. Moe and I would not 

 think of planting an apiary in 

 this portion of the island. 

 While the piney portion is the 

 most elevated, the south coast 

 is nearer the sea level, and the 

 vegetation different, and may 

 contain [more honey flora. The 

 timber is different, the pine 

 scarce, and there is a great 

 amount of mahogany and other 



valuable timber. The native who 

 had to feed his bees to tide them 

 over was near the pineries. 



The largest shipment of bees 

 to the isle was made in 1901 by 

 Mr. Hilas Davis, of Vermont. 

 He shipped 200 colonies to the 

 Columbia Settlement; and al- 

 though we did not get around to 

 see this apiary, we were inform- 

 ed that the bees were barely mak- 

 ing a living, and at a time when the honey 

 harvest was on in Cuba. Mr. Davis had a 

 partner in this venture, and for some rea- 

 son Mr. Davis sold his interest and return- 

 ed to Vermont. I learned, as late as March, 

 that the bees were doing better. The own- 

 er had just purchased 5 lbs. of foundation 

 at the Root Co. 's headquarters to send over 

 to this apiary of 200 colonies. I certainly 

 hope that the bees have done better since. 



It would be unfair for me to say that the 

 Isle of Pines is altogether unfit for profita- 

 ble bee-keeping. There may be excellent 

 locations; but Mr. Moe and I, in our few 

 days' visit, saw nothing that would induce 

 us to put an apiary there. Those who hold 

 out rose-colored inducements to that effect 

 are those who have but little knowledge of 

 bees, and who think that a honey-yield can 

 be gathered from a few orange-trees or from 

 the flora of the front flower-yard of some 

 residence. As a very sensible person said, 

 who has been on the island two years, and 

 who has cast his lot there, "This whole 

 proposition of bee culture, fruits, and gar- 

 den truck is wholly, so far, an experiment, 

 and will be until the trees are bearing ship- 

 loads of fruit, and the gardens producing 

 the same of winter vegetables. It is also 

 an experiment until it is decided that it is 

 United States land, and until regular lines 

 of steamers are run direct to the States." 



It is hoped that the experiment will prove 

 successful, for there are good and worth}' 

 men and women on the isle who deserve a 

 rich reward for their toil. 



A portion of the Davis bees shipped to 

 the Isle of Pines were in the Davis hive; 

 and while talking with him at the home 



OM<" FOR THE INTERIOR. 



