1002 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



225 



A VISIT FROM COL. VIETA. 



We have recently had a most enjoy- 

 able, though brief visit from Col. Gan- 

 zalo Garcia Vieta, one of Cuba's most 

 extensive producers of honey. With- 

 out previous knowledge of the business, 

 the colonel purchased the apiary estab- 

 lished on the south coast of Cuba by 

 the editor of The Bee-Keeper, some 

 sixteen years ago. During the late 

 war the Spanish burned all his bees, 

 which numbered about 2,000 colonies, 

 and also his very complete apiarian 

 equipment. Since then, however, Col. 

 Vieta has gone up again like a rocket, 

 and now has about l.^'^OO colonies, in 

 five or six apiaries, scattered through 

 the mountains. Since his return to 

 Cuba, we are advised that even before 

 the bellflower had begun to bloom, 

 about 15 tons of honey had been ex- 

 tracted. The prospect .for 150 tons of 

 honey this winter is very favorable; 

 and the colonel's enterprise is deserving 

 of all the success which may come to 

 him. 



With their apiaries conveniently lo- 

 cated about and near their homes, it is 

 improbable that many American bee- 

 keepers appreciate the difificulties un- 

 der which bee-keepers of the Cuban 

 mountains have to labor. Colonies of 

 bees, supplies, the honey produced, and 

 all incidentals have to be "packed" up- 

 on the backs of horses, mules or oxen, 

 along the mountain trails, a great dis- 

 tance, to and from the apiaries. Think 

 of having to "pack" 200 tons of 

 honey in this way to the seashore, 

 thence thirty or forty miles by boat to 

 a shipping point. Do Americans rec- 

 ognize no competition in people who 

 display such remarkable pluck and en- 

 terprise'-* Everything about Colonel 

 Vieta's apiaries was of the most im- 

 proved order; steam power for extract- 

 ing, and an automatic system of con- 

 veying the combs from the apiaries to 

 the extracting house, or room. The 

 new equipment will doubtless be even 

 more complete and much more exten- 

 sive. One case, of two cans on each 

 side — 240 poi»ids — constitute a load for 

 a horse or mule in transporting honey 

 from the mountains. In moving colo- 

 nies of bees, five are taken at once — two 

 on each side and one secured on top. 

 Few -Americans, we think, would care to 

 undertake such difficulties in order to 

 succeed in bee-keeping; yet it is this 

 sort of pluck and determ^ation which 



wins out in this as in anv other busi- 

 ness. 



Owing to the fact that Col. Vieta is 

 a member of congress in the young re- 

 public, and at present necessarily in 

 Havana a great part of the time, he is 

 unable to give the bees the personal at- 

 tention which he formerly did; though 

 he makes it a point to visit each apiary 

 once a month, at least, and give per- 



C01>. (i. G.AKCI.V VIETA. 



Representa nte. 



sonal directions as to their manage- 

 ment. 



The subject of this brief sketch has 

 for many years been one of the editor's 

 warmest friends, and a staunch support- 

 er of The American Bee-Keeper, and 

 we have pleasure in presenting herewith 

 a snap shot of our Cuban visitor, which 

 was taken while he gazed with evident 

 compassioa upon the poverty-stricken 

 sands o-f Ft. Pierce, and mused with 

 sympathetic feelings upon the plight of 

 its inhabitants. 



