1894 



GLEANINGS IN BKE CULTURE. 



(W) 



honey-season must not look for so much gold 

 on the backs of his bees. 



The quality of the honey here is excellent, 

 the honey of the flower of the campanilla-vine 

 being of an exceedingly fine, mild flavor. liut 

 very little of the surplus honey is dark, as 

 almo'^t the whole crop comes from campanilla, 

 which commeiu'i'S to blossom the last of No- 

 vembt-r. and lasts until lhi> end of July. 



If the biie-keep(?rs here would put up th<Mr 

 tine honey in such a manner that it could be 

 put on the northern markets as a first-class 

 article, coming as it does when there is no new 

 honey in the United Slates, it would bring a 

 good ()rice, and would not interfere in any way 

 with the American production. 



Nearly all tlie honey is bought by dealers in 

 Havana who pay but little attention to color 

 or quality, the principal requisite being thick- 

 ness. Last season the dealers paid only fiom 

 3 to 3'- cts. per lb., free of package. 



The readers of Gi,p:anings would no doubt 

 be surprised if they knew of the many modern 

 apiaries springing up all over the island; but 

 there are so few persons who have had any 

 practical experience with bees, and the scarcity 

 of Spanish bee-literature, that some of the 

 beginners will undoubtedly make a failure. 

 We need practical, experienced men who are 

 not afraid lo work; but there are two reasons 

 that will always deter Americans from coming 

 to Cuba; namely, the language, and its being 

 out of Uncle Sam's domain. 



In closing, I wish to say to those who think 

 of coming to Cuba that she has the finest cli- 

 mate in the world, and many advantages; but, 

 think twice before jumping. 



San Jose de las Gajas, Cuba, July 28. 



[Our older readers will perhaps remember 

 that this same Fred L. Craycrait is one who 

 used to write, when a mere boy, (juite spicy 

 and pithy articles for the old JuvknilkGlkan- 

 INGS. now merged into thi- regular issue of the 

 l.Tth of the month. Altlnjugh Cuba is no doubt 

 one of the finest, and perhaps the finest, bee- 

 countty in the world, friend Craycraft, it 

 seems to us, has made quite a record — from It) 

 colonies, very weak, an increase of 284. and 

 r)8,0(K) lbs. of honey. Such marvelous yields as 

 this would pay pretty well, even if the honey 

 did not bring liiore than 3 cts. per lb. Why, 

 that is better than 10 cts. on a fair crop of 10,()(K) 

 or l.^.(J<J(J lbs., such as bee-keepers in this coun- 

 try would couni as a fair yield. We have ask- 

 ed our friend Mr. Craycraft (we say "Mr.." 

 because we assume he is now jnan grown) to 

 let us hear from him again.— Ed.] 



THE VALUE OF PATENT MEDICINES. 



THAT NEW 15KK - DI8E.VSK IX CALIFOHNI.V ; 

 STAKVATION THE SUGGESTED CAUSE. 



BjiProf. A. J. Cook. 



J)e<tr Mr. Editor:— You know it is a wonder 

 to you and me that people will buy so much 

 patent medicine. I believe I have the explana- 



tion. One feels ill, and, despite the fact that 

 nature must work the cure, and usually finds it 

 hard enough without any added embarrass- 

 ment, lit* drinks in the spirit of the age, which 

 nrg<\s us to meet pain with medication, and 

 buys and takes the patented stuff. Usually na- 

 ture is enough for both disea.se and medicine, 

 and tlie medicine gets the credit of the cure, 

 when, more likely, it was nature's handicap. 



I purchased several colonies of bees, and pur- 

 posely selected those with the new bee-disease 

 and those that were suffering severely. It was 

 a strange coincidence that those most diseased 

 were nearest starvation's door. I supposed that 

 the disease accounted for the paucity of liuney. 

 Well, the first thing to do was to feed, and so I 

 could easily medicate. Fortunately, there were 

 enough cases to use more than one nostrum. 

 One colony was put into a new hive with notli- 

 ing but empty frames, ami libi-rally fed with 

 tine last year's honey. New combs — tine ones — 

 appeared very quickly, and soon there was an 

 abundance of brood, pollen, (isn't it strange 

 that bees can gather liberally of pollen, though 

 unable to secure any honey?) and stores, but 

 not a sign of the disease. First cure, transfer 

 into a aew hive, and feed. No. 2 was simply 

 fed honey with phenol, and this was likewise 

 cured. Cure No. 2, phenol. No. 3 had salicylic 

 acid, and was also cured, and so we have a third 

 remedy. The others were fed only the pure 

 honey, and it is certainly true that they too are 

 all cured. 



Now, if I were given to betting I would wager 

 my best hat that the whole trouble was starva- 

 tion. I may be wrong, but it looks surprisingly 

 like it. The story goes, that a penurious man 

 sought to teach his horse to live without eating. 

 He was succeeding well; but, unfortunately, 

 the horse died just before the experiment was 

 concluded. Have we not been trying a like ex- 

 periment with our bees? May be 1 am wrong ; 

 but it does look surprisingly that way to me. I 

 have recently examined somecolonies quite rich 

 in last year's honey, and find no signs of the 

 malady, while others, in the same apiary, desti- 

 tute of stores, are much diseased. Our friends 

 Wilder and '• Rambler" saw none of the mortal- 

 ity in their hives — of course, not. Their bees 

 are not on the verge of starvation. They are 

 wise bee-keepers, and as cautious as wise. It 

 was well in my experiments that I tried a vari- 

 ety of remedies, else one might have received 

 undue credit. I wish patent-medicine takers 

 could try such variety of cures all at once. It 

 might be an eye-opener, save to them their 

 money, and, I am sure, nature would have an 

 easier struggle. 



Now, if I am all wrong in the above sugges- 

 tion I hope I shall be pardoned. It is very im- 

 portant. It is certainly true that many colonies 

 of bees in this section must be fed speedily or 

 they will be lost. If fed, I think the fell disease 



