1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



17 



them on arrival in New Orleans, evi- 

 dently caused by stacking other ex- 

 press matter over them, or leaving 

 them in the sun. 



I had each colony plainly marked in 

 large letters, "keep out of the sun" 

 and "do not cover the screen." 



The steamship company would not 

 accept any freight or express matter 

 for this trip to Costa Rica, only for 

 Panama, which made it necessary for 

 me to store 20 cases of household 

 goods in New Orleans, to be shipped 

 on a later boat. But the company 

 finally consented to take the 6 colo- 

 nies of bees along for me as bag- 

 gage, and I to look after them per- 

 sonally, which was very kind of 

 them. I had paid them $600 for pas- 

 sage money for my family and myself. 

 The bees were placed on the deck of 

 the steamer under a canvass that was 

 put up to protect deck freight from 

 the sun and rain. I watered them 

 every day, and they fared well until 

 we arrived at Cristobal, Canal Zone. 

 Here the steamer tied up at the north 

 side of a pier for 3 days to discharge 

 3,000 tons of cargo. The canvass that 

 shaded the bees was cleared away. 

 The mate gave me a small piece of 

 canvass, and by propping this up with 

 a few pieces of old lumber, I put up a 

 temporary shade and moved the bees 

 to the bow of the boat, but it was 

 almost unbearably hot, and how any 

 of the bees survived the three days' 

 stay in Cristobal is a mystery to 

 me. 



Finally the ship's hold was emptied 

 of cargo, which was a relief for sev- 

 eral reasons; we would soon be out 

 on the high seas again, where it was 

 cooler, and as we passed an occa- 

 sional thunder storm we did not rel- 

 ish living over a cargo that contained 

 coal oil, gasoline and ammunition. 

 Most of the passengers were also 

 discharged at Cristobal. Mr. Pullen, 

 United States Consular Agent to 

 Costa Rica, also a native of our State, 

 was the only passenger besides us that 

 came all the way. On the following 

 day we arived at Limon, Costa Rica. 

 The fringe of cocoanut palms along 

 the beach, the white houses, the tall 

 wireless tower of the Fruit Company, 

 with the dark green mountains for a 

 background, made a beautiful picture. 

 Our steamer anchored out in the 

 Road, and did not go up to the pier, 

 as they had no freight for Costa Rica. 

 The bees, mail and other baggage 

 were lowered from the deck of the 

 steamer to a barge by means of a 

 large net made out of ropes. 



Before leaving Cristobal I had pur- 

 chased 10 pounds of cut loaf or 

 domino sugar to feed to the bees in 

 case they would need feeding before 

 I could open them up at destination. 

 This food was useful, as three of the 

 colonies ran short of stores. I fed 

 this sugar by dipping each cube in 

 water and placing on the screen. 



We got everything ashore and 

 through the custom house, and took 

 the train next morning for San Jose, 

 shipping the bees by express. This 

 government did not charge us any 

 duty on the bees. The weather was 

 not as hot here as in New Orleans, 



or in Texas when we left, nor was it 

 as hot as in Cristobal. This may have 

 been caused by the abundant rains 

 that were daily falling in Costa Rica. 

 In a few hours we were in a delight- 

 fully cool climate as the train climbed 

 up to higher altitudes through the 

 mountains, following the winding 

 course of the beautiful Raventazon 

 River. 



Before taking up the bees again I 

 wish to say a few more words about 

 the beauty of Port Limon, and the 

 trip to San Jose, up the Raventazon 

 valley. A person never grows tired 

 of this trip, no matter how many 

 times he makes it. On the night of 

 our stay in Limon we went to the 

 park and heard the military band 

 play. The park is laid out with walks 

 over-arched with many tropical 

 vines and plants of rare beauty; 

 flower-covered bowers shade seats 

 where you can be comfortably seated 

 and enjoy the music or listen to the 

 murmuring waves of the sea, between 

 the pieces of play. The air is laden 

 with the fragrance of orange blos- 

 soms and other flowers near by. The 

 royal palms of this park are the most 

 perfect and beautiful that I have ever 

 seen, and the plants with foliage 

 variegated and spotted, in all the col- 

 ors of the rainbow, are an admiration 

 to all travelers. 



When the train leaves i^imon, it fol- 

 lows the sea in a northerly direction, 

 through an avenue of cocoanut palms, 

 as it were, for IS miles or more, now 

 and then stopping in a picturesque 

 village, inhabited mostly by Jamaica 

 negroes, who seem to be the main 

 laborers on the banana farms. The 

 Jamaica negro, like his cousin in the 

 States and elsewhere, loves color, 

 which is evident by the bright dresses 

 the women wear. These women meet 

 the trains with all kinds of fruits, 

 cakes and strong-flavored peppermint 

 candy, which they sell to passengers. 

 After leaving the sea coast the 

 train plunges straight into the jungle, 

 but not for very long; soon you pass 

 one of the largest banana farms in 

 the world, also some large plantings 



of cacao, the tree that produces the 

 chocolate beans. At Siquirres the 

 train stops 30 minutes for lunch. This 

 is a banana junction, the railroad 

 branching into several directions to 

 large banana districts. The extent 

 of the banana business may be judged 

 by the fact that they handle as many 

 as 20 trainloads of bananas, through 

 this junction in 24 hours, at times. 

 After leaving this place w. begin to 

 ascend the mountains in dead earnest, 

 and the grandest scenery greets the 

 traveler at every turn. 



We could now feel the air getting 

 cooler all the time as the train puffed 

 and pulled up the steep grades. I saw 

 the bees in the express car; they 

 were not suflfering from the heat now, 

 and seemed to enjoy the change as 

 we did. 



About 3 p. m. we reached Cartage, 

 the old capital, which was destroyed 

 by an earthquake six years ago. The 

 active volcanoes, Irazu and Poaz, can 

 be seen from the car window. This is 

 quite an important place and pro- 

 duces fine fruits and vegetables, and 

 coffee. At 3:40 p. m. we were at San 

 Jose, the present capital of Costa 

 Rica, which was our home for a 

 while. San Jose is a very old town. 

 It has good hotels, fine shops and 

 stores, and many places of interest. 

 Both this place and Cartago have the 

 most delightful climate and spring 

 weather all the year round. A 

 woolen blanket for covering at night, 

 and an overcoat after dark are com- 

 fortable during the rainy season. 



We were met at the station by a 

 friend whose acquaintance I had 

 made on my former visit to this coun- 

 try. He acted as a guide, which was 

 wot amiss to us in a strange land, 

 among strange people, whose lan- 

 guage we did not understand yet. Our 

 good friend could speak English. He 

 had a flower and vegetable farm at 

 the outskirts of the city, where he 

 requested us to take our bees until 

 we could find a suitable place to get 

 settled. We gladly accepted his offer 

 and took the bees to his flower gar- 

 den and opened them up. They had 



The largest apiary in Costa Rica is under these cocoanut palms. The trees arc over 75 feet 

 high and one has more than 100 cocoanuts on it. 



