216 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



5. What kind of poisonous reptiles lurk 

 around the apiary ? 



No reptiles in Cuba that are poisonous 

 that I know of, except water-moccasins; but 

 they lurk only around ponds, or in the creeks, 

 so they never bother in an apiary. 



6. Are fleas bad? 



I never saw the like anywhere — thousands 

 of them. I have known natives to sleep en- 

 tirely nude, to keep from carrying fleas to 

 bed with them. 



7. How many kinds of fleas? 

 Only one kind — the numerous kind. 



8. Can they be escaped ? 



I have tried, and seen others try to escape 

 them. I have even tried diluted phenol or 

 carbolic acid, but to no avail. They wouldn't 

 stay off a fellow. 



9. Any ticks, chigoes (jiggers), or bedbugs? 

 No ticks, no bedbugs — no beds for them to 



stay in; cots are in common use in place of 

 beds; but jiggers are numerous in some places 

 — the kind that burrow into one's feet around 

 the toe-nails, and cripple them up, especially 

 when socks are not worn (native style), or 

 " sockless Jerry" style; no red bugs of the 

 southern type, that crawl all over a fellow 

 and set him afire. 



10. How about sand-flies and gnats? 



We don't have sand-flies in Cuba — no sand 

 on the island; but gnats are innumerable. 



11. Do mosquito-bats or dragon-flies prey 

 on the bees in Cuba? They ruin them at Mi- 

 ami, Fla., and no way to avoid them. 



There can not be auy in Cuba, as I have 

 never known them to do any damage to bees, 

 nor have I ever heard any complaint of them; 

 and as I knew of a bee-keeper in Cuba in- 

 creasing from 25 to 500 in one season I pre- 

 sume bees are not at all preyed upon by in- 

 sects olher than ants. Little black ants are 

 very numerous at times, especially during the 

 rainy season, and often cause weak colonies 

 or nuclei to swarm out, as at that time they 

 are easily discouraged, and often come out, 

 leaving brood in as many as three frames, and 

 well supplied with honey. 



I see an article on page 124, Feb. loth 

 Gleanings, saying that Japanese bees work 

 in the rain, and it might be that they are the 

 bees for Cuba, especially during the rainy sea- 

 son. I should like to try them, anyway; for 

 with blacks or Italians it is almost absolutely 

 necessary to have sheds for the bees in order 

 to carry them nicely through the wet months. 

 Dr. Vieta, of Cienfuegos, Fred Somerford, 

 and Fred Craycraft, of Havana Province, 

 three of the most experienced bee-men in 

 Cuba, say that sheds more than pay for them- 

 selves; besides, oh how delightful it is han- 

 dling bees under sheds, no matter if it is rain- 

 ing three times a day for three months at a 

 time ! If a chap keeps dry he will feel all 

 right, and sheds made with pole framing, and 

 covered with palm leaves, last for five or ten 

 years; besides, they are very cheap. 



12. Do grapes grow well in Cuba ? 

 Grapes and figs do splendidly — seem to be 



entirely at home in Cuba; and oranges — oh 

 my ! how they grow without even a particle 

 of fertilizing ! and vegetables such as onions, 



cabbage, tomatoes, and turnips, astonish one 

 in the way of attaining size without the soil 

 being fertilized a particle. But the comb 

 honey from Cuba will in the future be the as- 

 tonishing feature to the bee-keeper is my pie- 

 diction. 



Navasota, Texas, Feb. 23. 



[So Cuba, then, is not a malaria-infested 

 country, as we had been led to believe, from 

 the fact that so many of our soldiers sickened 

 and died there; but the fact that some of the 

 best of Uncle Sam's men died of fevers in 

 northern camps of the United States goes lo 

 show that Cuba ought not to be misjudged by 

 the experience of the army. The Queen of 

 the Antilles perhaps, then, is not nearly as bad 

 as the headings above would seem to indicate. 



As this article has proved to be so interest- 

 ing and valuable, I hope friend Danzenbaker 

 will fire another set of questions at Mr. .Som- 

 erford. We are all anxious to know about 

 that bee country that may some day be a seri- 

 ous competitor to the bee-keeping interests of 

 the United States. I suspect that most of us 

 do not want to believe that Cuban honey can 

 compete with American. But if it can, the 

 sooner we know it the better for us. — Ed.] 



BEE-KEEPING IN CUBA. 

 A New Field for the American Bee-keeper. 



BY A. W. OSBURN'S SON. 



It is but natural that all eyes should be 

 turned toward the recent fields of conquest. 

 We are all on the alert for an opportunity to 

 swell our pocket-books. Cuba is known to be 

 a great honey-producing country, from our 

 large reports in former years; hence the un- 

 usually large inquiry at present on the subject. 

 No doubt the bee-keeping world has often 

 wondered where the writer of former days, A. 

 W. Osburn, had gone to. He has been called 

 home by the Master, leaving a son and daugh- 

 ter to mourn his loss. Out of deference to an 

 indulgent father we have been living a very 

 secluded life for the last two years; but as time 

 heals, in a measure, the deepest wounds, so it 

 is healing ours slowly, and probably the bee- 

 world from now on will read from time to 

 time sketches from the same old pen, but used 

 by a much less gifted hand. 



The American people are subject to what 

 we might call "ambitious finers." Moreover, 

 it is of a peculiar kind that is very contagious. 

 Some absent-minded one sniffs the air, then 

 runs and tells his neighbor that he has smell- 

 ed gold, and knows where it is to be found. 

 Then his neighbor tells his wife, and that is 

 all that is necessary. Within twenty-four 

 hours the whole neighborhood knows it and 

 is packing up ready to start for the new eldur- 

 ado. The recent Klondike stampede affords a 

 good example of what I refer to. Thousands 

 have starved to death, thousands more have 

 gone down to a premature grave, and rest up- 

 on the fleecy bosom of some far-off and un- 

 known Klondike mountain. So, to avoid any 

 thing of this kind, let the wise man think 



