19(14 



CILKAXIXGS IN UFA-. CUL'I UK !•: 



7il 



should do to-daj', and that will not do in 

 the beekeeping^ business. 1 presume some 

 of the men who discuss and encourage na- 

 tive hibor believe in low- priced men and 

 high priced wax. I say, if a man is proud 

 of his apiarj' he will have ever^ thing in 

 the best of order — every comb built on full 

 sheets of foundation, and every frame well 

 wired — American hives, American labor, 

 American frames, and Cuba will do all 

 the rest. I here ask Mr. A. I. Root to 

 point out every fault that he saw in my api- 

 ary while at my house. It will not hurt my 

 feelings a bit to have every fault he saw go 

 into print; and I hope, after he sums them 

 all up in order, that he will come and make 

 me a much longer visit than he did the first 

 time. Of course, I am thankful for the one 

 he did make me; but if he will come I feel 

 sure I can prove every word to him that I 

 write here. Moreover, there is plenty of 

 room here in Cuba for good American api- 

 arists. There is always plenty of room at 

 the top. A g-ood man can come here and 

 make good money in the bee business; but, 

 of course, he must know what he wants and 

 then go ahead. I have taken as much as 

 300 lbs. of very nice comb honey from only 

 one colony in an average year; but, under- 

 stand, I do not say that all colonies will 

 produce that much; but I do say that Cuba 

 is a fine country for honey; in fact, it is the 

 natural home of the honey bee. 



I also see statements in bee- journals that 

 foul brood is everywhere in Cuba. That is 

 not true. All disease is caused by man. 

 The same holds good with foul brood. A 

 good apiarist will not allow foul brood to 

 remain in his apiary verj' long; and as re- 

 gards insects, they are not to be thought of 

 in comparison with some States in America. 



Guanabana, Cuba. 



[When I visited friend Woodward's api- 

 aries I was a good deal discouraged at the 

 trouble we had had with robbing in our 

 own apiary at Paso Real, and also at the 

 difficulty we had in queen- rearing-. I have 

 since had reason to believe that a great 

 deal of our trouble there was on account of 

 having the apiary too clean, and the hives 

 arranged with too much mathematical ac- 

 curacy. They were just alike in color and 

 situation; all the grass and weeds were 

 cleaned out until the whole thing was ex- 

 posed to the full blaze of the sun. This 

 did very well in January and February; 

 but as the sun got warmer it did not an- 

 swer. Friend Woodward's home apiary is 

 under the shelter of large trees. In fact, 

 the sun hardly gets down to the ground at 

 all. Besides these tall trees there are vari- 

 ous bushes, perhaps higher than one's 

 head, trimmed up so as to be out of the way 

 of the apiarist; but the ground aiound the 

 hives is almost as clean and smooth as at 

 Paso Real. I can not think of a thing to 

 criticise or find fault with in that home 

 apiary. It was really a revelation to me. 

 Friend W. opened his hives without a bit 

 <jf robbing- no rubbers chasing h m about 



fro.-n one hive to anuLher. He was raising- 

 queens successfully', even in small nuclei, 

 with as little trouble as we do it here in 

 June. My arrangements were such that I 

 did no*: have a chance to look over all the 

 out apiaries, but those I saw were in charge 

 of educited American beekeepers, and 

 every thing- was moving along very much 

 as in his own heme apiary, but perhaps 

 not quite equal to it. He had not been pre- 

 paring for me, for I came upon him -with- 

 out notice, unexpectedly. I think he is a 

 little seveie on the native Cubans; but it is 

 true Ihey labor uoder a great disadvantage 

 in not being able to read the literature we 

 have on bee culture. We expect to have 

 our ABC book, s:mewhat abbreviated, 

 in the Spanish language very soon, and 

 this will be a great help; and I want to 

 add, also, that at least some native Cubans 

 are splendid workers. Of course, they are 

 not familiar with American methods; but 1 

 saw Cubans who would crowd a Yankee 

 pretty hard, especially when at work at 

 something he was brought up to. I did not 

 see any foul brooo or any trace of it in any 

 of friend Woodward's apiaries. — A. I. R.] 



THE GOLDEN STRAINS OF ITALIXNS. 



Their Peculiarities as Viewed by Different Bee- 

 leeepers. 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



For some time I have watched the discus- 

 sions in Gleanings and other journals, 

 as to the best race or strain of bees, and in 

 this connection I have noticed that many 

 writers have failed to realize that locality 

 and the ''personal equation" may have 

 much to do with the problem. In Glean- 

 ings, Sept. 1, 1903, page 759, is an arti- 

 cle relating experience with the golden 

 Italians, by J. W. Guyton, M. D. Mr. G. 

 accuses them of being "g-entle enough, fair 

 workers, slow to enter sections, crowd out 

 queen, smaller than three- banders, there- 

 fore can not cnrry as much as three-band- 

 ers. Not prolific, some of them bent on su- 

 perseding." 



I have had experience with five strains of 

 the goldens (perhaps all more or less re- 

 lated). Among- them some were fully equal 

 in honey-gathering to any bees I have 

 owned; others seemed not hardy. My colo-. 

 nies of golden stock are not slow to enter 

 sections, compared to the leather strains. 

 One Idaho bee keeper, living not very far 

 from Parma, finds a certain strain of gold- 

 ens so superior that he has introduced such 

 queens into nearl3' all his colonies. 



As to size, why can't we have measure- 

 ments made, and know if the best goldens 

 are smaller than the three-banders? I, for 

 one, don't believe it. Perhaps F. B. Simp- 

 son or A. C. Miller will tell us about the 

 size of various strains and the capacities of 

 the honev-sacs. 



On page 55 of Gleanings for 1899. Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, in advertising a certain 



