Publisht Weekly at 118 Michigan St. 



George W. York, Editor. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Free. 



38th Year. 



CHICAG-O, ILL., OCTOBER 6, 1898. 



No. 40. 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION. 



Report of the 29th Atmual Convention Held at 

 Omaha, Nebr., Sept. 13-15, 1898. 



DR. A. B. MASON, SEC. 



The 29th annual meeting of the United States Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union was called to order at 10:30 a.m., Sept. 13, in the 

 Commercial Club Room at Omaha, Nebr., by the President, 

 George W. York, of Illinois. 



Prayer was offered by A. I. Root, of Ohio, after which, in 

 the absence of 0. 0. Poppleton, of Florida, the following 

 paper, written by him, was read by the Secretary : 



Honey-Production in Our New We§t Indian Pos- 

 sesiions — Cuba and Porto Rico. 



The coming Americanization of Cuba and Porto Rico pre- 

 sents many interesting problems to us as a people. This Is 

 especially true with bee-keepers. With some, because of a 

 contemplated removal to one of those islands ; and to all, be- 

 cause of the inevitable effect on our business. It is possible 

 m# two years' experience in Cuba enables me to give some 

 idea of the good and bad features to be found there, but I un- 

 derstand better than almost any one else, that the subject can 

 only be skimmed in an essay like this. 



Cuba Is without doubt one of the finest honey countries in 

 the world. I consider it as fully the equal of California, and 

 in some respects superior. Should Cuba be annext to the 

 United States, thus not only doing away with all duties on 

 honey shipt to this country, and duties on hives and imple- 

 ments from this country, but in time improve facilities for 

 transportation all over the island itself, it will, I think, affect 

 the honey markets of this country far more than the great 

 crops from California have yet done. It is well for us to look 

 these facts squarely in the face. 



At present there is a Cuban export duty of 6 cents, and 

 an American import duty of 20 cents per gallon — over 2 cents 

 per pound — on honey from there. These duties and the 

 wretched government of the Island itself, are what has kept 

 our markets from being flooded with Cuban honey. Remove 

 these two conditions and the result is plain. 



There are but few movable-comb apiaries in Cuba — so far 

 as I know, less than a dozen in all. Nearly all of them are 

 managed, if not owned, by Americans. It is exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to get reliable statistics of the amount of honey annually 

 produced at these apiaries, but from such facts and figures as 

 I did get while there, and since, I judge that any well man- 

 aged apiary of 300 or more colonies Is safe for a yield of from 

 40,000 to 70,000 pounds of honey each season. As there 

 are chances for locating such apiaries all over the island, it 

 can be easily seen what an enormous harvest can be obtained. 



One great advantage Cuba has over any other place I 



know of. Is that an entire failure to secure a fair crop is al- 

 most if not quite unknown. As well as I can learn, the poor- 

 est crops will be fully as much as 50 percent of the largest 

 crops. All bee-keepers can fully understand the advantage of 

 these conditions. 



The principal disadvantages are, the duties already men- 

 tioned, and the bad roads, making it so costly and difficult 

 getting honey to a shipping port. The last difficulty is so 

 great that many owners of bee-gum apiaries in the interior of 

 the island — so I have been repeatedly informed — practice sav- 

 ing only the wax for sale, pouring large amounts of honey on 

 the ground to waste. 



While there are scores of trees and plants yielding some 

 honey, the great bulk of the crop comes from a plant, or 

 rather vine, known to American readers of our bee-periodicals 

 as bell-flower or companea. Its Cuban name Is Aguinaldo 

 (literally, "a Christmas present," so-called because of Its 

 being in full bloom at Christmas time). Scientifically it Is a 

 Convolvulus (not a Campanula, as was figured In one of our 

 periodicals several years ago) ; genus, /poman ; species, Sidtc- 

 folia. The few species of the genus found in the United 

 States are known as "morning-glories," only one of which. 



0, 0. Poppleton. 



Ipomisa Batatas (sweet potato) Is of material value to the 

 human race. All the species of the genus I know of are vines 

 with heart-shaped leaves, and bell-shaped flowers, the one 

 which furnishes so much honey in the West India islands be- 

 ing the most profuse bloomer of them all. At times the bloom 

 is so abundant that hedges and stone fences look like snow- 

 banks from a distance. It commences to bloom late in Novem- 

 ber, continuing until in February, January being the month 

 of greatest bloom, with December a close second. The quality 

 of Its honey is good, color white, with good body and rather 



