THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



485 



edy at this season. Ou a few trees, 

 or oil siuall trees, this is no serious 

 task. If this is neglected, or is 

 Ihoujilit to be too great a task, the 

 trees may be syringed in early July, 

 just wlien the young lice are most 

 susc'eptible. with the following : One 

 quart soft soap, ten quarts water, 

 and one quart kerosene oil ; stir all 

 together. This can be thrown on 

 with a fountain pump. As the lice 

 are mostly on the lower side of the 

 leaves, it should be thrown from 

 below, upward. This also applies to 

 other species of bark-lice, which are 

 very common this season. The bass- 

 wood, the tulip (see my Manual , p. 

 249). the elm, the hickory, the blue- 

 ash, etc., are all suffering from bark- 

 lice, much like the above, except that 

 the cottony substance is wanting. It 

 is a comforting truth, that all these 

 species are often destroyed by their 

 enemies before they entirely kill our 

 trees, though they often do great 

 harm. 



Bee-Keeping in Cuba. 



JMr. A. .J. King has written the fol- 

 lowing very interesting letter to his 

 paper, the Bee-Keepers" Magazine : 



The average Cuban bee-hive con- 

 sists of a box 10 to 12 inches square, 

 and 5 feet long, nearly always open at 

 botli ends ; often instead "of boxes, 

 hollow palm logs about the same 

 capacity and length are employed. 

 These hives always occupy a horizon- 

 tal position, sometimes on the ground, 

 but oftener on a rude frame-work 

 about 3 feet high, driving down 

 crotched stakes about 4 feet apart, 

 and as long as is deemed necessary to 

 accommodate the number of hives 

 owned by the bee-keeper. 



Long poles, usually of bamboo, are 

 stretched from crotch to crotch, the 

 whole length of the apiary ; these 



Eoles supporting the ends of the 

 ives. 



The bees usually build their combs 

 continuously from one end to the 

 other of these hives, and often project 

 them some distance beyond the ends 

 of the hive, making combs and 7 

 feet lonft, and only from 10 to 4 inches 

 wide. We transferred some of the 

 log hives, in Puerto Principe in the 

 dense forest, which were placed on 

 the giound, and the bees had ex- 

 tended their combs several feet be- 

 yond the ends of the hive into the 

 thicket. They were connected with 

 tine brush and vines, and so firmly 

 attached that after smoking the bees 

 back into the hive, we had to sever 

 all these attachments with a sword, 

 when we cut off the combs even with 

 the end of the hive, and placed them 

 in a basket, which made a feast for a 

 dozen men who had come on horse- 

 back six miles to witness the opera- 

 tion. This honey was pure Campa- 

 nea, freshly made, and was the most 

 delicious we have ever tasted. We 

 transferred quite a number of these 

 hives into movable frames in different 

 parts of the Island, and it was amus- 

 mg to witness the different expres- 

 sions depicted on the faces of our 



Cuban friends, at seeing the bees 

 handled as though they were harm- 

 less flies. Extreme doubt mingled 

 with fear, deepened into astonish- 

 ment, ending in surprise, admiration 

 and joy. 



On one occasion, after handling 

 some Italians in a manner greatly ex- 

 ceeding their expectations, they de- 

 clared' that their "Creoles" (native 

 bees) could not be thus handled with 

 impunity. So we selected a tine, 

 populous colony, occupying one of 

 the long board liives described above. 

 We carried the hive under tlie shade 

 of an orange tree, about 20 feet from 

 the apiary ,"laid two small sticks on 

 the ground, and stood the hive on 

 end on these sticks. We then took 

 an empty hive of the same dimen- 

 sions and placed on top of this,one con- 

 taining the bees, the top of the empty 

 hive extended over lu feet high, and was 

 held in place by the branches of the 

 orange tree. The combs in the lower 

 hive extending from end to end, it 

 was a matter of only a few minutes 

 to drum and smoke all the bees from 

 the full into the empty hive, then 

 putting a movable- frame hive on the 

 old stand, and spreading a cloth in- 

 front, we dumped all those bees in a 

 heap in front of the hive ; and soon 

 all entered and clustered on some 

 sheets of wired foundation previously 

 placed in the hive, We then removed 

 the combs from the drummed hive, 

 placed the brood in frames and gave 

 them to their original owners in the 

 new hive, and in a couple of days re- 

 moved it to the Casanova apiary— one 

 and a half miles distant, where it has 

 since multiplied to 5 colonies. 



From what we have said it might 

 be inferred that the Cubans are far be- 

 hind our own countrymen in the man- 

 agement of bees ; but leaving out of 

 the question our progressive bee- 

 keepers, and conlining ourselves to 

 those who still use the log gums and 

 box hives with stationary combs, and 

 tried by this rule, the Cubans are far 

 in advance. They have less supersti- 

 tion, and manifest more intelligence 

 in their work ; they never kill their 

 bees to get their stores, but smoke 

 them from one end of their long hives 

 clear into the centre, then cut out the 

 combs until the brood is reached, 

 then from the other end, perform the 

 same operation, thus saving the brood 

 and securing the honey instead of 

 killing the " goose that laid the golden 

 egg." 



The honey press is made as follows : 

 A solid log, about 2 feet in diameter, 

 and 12 feet long, is hollowed out for 

 about 8 feet from one end into a com- 

 plete trough or shell, holding often 2 

 or 3 barrels. The remaining 4 feet is 

 cut down squarely for about 6 inches, 

 forming a cavity holding about two 

 bushels of comb honey. A wooden 

 follower closely titting into this cavity 

 is placed on top of tne combs, and a 

 long lever fastened into the end of 

 the trough, is brought down onto the 

 follower, and the honey is all pressed 

 out and runs into the trough, leaving 

 the wax in the cavity, from whence it 

 is collected for market. 



In the region about Puerto Principe 

 large numbers of these old honey 



camps are to be seen, where, previous 

 to the war. from one to three thou- 

 sand hives were worked in single 

 apiaries, and where those marvelous 

 quantities of honey and wax came 

 from. 



The native bees in Cuba are the 

 common black, iinpmted from Spain 

 more than a century ago. They work 

 vigorously all the time, and under 

 favorable circumstances, produce 

 marvelously, forming a standing con- 

 tradiction to that old lying whim, 

 that bees will work in warm climates, 

 only enough to supply their own de- 

 mands. 



There is another bee, indigenous to 

 Cuba, which produces a very nice 

 honey, liut whose habits are entirely 

 different from any bee our readers 

 have ever seen. Of these we propose 

 to speak hereafter. 



Bees & Honey at the London Health 

 Exhibition. 



A correspondent in the London 

 Horticultural Journal remarks as fol- 

 lows on the Bee and Honey Exhibits, 

 Honey Biscuits, the use of the Magic 

 Lantern as an aid to apicultural lec- 

 tures, etc. : 



A few words will here be in season 

 respecting the exhibits in comiection 

 with bees and bee-keeping at the 

 Health Exhibition. All those inter- 

 ested in honey and bees should not 

 neglect to pay a visit to this depart- 

 ment. The ' second turning to the 

 right after entering the Exhibition at 

 the main entrances in Exhibition 

 Road brought us into the midst of a 

 very good collection of appliances and 

 products in the shape of honey, wax, 

 etc. The tirst thing to attract atten- 

 tion is a capital model of a swarm of 

 bees, it is so good that at a little dis- 

 tance it is like a real cluster suspended 

 from a branch. There is a fair dis- 

 play of honey, both in the comb and 

 in bottles. The extracted honey is 

 nicely put up. and we must hope that 

 the public will learn to appreciate 

 pure English honey, and to cease to 

 countenance the importation of adul- 

 terated foreign stuff. 



Messrs. Huntley & Palmer, the fa- 

 mous Reading firm, have lately 

 brought out some exceedingly nice 

 biscuits, called " Honey Drops." Visit- 

 ors must not fail to taste them, and 

 they will certainly appreciate this 

 new biscuit. Immense quantities of 

 honey are now purchased by this firm 

 for the manufacture of this pleasant 

 food, and this will help to provide a 

 market for En":lish produce. Honey- 

 is largely employed in other manu- 

 factures," and we should have liked to 

 have seen more exhibits showing the 

 utility of honey in foods and medi- 

 cines, and so show it is conducive ta 

 health. Among ttie many interest- 

 ing exhibits is one which, although in 

 its present state most instructive, 

 might be much enlarged and im- 

 proved. 



We refer to Mr. Abbott's case of 

 various natural objects explanatory 

 of the science of bee-keeping. The 



