108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



NOTES or TRAVH 



I BY A. I. ROOT. 



"our owx apiary." 



How funny it sounds to take that old fa- 

 miliar heading-, under which I wrote for so 

 many j'ears! Well, "our own apiary" 

 here in Cuba is certainly the handsomest 

 apiary I ever saw. In fact, it is beyond 

 any of my wildest flig-hts of imagination, 

 away back when I signed myself "Novice." 

 Now, mind you, I do not say it is the best 

 arranged apiary, for it certainly is not, es- 

 pecially for queen-rearing; but it may do 

 very well for honey. It is a veritable 

 "White City" of miniature "business" 

 houses. Mr. de Beche planned it, and Mr. 

 Warden (under some protest) carried it 

 out. The hives occupj^ a plot of 5X10 rods. 

 There are 10 rows of hives with 50 hives in 

 each row. This brings the hives between 

 three and four feet apart from center to cen- 

 ter. Each outside row faces outward, then 

 iYitvQ. 2^x0. four pairs of rows facing each 

 other. The alley between the rows, where 

 the entrances are, is about 10 feet wide; the 

 allej' between the back ends of the hives is 

 about 6 feet. This gives room for a wheel- 

 barrow to turn round, and plenty of room 

 for workmen to pass, even with a load of 

 stuff. The rows of hives are as " straight 

 as a string," as you see on p. 1023. Nov. 15. 

 The ground in these six-foot alleys is as 

 clean and smooth as a brickyard. The 

 wide alleys are now a beautiful and 

 nicel}' kept garden where we get our sup- 

 plies for the table. From the stuff planted 

 six weeks ago we have now lettuce, onions, 

 radishes, string beans, and Irish potatoes 

 almost as large as hen's eggs. 



I believe it has been already mentioned 

 that the 500 colonies were, at least most of 

 them, only strong nuclei that had been used 

 last season for queen-rearing. Well, these 

 nuclei built up by December so that they 

 gave 10,000 lbs. of verj' nice white extracted 

 honey. Now please, friends, do not get 

 wild over this, but remember it is only 20 

 lbs. per colony, and that nice honey here is 

 worth only about 3 cts. per lb. The hon- 

 ey crop so far does not half pay the expense 

 of getting here. The bees fly and get some 

 honey every day; but at this date, Jan. 8, 

 they are getting only about enough to keep 

 the brood going. Without question, there 

 are too many in one spot to give much hon- 

 ey. 



I have greatly enjoyed watching them 

 cease flying at night, and starting out in 

 the morning. I picked out the colonies that 

 were first to bring in honey and pollen, and 

 then Mr. Wardell referred to his record 

 and showed me that all I had marked extra 

 had red-clover queens. It looks to me just 

 now as if that queen that Ernest made such 

 a stir about by putting a big price on her 

 (S200) may have been worth to the bee-keep- 



ing world tJwusands of dollars. More than 

 1000 of her daughters have been sent into 

 almost as many apiaries, and reports show, 

 almost every time, greater crops of extract- 

 ed honey. This particular strain is, per- 

 haps, not the best for comb honey. 



Since the above was written I have visited 

 the school. About 100 pupils are enrolled, 

 and three teachers are employed. I am told 

 the buildings were put up and the schools 

 started by the United States. The reading- 

 lesson while we were present was about 

 Christopher Columbus, and I could, there- 

 fore, follow it to some extent. Surely we of 

 America should have a warm place in our 

 hearts for Spain and her people, out of re- 

 spect to the memory of Columbus, if for no 

 other reason. In another room the teacher 

 had put a sentence on the blackboard, beau- 

 tifully written. It was, " Las margaritas 

 blancas adornan los campos." With a lit- 

 tle assistance from the postmaster I render- 

 ed it, " The white daisy adorns the fields." 

 The postmaster, Senor Rodrigo, is the only 

 one in the town who speaks English. 

 Through him as interpreter I had quite a 

 talk with the teachers. No such thing 

 as a Sunday-school has ever been held. 

 The scholars sometimes sing in the day 

 school; but the teacher said smilingly they 

 made such bad work of it she seldom tried 

 to have them sing. I got acquainted with 

 the children readily by showing them my 

 wheel, and they showed me their writing- 

 books where they had copied the motto on 

 the board. I am sure it would be an easy 

 matter for one who can speak their lan- 

 guage to start a large Sunday-school. Can 

 any one tell me how much has been done in 

 this line in Cuba? 



TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPERANCE IN CUBA. 



In one respect there are no saloons in Cu- 

 ba; in another, they are everywhere, even 

 in the little towns and country stores. 

 There are no saloons with screens in front, 

 as we have them in America. Liquors are 

 sold in broad daylight, and, in fact, in 

 Havana they are mostly sold out on the 

 walk, you might almost call it. I have seen 

 no intoxicated people, and nowhere in the 

 city did I see crotvds drinking as we see in 

 the saloons in our American cities. Saloon- 

 keepers themselves have admitted that re- 

 moving the screens would destroy more than 

 half their trade. I do not think the Cubans 

 are very much given to (?)fc'6';--drinking. As 

 nearly as I could determine, the principal 

 drink at these places is an imported wine. 

 Every one of these places furnishes drink- 

 ing-water free. At the terminus of the elec- 

 tric-car line I saw the vender pass out tum- 

 bler after tumbler of pure water, and no- 

 body ever seemed to think of thanking him. 



CUBA; COST OF LIVING. 



It is too cold now (Jan. 9) for much hon- 

 ey-gathering or queen-rearing. We have 

 no thermometer, but our postmaster said it 

 was down to 50 one night, and I think it 

 must have been 45 last night. There isn't 



