1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



399 



NOTES or TRAVLt 



4 BY A. I. ROOT. 



^B 



SSSsa^sJ^^^Esi^is 



RAMBLER AND HIS APIARY. 



On m^' arrival in Cuba, about Jan. 1, 

 one of the first things I asked about was 

 something concerning Mr. Martin, his loca- 

 tion, etc. Mr. de Beche informed me that 

 Mr. Martin was sick, and had sent him 

 word that he was going to one of the city 

 hospitals, and that, on receipt of such word, 

 he had phoned to every hospital in the city 

 and thej- declared that no such person had 

 been there. INIr. de Beche therefore con- 

 cluded the Rambler must have got better, 

 and that I would find him at his ranch in 

 Taco-Taco, near Paso Real. I according- 

 1)' made a trip to our apiary. After I 

 reached there, however, ^Ir. de Beche wrote 

 me that Mr. Martin ivas in the city after 

 all, and that, after reaching the hospital, 

 and not getting better, he wrote to Mr. de 

 Beche to come and see him. Mr. de Beche, 

 with that letter in his hand, went to the 

 hospital Mercedes, but was again told there 

 was no such person there, but he finally 

 succeeded in reaching him. Either the 

 people at the hospital had got things mixed 

 or else Mr. Martin, when he reached there, 

 was too sick to write his name plainly. 

 His death came very suddenly, as you have 

 been told by friend Danzenbaker on page 

 99, Feb. 1. After his death I went to that 

 same hospital, accompanied by Mr. Dan- 

 zenbaker, and had an interview with Miss 

 Anna E. O'Donnell, who took care of Mr. 

 Martin while he was there. This lady in- 

 formed us that Rambler talked but very 

 little. He was too sick. She said the doc- 

 tors pronounced his disease pernicious ma- 

 larial fever — a kind of fever that takes pa- 

 tients off very suddenlj'. Before he died, 

 when some of the friends were visiting him 

 he tried to talk to them but was too weak. 

 One of them gave him a pencil and some 

 paper, and he wrote a few words that could 

 hardly be made out, and then gave it up, 

 being too sick to even write. 



This hospital is one of the finest in the 

 city, if not the best, and has everj- appli- 

 ance, apparentl}', for the care of the sick. 

 In fact, it is the best-arranged institution 

 of the kind I ever saw. In my conversation 

 with the nurse I was satisfied that they 

 employed the best medical skill, and that 

 all their arrangements are clear up to date 

 for the care of the sick. 



Some time afterward I visited Mr. Mar- 

 tin's apiary at Taco-Taco, and had quite a 

 talk with Mr. Gilson, the young man whom 

 Mr. Martin employed a short time before 

 his death. The apiary is located but a few 

 rods from the station, and in a thicket that, 

 in wet weather, would be a wet swamp. It 

 is, without question, an ideal place for bees; 

 but it certainly is not a very good place for 

 one to live in, especially when the swamp 



is full of water. Mr. Gilson (now in charge 

 of the apiary) tells me that they were ad- 

 vised to get their water at a well in the 

 town, or drink boiled water. I believe Mr. 

 Martin did this for a time; but when they 

 were hurried with business, and quite a 

 stream was running close to the apiar3% 

 they got their water from that stream, and 

 Mr. Martin drank of it freely. The water 

 was so high in that locality that it got into 

 their honey-room, and the3' were obliged to 

 set their hives up on stands to keep the wa- 

 ter from running into the entrances. Poor 

 Rambler became so much interested in the 

 wonderful progress he was making in build- 

 ing up an apiary that he doubtless not only 

 neglected his drink, but I fear, from what 

 I am told, he neglected to take the necessary 

 time to prepare wholesome cooked food. Of 

 course, we do not mean to find fault nor 

 criticise our poor friend who has now gone 

 from us; but it may be well for the living 

 to consider and take heed. I for one would 

 not keep my health very long unless I had 

 good wholesome food at regular hours. I 

 have tried "cold victuals" several times in 

 my life; and while that does very well for 

 one or two meals it does not pay as a rule, 

 at least, to follow it up. 



Let us now consider a little why Mr. 

 Martin was so busy. When he first came 

 to Cuba last April, he stopped with our 

 good friend Mr. Glenn Moe and his wife at 

 Candelaria. His rations there were of the 

 best, as I happen to know by personal ex- 

 perience; and Mr. Moe and his wife very 

 much enjo3'ed havingthe Rambler an inmate 

 of their home. His first venture was to 

 agree with Mr. Moe for 100 three-comb 

 nuclei — two combs of brood and one of hon- 

 ey; and in consideration that Mr. Martin 

 would furnish every thing in the way of 

 hives and fixtures, he got the nuclei at the 

 low price of $1.50 each. This was all that 

 Mr. Martin had for his start, with the ex- 

 ception of five Cuban hives made of hollow 

 logs. You will notice these in the picture 

 on another page. He selected a locality 

 close to a railroad station, and right in a 

 swamp, or woods where flowers were plen- 

 tiful and laden with hone3\ Since the sad 

 outcome of this uridertaking, it is very easy 

 for us to say," Why didn't he go a little 

 further from the station, on the bank of the 

 river where high water could not make his 

 ranch so wet?" We do not just know how 

 he managed to build up those nuclei; but 

 we do know that at the time of his death 

 there were very nearly or quite 300 colonies 

 of bees, a great part of them filling two- 

 story hives, and that he had taken 16,800 

 lbs. of extracted honey and 3'2 tons of comb 

 honey. This is certainly remarkable. Not 

 only did these bees work with a vim, but 

 Mr. Martin must have worked early and 

 late, and left no stone unturned to break 

 the record in the way of building up an 

 apiary in an astonishingly short space of 

 time, at the same time securing a crop of 

 hone3' that seems almost beyond belief. 



I very much regret that our people here 



