500 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



horses are hitched in the shelter of this 

 porch, and, as a consequence, more or less 

 horse manure is found most of the time 

 inside the porch in front of 

 the store, close to the dry- 

 g-co J s and groceries. I believe 

 the proprietor generally shov- 

 els out the droppings a little 

 about once a day. When he 

 has a big run of custom, how- 

 ever, he does not seem to get 

 around to it every day. This 

 state of affairs, however, is 

 found mostly in the smaller 

 towns. Where there is a 

 population of one or two 

 thousand, they usually have 

 some nice stores and eating- 

 places, especiall3' right in 

 the center of the town. 



Fig. 5 represents j'our hum- 

 ble servant standing by a big 

 banana-bush in the path at 

 our Paso Real apiarj'. I did 

 not expect my picture to be 

 taken at that time; but one 



cooking variety'. When sliced up and fried, 

 they are something between a nice sweel 

 potato and a good Irish potato. I found 



FIG. 3. — APIARY OF HIVES MADE OF HOLLOW LOGS, ETC. 



FIG. 4. — PASO REAL. 



them very healthful and ap- 

 petizing. The banana grows 

 with great rapidity. The one 

 standing near me grew from 

 the ground in one season. 

 After it has borne a bunch of 

 fruit it is cut off close to the 

 ground, and then it grows 

 up and bears another crop of 

 fruit the next season. 



Fig. 6 is a picture of Mr. 

 Hilbert when he was on his 

 way to pay a visit to Mr. 

 Ciriaco Gutierrez, the man 

 who gave us the stingless 

 bees. The picture shows the 

 royal palm-trees and other 

 vegetation, and gives a 

 glimpse of the country roads 

 where ox teams haul things 

 to market. 



of the boys who was visit- 

 ing us from a neighboring 

 apiary snapped his kodak 

 on us. The banana near- 

 est me has not j-et sent up 

 the bud that produces fruit; 

 but it will later on, for ev- 

 ery banana-tree bears fruit 

 more or less once a year. 

 The tree on the right, you 

 will notice, has a bunch of 

 fruit partly visible. There 

 is a great variety of ba- 

 nanas in Cuba. Some are 

 very small, and exceedingly 

 sweet. Some are red and 

 some yellow. And then there 

 are great big bananas — 

 larger than any thing we 

 see here in America. These 

 large ones are mostly the 



FIG. 6. — A CUBAN ROAD. 



