THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



83 



one of honey and one of l)rood; and next 

 to these combs draw up the division 

 board or diuniny, whicli slionld allow the 

 bees to run under its boltoni. Now close 

 up all the entrance except one inch in 

 lenjjth at the west side of the hive, and 

 you will liave it as I use them, and I have 

 not had a sin<(le nucleus robbed since I 

 found out this plan. 



Now, suppose I wish a nucleus in the 

 next hive on the same row in the apiary. 

 In this hive I place the two frames and 

 dummy next to the west side of the hive, 

 while the entrance is on llie east side. * ■'■ 

 The next hive is fixed like the first, and 

 the next like the secon<l, and so on to 

 the end. In this way the young bees do 

 not mix; and in returning from their wed- 

 ding flights no queens are lost by enter- 

 ing the wrong hive. 



I wonder why Mr. Doolittle didn't tell 

 us of this method of forming nuclei, years 

 ago; and so have .saved me, and perhaps 

 many others, the loss suffered from nu- 

 clei being robbed. Several years ago I 

 thought perhaps it would help the nuclei 

 in defending themselves to prepare 

 the hives as above described, and I have 

 lost none by being robbed .since I adopt- 

 eil the above plan, and it has been a real 

 comfort to feel sure that these small col- 

 onies are safe from robbers. 

 Crn.\'S WONDERFL'I^ HONEV RESOURCES. 

 \VH.\T WILL BE THEIR EFFECT 

 UPON V. S. BEE-KEEPING ? 



I iloubt not that many of the readers of 

 the Review feel an interest in bee-keep- 

 ing and honey production in the West 

 Indies, especially in Cuba and Porto Rico, 

 and Gleanings for Jan. tst, of this year, 

 has quite an interesting article on bee- 

 keeping in Cuba. It is written by Mr. 

 Somerford, who has kept bees (|uite ?x- 

 tensivelv on that island; and, after an 

 absence of four years from the island, 

 went to spend the sumtner there, but 

 found so much mi.sery and starvation', 

 atid so few bees, that he stayed only a 

 month. .Mr. Somerford says: — 



I also investigated Pc^rto Rico through 

 Dr. Vieta, of Cienfuegos. His last hon- 

 ey crop was only three luindred and sixty 

 thou.saml pounds from two apiaries. ■ * I 

 have just returned from a trip through 

 Cuba — a sort of inventory trip — to aser- 



tain what was left, after the war, of some 

 of the finest apiaries in the world; and al- 

 so to embark in the bee business again. 

 * * I visited many apiaries that were in a 

 run-down condition, and will report 

 through Gleanings the sitviation in Cuba 

 exactly as one now finds it. But, by way 

 of caution, I will suggest to those in a 

 hurry to embark in the honey business in 

 Cuba that there's plenty of time; the is- 

 land is not such a paradise ju t now — not 

 even for the modern honey-producer. 

 And to those bee-keepers in the States 

 who fear that the .\merican market is 

 going to be ruined by cheap, dark grades 

 of honey from Cuba, I will say that Am- 

 sterdam, Holland, and foreign cities in 

 general, get the honey that's produced 

 ill Cuba — not the American markets. 

 The American honey producers in Cuba, 

 who have tried the United States markets, 

 have paid for their experience in ship- 

 ping, commission, lighterage, freight, 

 cooperage, drayage, (import duty 10 cents 

 per gallon i, to say nothing of leakage; 

 and b}' the time the.se charges are figured 

 up and the cost of package added, at the 

 Cuban cost, 5 cents per gallon, the ship- 

 per wonders why he didn't sell in Hava- 

 na at 40 or 50 cents per gallon, net, ( pack- 

 ages paid for by the honey buyer). 



After traveling hundreds of miles over 

 the country I came to the conclusion that 

 next October or November would be soon 

 enough for the vvould-l)e Cuban bee-keep- 

 ers to embark for Cuba; and to impress 

 the fact on the mind of those who, //Xv 

 niyselj\ are in a hurry to get to Cuba be- 

 fore it is over-run ( with anything but 

 starvation), I will describe one of Miss 

 Clara Barton's Red Cross kitchens that 

 are now numerous and famous in Cuba. 



Mr. Somerford then tells how 2,500 

 people in a city of 20,000 inhabitants are 

 kept from starving by being given a pint 

 and a half of boiled beans and the same 

 quantity of rice each day. 



.\lthough he gives us a pretty gloomy 

 picture of things in Cuba, at the time he 

 was there, we are aware that conditions 

 are constantly improving, and not very 

 slowly either; and, although I'm getting 

 pretty near the ageof three score and ten, 

 I expect to live to see the time when 

 Cuban honey won't all goto "Amsterdam 

 and Holland, and foreign cities," but 

 that the United States will get more than 

 its share of Cuba's surplus honey. When 

 Yankee vim, energy, push, brains, and 



