378 THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 



ing. If land were taxed it would make it necessary for the native 

 to become more steady. Even the desire for new and costly things, 

 that are being imported, has already had an effect on him in many 

 places. 



From the above description it is only natural that flowers will 

 grow here the year around and that it is an ideal place to handle 

 bees, not only for honey, but queens and the production of wax 

 looks like a big thing to me, but some further experimenting will 

 be necessary before I can say much about this authoritatively. There 

 are many locations open here where it would never be necessary 

 to feed bees and where brood rearing could be carried on during 

 all months. The honey produced here is to my belief equal in qual- 

 ity to any produced in the United States and our "CAMPANILLA 

 BLANCO" yields a superior honey in flavor to your White Clover. 

 (I feel safe in making this statement by proxy.) "Campanilla" 

 is the Spanish botanical name for Bell flower, of which there are 

 many kinds, colors and sizes, none of which, to my belief yield 

 much nectar that the bees can get to, except the "Campanilla Blan- 

 co." Honey from this is famous among the natives. In the 

 comb it appears white in color, but extracted the same honey is of 

 a rich honey color (cream or pinky), varying a little to extreme 

 light amber. There are always so many other flowers in bloom at 

 the same time and to get my Campanilla crop I must sort all frames 

 for four to six weeks and uncap only a portion of many frames in 

 making this extraction. The bloom of the Campanilla vine lasts from 

 sunup to between eleven a. m. and two p. m. New flowers come on 

 daily for perhaps three or even five days, then the vine rests a day. 

 Samples of my honey and wax will be exhibited at your convention 

 next year, everything permitting. 



Cuban beeswax is equal to any other, but because of the pro- 

 cess of melting etc., much of it as sent abroad has a very dark color. 



Honey today is selling for fifteen cents per gallon here. That 

 is the price being paid by exporters who collect the honey from 

 small producers. This is easily explained. Our honey all comes 

 under the head of West Indian product and the bulk of it is strain- 

 ed, taken from log hives and handled in a very crude way, likewise 

 dirty, and without any regard to its ripeness. This honey quickly 

 sours. 



In addition to this some buyers add a certain per cent of boil- 

 ed cane juice before it is exported. Now instead of your bee journ- 

 als lamenting the damage this honey is doing your markets, why 

 don't you make laws prohibiting the importation of all strained 



