ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



173 



and he had no trouble in getting 

 germs from it. 



12 o'clock noon adjourned to 2 

 o'clock p. m. 



SECOND DAY. 

 Afternoon Session. 



Wednesday, October 14th. 



At two o'clok p. m. the President 

 called the Convention to order and 

 said: 



"We have two or three gentlemen 

 with us who have come a long dis- 

 tance to attend this Convention, one 

 from Cuba and one from California, 

 and we feel we would like to hear 

 from these gentlemen. If Mr. Gilson 

 from Cuba will step forward and give 

 us a little history of things there and 

 particularly in regard to Rambler, that 

 we all know something about, we 

 would be very glad indeed." 



Mr. Gilson — I was with our friend 

 Rambler for about six months of his 

 life. He was sick at the time and he 

 finally went to Havana to the hospital, 

 and 1 of course did not see much of 

 our friend, although I found him a 

 very genial fellow with a kind dis- 

 position and, being new in that part 

 of the country, I certainly felt having 

 a friend leave me like that. 



As to bee-keeping there, they keep 

 a great number of bees and large 

 apiaries. 



Mr. A. I. Root — How many colonies 

 did Rambler have at the time? 



Mr. Gilson — ^He had about 300; they 

 were in a swamp. I believe Mr. Root 

 was there at the same time. He had 

 a good place for honey, but a very 

 poor place for health. That Is, the 

 water was not good and it was low 

 land, causing it to be very unhealthy. 

 As you all know he took the fever and 

 went to Havana and died while Mr. 

 Root was there. At one time we took 

 about nineteen bocoyas — a barrel is a 

 bocoya, with 200 gallons to the barrel 

 from the apiary of Rambler. That 

 was comb honey, and we did that the 

 year I went there. There was some 

 taken before I got there, so I don't 

 know how much there was altogether. 



Mr. A. I. Root — This boy (Mr. Gil- 

 son) had full charge of that apiary. 



. Mr. Gilson — ^After that I took charge 

 of the apiary. It was then sold and I 

 stayed for three and a half years. At 

 the end of that time it was still run- 

 ning for extracted honey. 



Mr. A. I. Root — ^How many colonies 

 can they keep there in one place? 



Mr. Gilson — ^Anywhere from 300 to 

 500, although I never had more than 

 336. I have seen 300 colonies produce 

 about 250 pounds to the colony. We 

 must remember that they have fully 

 eight months of harvest there. It is 

 not a fast harvest like ours is here, 

 but it is continuous almost. There are 

 slight breaks in it of course. 



Mr. A. I, Root— They sometimes 

 have a little foul brood? 



Mr. Gilson — Tes, but I did not have 

 much experience of that. The most of 

 It I have found with other men. I 

 have seen where whole apiaries were 

 wiped out of existence with foul brood, 

 and the hives piled up like so much 

 cordwood. I think it comes from en- 

 trusting it too much to native help. 

 The most of our bees were entrusted 

 to the native help and they did not 

 understand bees; they were just like 

 a machine; simply did as you told 

 them. 



Mr. Holterman — They were not 

 afraid of foul brood? 



Mr. Gilson — No; when they didn't 

 know anything about it. 



Mr. A. I. Root — I visited one apiary 

 where a native was driving out foul 

 brood with brimstone; he supposed 

 brimstone would kill anything. 

 (Laughter.) 



Mr. Chapman — ^About how much per 

 pound does the lioney average? 



Mr. Gilson — I thiink we got at the 

 highest, 48 cents per gallon. They 

 simply run a measure down in the 

 barrel and measure it the same ^s 

 you would wine. 



Mt. A, I. Root— They send the most 

 of their honey over to Germany to 

 make beer. 



Mr. Gilson — I guess the most of It. 

 the bakers get a portion of it. 



Mr. McEvoy — ^What percentage of 

 this honey is marketed in the United 

 States? 



Mr. Gilson — I don't know. 



Mr. Evoy — How much is shipped 

 to England? 



Mr. Gilson — ^I don't know. Germany 

 gets a great quantity of it. 



Mr. Kilgore — ^What is the quality of 

 the comb honey produced? 



Mr. A. I. Root — Some of it is very 

 fine, equal to almost anything we have 

 here, but the most of it is not up to 



