THECUBAREVIBW 21 



Many years ago honey was delivered in Havana at 30 to 35 cents per gallon with 

 the container included. This represented about 3 cents per pound. It has been 

 calculated that from IS to 20 pounds of honey are required per pound of comb made 

 by the bees, and, therefore, each pound of comb represents on the old price scale 

 from 54 to GO cents worth of honey. The price of wax has never to our knowledge 

 gone above 40 cents per pound in Cuba, and, therefore, the. loss to the bee-keeper 

 in taking comb from the bees is quite evident. With the price which has prevailed 

 for honey for the last two or three years, varying from the present price of about 

 $1.20 per gallon to as high as $2.,50, and the price of wax during this period 30 to 

 35 cents per pound, the very heavy loss attendant upon the old method in which 

 the combs were destroyed as compared with the new is very much in evidence. 



We have mentioned that the main honey flows in Cuba are confined to those 

 obtained from only a few flowers and trees. Throughout Cuba the finest honey most 

 appreciated in the market and by the native consumer, clear and white in color with 

 a moderately heavy body and fine flavor, is that derived from a blossom resembling 

 somewhat the morning glory, white in color, with a dainty yellow center, which, 

 blooming just about daybreak each morning after November 15th, and lasting until 

 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, festoons fences, and bushes and covers with its white 

 blanket the ground itself in places where the vine has not been destroyed by culti- 

 vation. This vine is locally known by the name of "aguinaldo bianco," "aguinaldo de 

 pascua" (Christmas Gift), or "campanilla blanca." It springs up naturally in every 

 abandoned clearing and in the edges of every forest area where clearing has taken 

 place, also in pastures where close attention is not given to the removal of other 

 than desirable grasses, and constitutes the source of the greatest quantity of honey 

 that is produced in the Island. It takes in this respect the place of the flows obtained 

 in the North from sweet clover and from that of alfalfa in the West. The flow 

 from this blossom is always finished by the 15th of February, though the greatest 

 quantity of honey is obtained from it during November, December and the early 

 part of January. As we have indicated, it is the most appreciated honey produced in 

 the Island. We have also in Cuba a purplish red aguinaldo which blooms in the 

 springtime, continuing in blossom for two or three months and furnishuig a mod- 

 erate quantity of good honey. This fiower is also the product of a vine, and resembles 

 very much our Northern morning glory. 



As an all-year-round producer of honey, the beautiful royal palm, one of the 

 most characteristic and tropical appearing of all Cuba's native trees, foundi prac- 

 tically throughout the Island, easily takes first place. The blossoms from this tree 

 come out in great creamy white bunches just beneath the leaves, five or six bunches 

 being produced during the year, and the blossoms are followed by small nut like 

 seeds which furnish excellent food for fattening pigs. No sooner has the thin green 

 blossom sheath opened giving the bees access to the fiowers than their hum is plainly 

 distinguishable all day long until tlie blossoms fall, each of these blossom fronds 

 being visited by innumerable bees. The honey is clear amber in color, heavy bodied, 

 and of excellent flavor, but only in certain districts can it be obtained in its pure 

 state, as the fact that the tree blossoms all the year causes its nectar to become 

 mixed with that derived from practically all our other honey sources. 



Before the beginning of the period of flow from the "agmnaldo bianco," a rank 

 growing, almost round-leafed vine, found wild practically throughout the Island and 

 in vast quantities in the eastern Provinces, the "lenatera" or "bejuco del Indio," 

 as it is called in Camagiiey Province, comes into blossom. These appear in fronds 

 quite similar to those of our Northern grape, the color is a yellowish green, and 

 the bloom is most profuse, thus furnishing the bees with a vast field for operation 

 which they make the very best use of. The honey from this vine is a deep brown 

 color, very dense and of a peculiar strong flavor, well liked by some, but objectionable 

 to others, but it, however, makes one of the very best honeys for ordinary com- 



