THE CUBA R E \' I E W 



Honey in Eastern Cuba 



"The spring honey crop begins with tlie 

 first rains in March or April, and hists 

 till Tune or July. In case there are no 

 rains in June or Jul}-, then there are bad 

 times for the bees. The first very dry 

 summer I experienced in Cuba I lost 500 

 hives. Last summer was \-ery dry : and 

 after feeding $200 worth of sugar I still 

 lost 400 hives, having only 550 left, and 

 mostly in poor condition. This year we 

 had plenty of rains at the proper time, 

 and the bees actually increased from 1,050 

 to 1,100 hives after the close of the spring 

 honey crop. All the hives are full of brood, 

 and in good shape to begin on the fall 

 crop, which begins September 1st, and 

 lasts to October 15th, after which we have 

 our winter crop of bellflower or white 

 morning glory. 



"My spring crop was 70 barrels, mostly 

 dark honey. INIy fall crop, which will be 

 all dark, will be about 25 barrels ; and the 

 winter crop, which will be pure white, will 

 be over 100 barrels. Our barrels hold 50 

 gallons each, or about 600 pounds. My 

 wax crop will be about 4,000 pounds this 

 year. I have all five yards along the Cauto 

 River, the yards about a mile apart, and 

 the" furthest is onh^ three miles from the 

 home yard. 



"In seven j-ears I have known only three 

 days when the bees could not work in 

 Cuba." — Frank Reiniaii. Cauto (Cuba), in 

 "Gleanings in Bee Culture." 



An Old Irrigation System 



When the English and the French were 

 fighting with the Indians for supremacy on 

 the borders of the United States, some of 

 the hardy and industrious people of Cuba 

 had alread}- begun a sj'stem of irrigation, 

 which has existed for more than two cen- 

 turies. This system traverses the Guines 

 district, about 30 miles south of the cit}- 

 of Havana, and was begun by individual 

 growers tapping the ^layabeque River and 

 diverting its waters by a series of private 

 ditches into their fields. It was not long 

 before the growers, in the surrounding 

 country tributarj- to this river, realized the 

 advantage of that irrigation, and the com- 

 munity got together to devise a plan for 

 extending the original ditches into outlying 

 properties, and hundreds of slaves were put 

 to work digging the ditches, which were 

 laid out with admirable skill by Spanish 

 engineers. These ditches thread their way 

 through 1,172 caballerias, or, approximately, 

 3S.S70 acres of land. The dominion of all 

 water courses is vested in the government, 

 which reserves the right to regulate all 

 uses of water. 



This system of irrigation is owned jointly 

 by the property holders on shares, the 



ditches being cleaned every two months by 

 the owners of the abutting property, and 

 if it is not done the board of control orders 

 the work done at thy expense of the owner. 

 The cost of the wa'ter to the shareholders 

 is practically nothing, as the members of 

 the l)oard serve gratis, the secretary being 

 the only man drawing a salary, which is 

 small. The revenue derived from the 

 power rights given to small factories almost 

 meets the entire expense of operation. — 

 From the address of Leon J. Canover, del- 

 egate to eighteenth national irrigation con- 

 gress, held at Pueblo, September 30th. 



A Cuban product that finds much fa\or 

 in the New Orleans market is grapefruit. 

 The Cuban grapefruit is popular because 

 it has a fine flavor, being rather sweetish, 

 with a bitter tang. The grapefruit" is highly 

 recommended for stomach troubles by 

 physicians, and is extensively used in mak- 

 ing fruit salads, for which it is especially 

 adapted. The demand for grapefruit is 

 good, and it is selling in a jobbing wav at 

 from $2.50 to $4. 



Tobacco and Cane Benefitted 



Just at the end of the rainy season, when 

 the tobacco seed beds are being planted, 

 and at the time when this very delicate, 

 sensitive, and valuable crop stands most in 

 need of water, our rainfall is deficient. The 

 quicker a tobacco leaf can be brought to 

 maturity, the finer the quality and greater 

 the quantity. When tobacco grows quickly, 

 the leaf has the fineness of silk, and its 

 veins are of minimum size, making the leaf 

 pliable and easily worked into the manu- 

 factured article. ^Vith irrigation practiced 

 in the tobaco-growing districts of Cuba, 

 the crop, which is to-day worth $30,000,- 

 000 annualh^ should be doubled and trebled. 

 This is such a recognized fact that the 

 government of Cuba has alreadj' taken 

 steps to make a thorough study of the sub- 

 ject of irrigation. 



Cane under irrigation is always rich in 

 saccharine and well filled with sap or juice. 

 Without irrigation, or in dry seasons, the 

 loss to the growers is very apparent. Cane 

 is largely composed of water and is a plant 

 that requires a great deal of it. Large 

 areas of this product are planted in the 

 fall and go through what is known as our 

 dry season in real distress because of the 

 scarcity of rains. It is frequently the case 

 that in the cane-growing belt the rainy sea- 

 son terminates too early, and the conse- 

 quence is that the percentage of saccharine 

 in the juice contained in the cane decreases, 

 and the quantity of juice is so decreased 

 that the growers suffer a tremendous loss. 

 Alost of the cane in Cuba is grown on 

 the colona system — that is. on the share 

 plan, the grower receiving about 5 per c:nt 



