1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



683 



a whole batch may be eventually accepted, 

 but not all promptly nursed, when larvas of 

 as near]}' all the same age as one is able to 

 select be used, still if, on examination a 

 few hours after it is given to the bees, some 

 cups are found shaped up, and the inmates 

 more lavishly fed than others, those at all 

 neglected can have pins stuck over them as 

 being slower in emerging, and inferior in 

 quality. 



HONEV is not being offered very freely. 

 That may indicate a scarcity of crop, even 

 in the East. 



HONKY MAHKET AND PRICES; A GF.NERAL 

 FAILURE IN THE WEST. 



As intimated in our last issue, Western 

 honey will not be much of a factor in the 

 Eastern markets this year. The season 

 has been nearly a failure in Colorado. Our 

 Mr. Calvert, who has just left Colorado for 

 California, writes us that the honey crop in 

 Colorado is practically a failure; but in the 

 region of Rockj' Ford there will be a fair 

 crop, and there may be some honey about 

 Denver; and he adds, "It looks very much 

 as if the West this year would consume all 

 the honej' she will produce." Further ad- 

 vices show that Southern California has 

 had another light rain ; but it will not 

 greatly affect the honey situation. Arizona 

 will not be able to harvest more than one- 

 fourth of a crop. 



With regard to the territory east of the 

 Mississippi, the conditions are but little if 

 any different from those reported in our 

 last issue. Reports vary much in their 

 character. One letter, for instance, in one 

 State will show the best honey crop ever 

 known. Another letter coming from the 

 same State, only a few miles from where 

 the first-mentioned letter came, will show 

 an absolute failure. With scarcely an ex- 

 ception the season shows up well in Ohio; 

 but it varies all the way from good to bad 

 in Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, 

 and the New England States generally. In 

 Illinois and Michigan, except the northern 

 part, the season has been generally poor. 

 Taking every thing into consideration, the 

 white-clover crop will be heavier, I think, 

 than last season; but when all the returns 

 are in it may show up diflerently. There 

 w^ill be less basswood honey. 



The general shortage of honey in the 

 West should cause prices in the East to ad- 

 vance slightly, if anything, over last year. 

 If our commission men in the large cities 

 •will malie a note of this fact they can help 



themselves as well as the general bee-keep- 

 ing fraternity by holding out for better 

 prices than prevailed a year ago at this 

 time. 



DR. GANDY AND HIS ASSERTIONS ; CATNI}' 

 FOR ARTIFICIAL PASTURAGE. 



I HOLD in mj'^ hand quite a mass of corres- 

 pondence, most of it decidedly favorable to 

 the doctor, and some of it otherwise. One 

 man. Dr. O. E. Vermilye, writes that, 

 after having seen Dr. Gaudy's article, he 

 left his home in New York State and went 

 to Humboldt, Neb., to look over the ground, 

 because he could not believe such results 

 could be secured. He writes from Hum- 

 boldt that he has had a most delightful 

 time with the doctor, and has been shown 

 over his farm, and seen his large catnip- 

 fields, and he is convinced of the value of 

 catnip as a honey-plant. He closes by 

 saying he is learning modern bee-keeping, 

 and expects to keep bees on the Gandy 

 plan. 



There are several who write they bought 

 the doctor's honey at 15 cts. a pound. One 

 hotel-keeper (the proprietor of the Park 

 House) says he purchases a ton and a half 

 of honey of Dr. Gandy each year, paying 

 15 cents a pound for it. 



Under date of Aug. 5 Mr. J. W. Bryant, 

 of Humboldt, writes that last fall he sowed 

 14 acres of catnip and quite a little of sweet 

 clover, and that he is expecting to sow 25 

 acres more this fall; that on the old plan of 

 bee-keeping his crops have been light, but 

 that, if he kept bees on the Gandy plan, 

 with plenty of catnip pasturage, he thinks 

 from what he has seeia he could equal Gau- 

 dy's yield. He further says he sold two 

 wagonloads of extracted honey for Dr. Gan- 

 dy last fall, and that he has sown catnip 

 seed for the doctor for four years along the 

 roadside. 



Capt. A. M. Enoch, of Humboldt, writes 

 that he has been a neighbor of Dr. Gaudy's 

 for over 30 years, and that his large crops 

 of honey are mostly from catnip and sweet 

 clover. He is a member of the citj' coun- 

 cil, he says; has served as police judge and 

 justice of the peace, and is familiar with 

 Dr. Gaudy's work and methods. 



Another writer, Mr. Z. A. Hobbs, also of 

 Humboldt, says he has sown bushels of 

 catnip and sweet clover, and lives on one of 

 Dr. Gaudy's farms of 200 acres; that it is 

 in his contract for the farm for another 

 year that he shall sow 30 acres of catnip 

 and sweet clover. 



Another writer, whose name I can not 

 quite make out, at Elk Creek, Neb., says 

 he has about four acres of catnip and an 

 abundance of basswood near by, but that 

 the bees will not leave the catnip to work 

 on basswood; that he has been gathering 

 seed for Dr. Gandy for seven or eight years, 

 and has delivered the same to the doctor. 

 All the waste ground around Humboldt, and 

 the roads leading into Humboldt, he says 

 are thickly sown with catnip, and estimates 

 that the amount ^11 told in the vicinity is 



