6102 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



805 



conventions, and who do not care a rap 

 about parliamentary questions, should have 

 some assurance in advance that they will 

 get what they pay for — the hearing of valu- 

 able discussions and the pleasure of meet- 

 ing friends face to face, whom they have 

 known long through the printed page and 

 throug-h correspondence. 



In our next issue I will attempt to give 

 very briefly a summing-up of some of the 

 discussions. 



A VISIT TO HUMBOLDT, NEB., TO SEP: DK. 

 GANDY. 



As previously announced in these columns, 

 Mr. Hutchinson and myself and Mr. E. 

 Whitcomb, of Friend, Neb., called on Dr. 

 Gandy to learn something about his won- 

 derful yield, his catnip- fields, and, in gen- 

 eral, his artificial pasturage. Mr. Whit- 

 comb and Mr. Hutchinspn had preceded 

 me by two days, having gone to Humboldt 

 on the Monday following the convention. 

 We were driven over the territory for miles 

 around, shown outyards, and the general 

 bee pasturage of the locality. I did not see 

 any large fields of catnip; and the largest 

 patch all in one place was about the size of 

 an ordinary dooryard; but we did find that 

 catnip had been sown all along the road- 

 sides over which we went, leading into 

 town. The plants were of good size, thrif- 

 ty' in growth, and as a general rule were 

 close to and under the osage-orange hedge 

 fences. 



Dr. Gandy took me personally over one 

 stretch of road leading out from town, and 

 coming back another way, covering a dis- 

 tance of eight miles. There was no doubt 

 about it — catnip had been sown along the 

 roadsides, and in some cases it had been 

 mown down by the township trustees, to- 

 g^ether with sweet clover and every thing 

 else along the way. But the catnip-plants 

 close to the hedge fences were not molested. 

 If one did not look sharp he might fail to 

 see them, so closely interwoven were they 

 with the foliage of the osage-orange hedge. 

 I also found that on two other roads, lead- 

 ing- from and into town, catnip was scatter- 

 ed in a like manner; and Dr. Gandy told 

 me that all the roads were similarly skirt- 

 ed with catnip from seed which he or his 

 men had sown. There were also some 

 small patches a yard or two square of the 

 plant in his home apiarj'; but so far as we 

 could learn there were no large fields an}'- 

 where. Indeed, the doctor called my atten- 

 tion to the fact that he did not cUiim to have 

 such fields. What he did say was that the 



"ideal bee-keeper" he was describing in 

 July 15th Gleanings would have 25 or 30 

 acres of catnip, und as much of sweet clo- 

 ver, and that this amount of acreage would 

 be sufficient to take care of 300 colonies. 



As to whether Dr. Gandy has 3000 colo- 

 nies or not. we had no way of proving or 

 disproving without prolonging the allotted 

 time at our disposal. There were some- 

 thing like 100 colonies at the home yard, 

 and we visited one or two outyards that had 

 about an equal number. As nearly as I 

 could ascertain, the doctor does have a large 

 number of bees. Some of this number he 

 and his son operate personally. Another 

 portion is run on shares by farmers who 

 lease his farms, of which he has a great 

 number. Another portion of the bees is 

 sold outright under a contract subject to 

 certain conditions. If the purchaser is able 

 to fulfill these conditions, the title to the 

 bees will pass from Dr. Gandy to himself. 

 Some of the bees, the doctor says, are lo- 

 cated along the Missouri River, a consider- 

 able distance away. Some are in other 

 counties, so it would be almost impossible 

 to make a count of the entire number with- 

 out taking weeks of time. 



As to an average of 300 or 400 lbs. of hon- 

 ey per colony, Dr. Gandy asserts that he 

 never claimed that he secured such yields 

 from the entire 3000 colonies; that the 400 

 lbs. average referred to his home apiary 

 only; that, moreover, some of his tenants 

 who have his bees are indifferent and in- 

 competent, and the amount he secures 

 from such tenants is necessarily small. 



At the home yard the colonies were two or 

 three stories high, and there was evidently 

 considerable honej^ as nearl}^ as I could as- 

 certain from "hefting" the hives in the 

 rear. How much of this was catnip I could 

 not say; but at the time of our visit bees 

 were working on heartsease, of which there 

 is an abundance in the vicinity; also wild 

 cucumber and other wild pasturage. There 

 had been a very heavy flood earlier in the 

 season which had cut down the yield per 

 colony very materially this season. There 

 was little or nothing from white clover; but, 

 as nearly as I could judge, the amount of 

 honey secured from catnip is not large un- 

 der present conditions. But the doctor gave 

 us some honej' to taste, that had an unmis- 

 takable flavor of catnip. In was beautiful 

 in color, of good body, and excellent in fla- 

 vor. If he shall be able some time in the fu- 

 ture to carry out his idea of getting large 

 fields of catnip (I saw several leases hav- 

 ing as one of the conditions that the tenants 

 shall sow a considerable amount of catnip 

 and sweet clover ) he may be able to demon- 

 strate that the "ideiil bee-keeper" that he 

 described will be able to get, on an average, 

 not only 100 but 300 lbs. per colony. 



On one of our long drives we found the 

 doctor had done quite a little by wa3' of 

 scattering the seed of buckbush — a very im- 

 portant honey-plant; and there were some 

 fair-sized patches of it on some unimproved 

 land. But buckbush was not considered by 



