THE bee-kei:pers' review. 



247 



previous experience lo he certain of good 

 results. So in 18S4 I began by the pur- 

 chase of all the bees I could get, paj'ing 

 therefor from 1 1 to 510 per colony. By 

 increase and other purchases, by 1S90 I 

 had 500 colonies, and 2uoo in 1895, keep- 

 ing on until iSyS, when the colonies 

 numbered about 3000, nearly the number 

 I now have. By 1892 I had every dollar 

 of my indebtedness paid out of the profits 

 from mv bee industry, and since that time 

 I have invested the profits of this branch 

 in farms, averaging in price from I5000 

 to fi 2, o(X), as the profits for each year. 

 Last }-ear I purchased |4o,ooo worth of 

 land, and 515,000 of this amount came 

 from the sale of honey and bees. All the 

 land I purchased prior to 189S has more 

 than doubled in value, while that bought 

 since has advanced fully thirty per cent, 

 and has paid in rent, since I owned it, 

 fully S per cent. I now own 20,000 acres 

 of fine farm and fruit lands, which at a 

 fair valuation, is worth ^60 per acre, be- 

 sides large tracts of wild lands in Dakota, 

 Texas and Kansas, and considerable city 

 property. None of it is for sale, as most 

 of it pays a fair interest on a much larger 

 price. Now it may be seen why I am in 

 the bee buisness. I have regained my 

 health, and will continue handling bees 

 right along. 



My increase has alwa3'S paid all expen- 

 ses, including 10 per cent interest on the 

 investment. I produce chunk, extracted, 

 and section honey, and sell all at 15 cents 

 per lb. in this and neighboring towns. 

 My net profit for eleven years was a little 

 over 400 per cent, and for the last six 

 years it was a little over 800 per cent. 

 Last year my home apiar\', of which I am 

 now writing, 75 colonies (spring count), 

 gave nie 407 lbs. to the colony. 



Of course, all of this sounds like a fairy 

 tale, but Mr. Root has taken the precau- 

 ion to write to neighbors of Mr. Gandy, 

 and he has found the accounts reasonably 

 correct. 



I am sure that my readers will now 

 wish to know more about this man and 

 the methods whereby he secured such 

 wonderful results. First, a few words 

 about the man. He was born 58 years 

 ago in West Virginia. When he was six 

 years old his parents moved to Indiana 

 where he lived until 1S62 when he enlist- 

 ed in the Union army, and, after serving 

 three j-ears, he returned home and finish- 

 ed his medical education at the Univensi- 

 ty of Michigan and the Rush Medical 



College, Chicago, where he graduated. 

 He located in Iowa, but remained only a 

 year, when he moved to Nebraska, where 

 he has resided ever since. For 30 years 

 he has been keeping bees; for the last 

 17 as a commercial pursuit, an<l, it must 

 be admitted that for a man to have 3000 

 colonies of bees and make |25,ooo from 

 these bees in two years, aiul the bee keep- 

 ing world know nothing of it, is some- 

 what astonishing. Like Mr. Morgan, of 

 Wisconsin, Mr. Gandy has been making 

 money with bees and keeping still about 

 it. Another thing, he has done it in Neb- 

 raska, which is not considered a very 

 good bee keeping State. Another won- 

 derful thing is that a large share of Mr. 

 Gaudy's success is attributed to what has 

 been almost universally pronounced a 

 failure, viz., artificial pasturage. But list- 

 en to Mr. Gandy on this point. He 

 says: — 



I claim by mv method of handling, of 

 which I can describe only some of the 

 principals features, bees may be made to 

 produce double the ordinary surplus and 

 perhaps more I assume that the reader 

 is a bee-keeper who has plenty of nectar- 

 secreting plants in his neighborhood — as 

 any section can be made a good place for 

 bees at an expense of |6o for catnip and 

 sweet-clover seed, and this sum is less 

 than the profit I derived from a .single 

 colony last year. Much of this increase 

 is attritbutable to the plants; but I am 

 confident that mv particular methods 

 helped to bring about the greater yield. 



Continuing, Mr. Gandy, in describing 

 the up-to-date bee keeper, says: — 



You make your visit in Tune, and long 

 before you reach his residence you will 

 find all roads thickly set to sweet-clover 

 and catnip, the fragrance of which has 

 attracted the bees who are flitting indus- 

 triously about among the sweet scented 



blossoms The host will tell of 



having 25 acres of sweet-clover, which he 

 cuts for hay, and the same acreage of 

 catnip, which will enable him to keep 300 

 colonies instead of the usual lou. 



In another place Mr. Gandy says: — 



When I starteil bee-keeping on a large 

 scale my neiglibor bee-keepers did not 

 average a surplus yield of over 50 pounds 

 per \-ear to the colony. I immediately- 

 set about improving the bee pasture, and 



