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keeping pay ? Does my business pay ? 

 The answer depends in a great meas- 

 ure on the individuals themselves. It 

 may not pay directlj' the first year, but 

 if advertising is worth anything, it no 

 doubt will, in the long run. 



If your fair managers offer no 

 premiums, make a good display one or 

 two years without, and I think they 

 will then, rather than lose the attrac- 

 tive feature. There is also a great ad- 

 vantage in being the first one to start 

 anything like this. 



Now, if these few ideas that I have 

 here advanced will result in increasing 

 the home consumption of our honey, 

 thereby helping to relieve the city 

 markets, I shall feel repaid for all the 

 labor I have given this essay. 



Stamford, Conn. 



SPRING DWINDLING. 



LiOss of Bees in I lie Spring 

 Fancy Comb Honey. 



^¥ritten for the American Bee Journal 

 C. E. WOODWAKD. 



On page 697, Mr. Doolittle states in 

 his report for 1888, that he is again 

 out at open sea, for the experience of 

 the past spring has taken all of the 

 conceit out of him ; and he candidly 

 confesses that he does m^t know what 

 causes " spring dwindling," or degen- 

 eration. Well, let us see. 



Mr. Doolittle says in his report that 

 2 colonies were wintered exactly alike. 

 That may be true, so far as the eye 

 could witness, and j-et not be exactly 

 alike. You may take two eggs that 

 look just alike, and yet they are not 

 alike ; for one may sink in water, and 

 the other may float. 



So Mr. Doolittle's bees might not be 

 just alike. One colony might have 

 contained young bees, and the other 

 might have contained old ones that 

 died with old age. A colony of young 

 bees, if well protected in the spring, 

 will not degenerate, at least such is 

 my experience. 



Frodnciiig; Fancy Comb Honey. 



If bee-keepers wish to obtain fancy 

 prices they must obtain fancy honey. 

 How can we obtain fancy ' honey ? 

 Simply by using starters in tlie sec- 

 tipns ? No, I think not. P'ill the sec- 

 tions half full ? No, I would not. I 

 would till tlie sections full of founda- 

 tion, and fasten tlie foundation to each 

 side of the section, not at the top, and 

 h^ave a bce-s))afe at the bottom ; for 

 the bees will take care of that part. 



I have tried, and experimented with 

 all the ways, and I like the above way 

 much the best. The sections are filled 

 flush and full at the four sides. All of 



my honey sold for 15 and 15i cents 

 per pound, while others obtained 12J 

 and 13 cents per pound in the same 

 market. This is the way I obtain 

 fancy honey, and fancy prices. 

 South Newburg, O. 



BEE-WARRIORS. 



A Vietorioui Army Put to Flight 

 by Bees. 



Written for Harper's You7ig People. 



The quiet little village of Holzmen- 

 gen, in Transylvania, was in an up- 

 roar one bright summer afternoon 

 long ago, for its Saxon inhabitants 

 were fighting for their lives against 

 terrible odds, as they had fought man}' 

 a time before. The whole slope of the 

 hill on the brow of which it stood was 

 one great crowd of wild-looking men, 

 with dark, tierce faces and white tur- 

 bans, and strangely fashioned armor — 

 those dreaded Turkish soldiers, the 

 memory of whose fierceness is still 

 preserved in our saying that any man 

 of savage temper is " a regular Turk." 



And all this time, while the air was 

 rent with the din of battle, and Death 

 was gapping to devour the village and 

 all within it, a little girl barely ten 

 years old, with long fair hair, and eyes 

 as blue and bright as the skj' overhead, 

 was at work in her little garden just 

 behind the village church, as quietly 

 as if no enemy were within a hundred 

 miles of her. 



But this was not so strange as it 

 looked. Little Lizzie was the daugh- 

 ter of the sexton who had charge of 

 the church, which, as the largest and 

 safest building in the place, was al- 

 ways used as a hospital in time of war; 

 and the work upon which the little 

 woman was so busy, was the preparing 

 of bandages for the wounded, who 

 were now being brought in thick and 

 fast. 



But in the midst of all this uproar 

 and agony and death, the sun shone as 

 brightlj' as ever, and the trees of the 

 tiny garden rustled in the evening 

 breeze ; and around the twelve neat 

 hives that stood ranged in a row, the 

 bees were humming blithely, as tliej- 

 hovered among the flowers ; and any 

 one who had sliut his ears to the 

 frightful din below might have thought 

 this spot the most peaceful in the world. 



And now Lizzie, catching up a whole 

 armful of bandages, hurried away into 

 the church, where she was soon so 

 busy among the wounded men that 

 she hardly noticed that the noise of 

 the battle was growing louder, seem- 

 ing to roll nearer and nearer every 

 m<mient. 



But suddenly a fearful cry from 

 without made her look up, and through 



the nearest window she saw the Ger- 

 mans crowding wildly into the one 

 small gate of the church-yard wall, 

 while behind them the dark Turkish 

 faces and snow-white turbans were 

 eddying like a flood among the houses. 

 The Turks had taken the village, and 

 were coming on to attack the church 

 itself ! 



Luckily it could only be attacked on 

 one side, for on the other the rock was 

 so steep and slippery that no man 

 alive could have scaled it. So the 

 brave village bailiff", though bleeding 

 from several wounds, ranged his men 

 along the side of the wall that faced 

 the enem3% and encouraged them to 

 stand firm and fight it out to the last. 



On came the Turks with hoarse yells 

 of triumph, and in a moment the whole 

 space outside the church-yard wall was 

 a sea of grim faces and flashing steel. 



And now the swarming assailants 

 made a thinl charge, which brought 

 them right up to the foot of the wall 

 that sheltered all who were left of the 

 defenders ; and while some thundered 

 upon the gate with axes, others planted 

 ladders against the wall or tried to 

 clamber up it on each other's shoulders. 



Another moment and all would have 

 been over ; but just then Lizzie, struck 

 with a bright idea (which came to her 

 from an old story that she had heard 

 one winter evening), darted back to 

 her little garden, seized two of the 

 bee-hives, one in each hand, and 

 springing upon the low wall, hurled 

 them among tlie swarming assailants. 

 Two more instantly followed, and then 

 other two, until the whole dozen hives 

 had been flung down upon the heads 

 of the clambering Turks. 



The bees, enraged to madness at 

 being sent whirling through the air so 

 unceremoniously, fell like furies upon 

 the shaven heads and bare arms of the 

 Turkish soldiers, and gave them such 

 a pricking that the Saxon arrows 

 which had been falling so thick among 

 them, seemed a mere nothing in com- 

 parison. Every man in the front 

 ranks was literally black with the in- 

 furiated insects, which kept stinging 

 the more fiercely the more the be- 

 wildered Turks tried to beat them oft'. 



There was no more thought of bat- 

 tle or assault ; for who could wield a 

 sword or climb a wall with his head 

 covered with a perfect nose-bag of en- 

 raged bees, and every exposed inch of 

 his body smarting as if pierced by a 

 thousand red-hot needles ? Aw.ay flew 

 the enemy, and away flew the bees 

 after them, while the yells of pain of 

 the discomfited Turks were answered 

 bj' the uproarious laughter of the 

 triumphant Saxons, who might well 

 laugh to see a whole Turkish army put 

 to flight by the device of one little 

 o-irl. 



