THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



after all, and I have decided that the July 

 issue shall be devoted to a discussion of this 

 very topic : and while we arc at it we may as 

 well try and decide which is the best smoker 

 iu which to burn the fuel. 



Of the fuels, none take tire more readily, 

 or " hixug fire " more persistently, than de- 

 cayed wood. For starting a fire in a smoker, 

 dry, rotten elm is unexcelled. The objec- 

 tion to rotten wood is that it burns out so 

 quickly. Mr. Bingham recommends sound, 

 maple wood sawed into three-inch lenths and 

 split up into pieces the size of a lead pencil. 

 I presume that such fuel would burn well in 

 the Bingham smoker, after the fire had been 

 started with rotten wood, as in this smoker 

 the fire receives the direct blast of the bel- 

 lows. Mr. Bingham says that this fuel gives 

 but little creosote. I have never used such 

 fuel, and, in my visits among bee - keepers, 

 I have never found it in use. I presume it 

 is because of the forethought and labor nec- 

 essary to secure this kind of fuel. Bee- 

 keepers seem to prefer something that comes 

 to hand all ready for use. Corn cobs make 

 a lasting fuel, but, unless very dry, they do 

 not ignite readily and are quite likely to "go 

 out " unless kept well in hand. 



But instead of mentioning the different 

 kinds of material that may be used for fuel, 

 I will come directly to the point and say 

 that my favorite fuel is planer shavings, 

 such as come from a planing mill. TheFe 

 shavings do not take fire so readily as one 

 would imagine. The tire ought to be started 

 with rotten wood, or a small, spring-bottom 

 oil can filled with kerosene may be used to 

 squirt a little oil on a few shavings when 

 starting the fire. They can be lighted with 

 a match, without the use of oil, by first put- 

 ting in a few at one side of the barrel and 

 placing a lighted match at the bottom of 

 the heap of shavings. As the blaze plays 

 over the surface of the shavings, gradually 

 incline the smoker to one side, causing the 

 shavings, a few at a time, to tumble down on 

 the fire ; at the same time the bellows 

 should be worked moderately. The idea is 

 to get a mass of burning shavings at the 

 bottom of the barrel, when the smoker may 

 be filled with fresh shavings which will 

 " smolder " for hours if left to' themselves, 

 but when the bellows is operated a cloud of 

 clean, cool, white smoke will belch forth. 

 One who has not tried shavings as a fuel 

 will be surprised at the length of time they 

 will last, and how they will " hang fire" 



after being once well-started. To prevent 

 the fine shavings from being blown out of the 

 smoker nozzle, Mr. Heddon advises using 

 "bench" shavings on top — wetting them 

 with water before {jutting them in the smo- 

 ker. "Bencli" shavings are those made 

 with a hand plane when planing a board on a 

 Ijench. ( )thers have used a bunch of fresh 

 grass in the smoker nozzle. I don't like 

 the grass, as it becomes daubed with creo- 

 sote, sticks to the sides of the smoker and 

 makes a nasty looking mess. I have quit 

 using anything over the shavings. If an 

 occasional shaving is blown out no great 

 harm is done, unless it is on fire, and this 

 will not happen unless the fire has been al- 

 lowed to burn low. 



(Jf smokers there are two classes, the cold- 

 blast— those that simply blow out the smoke 

 without blowing the fire — and those that 

 blow the fire direct. The former need a 

 better class of fuel — fuel that will burn 

 more readily— because they must depend 

 for their draft upon the suction caused by 

 blowing out the smoke. Upon the other 

 hand, the smoke is driven out with greater 

 force in the cold blast style, because the 

 blast comes direct from a tube having close 

 connection with the bellows, while in the 

 Bingliam style the blast is simply blown 

 into an opening at the bottom of the fire- 

 barrel in which it must overcome the resist- 

 ance caused by the barrel being filled with 

 fuel. When we consider that there is no 

 connection between the bellows and the fire- 

 barrel it is surprising that the blast is as 

 strong as it is. 



Perhaps some will ask, why not have a 

 close connection between the bellows and 

 the fire-barrel ? As I understand the mat- 

 ter, the trouble is that the direct draft 

 would be cut off. That is, when the bellows 

 was not working there would be no draft 

 through the fire. This cut-off between the 

 bellows and the fire barrel allows a 

 draft to pass through the latter — just as it 

 would through a stove — when the smoker is 

 not in use. There is still another point. If 

 there were a continuous connection between 

 the fire and the bellows, sparks, smoke, soot 

 and smoke would be sucked back into the 

 bellows, which wcjuld soon ruin it. 



But it may Ije asked, still further, cannot 

 these difiiculties 1 le overcome ? Yes, I believe 

 that Mr. .J. E. Crane of Middlebury, Vt., 

 has, for several years, been making and us- 

 ing, with much satisfaction, a smoker com- 



