180 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



gling it, but that's the way it uses me sev- 

 eral times a day. I like the Manum im- 

 provement which in a measure overcomes 

 this tumbling propensity. It is the attach- 

 ment of a hook made of hoop iron project- 

 ing from the upper portion of the bellows. 

 This allows the smoker to be hung on the 

 side of a hive or even hung to the clothing 

 and carried when both hands are full. 



Rotten wood is, I think, the best fuel, but 

 in the country where I now am, rotten wood 

 of the right kind cannot be obtained. Bur- 

 lap sacks are a.-ed to quite an extent, and 

 when once started and pressed in snug, a 

 piece of burlap will last a long time. J . F. 

 Mclntyre uses barley straw. A good lire is 

 started and then a wisp of straw rolled tight 

 and moistened a little is inserted, and will 

 last many hours. Excelsior taken from 

 packing cases is also used. 



In mauy apiaries in this State a contin- 

 uous-blast, vindictive smoker is needed. 

 Bees are excaediugly hard to subdue, and 

 those who advocate and practice giving only 

 a puff or two of smoke would meet with a 

 hot reception. 



That is all I wish to say about smokers, 

 but I wish to say a word now about Uncle 

 John Andrews. When I saw that little pic- 

 ture of his on page 1.50, I felt like throwing 

 my arms around his neck and hugging him. 

 In that picture Uncle .John looks as though 

 he might speak. How happily we have 

 roamed the shores of Lake George : camped 

 in camp Andrews, and hauled out the lusty 

 pickerel and trout from the pure waters of 

 the lake (trout are Uncle John's favorite), 

 and now I am o.OOO miles away from those 

 aforetime haunts, and may never meet my 

 old friend this side of eternity. That a kind 

 Providence may bless the whitened head, is 



the wish of the 



Rambler. 



A Fair and Generous Comparison of the 



dualities of the Bingham, Clark, 



Hill and Crane Smokers. 



ERNEST E. BOOT. 



HAVE experimented much with smok- 

 ers and have been quite closely connect- 

 ed with the manufacture, so far as it re- 

 lates to details of construction, of some hun- 

 dred thousand. I have experimented with 

 nearly all the smokers ever advertised, from 

 the old original bellows smoker, first adver- 

 tised by father Quinby, to the perfect smok- 

 ers of to-day. I suppose I ought to know 



something about smokers. But may be, be- 

 fore I get through, you will conclude that I 

 do not. 



Naturally enough, I ought to recommend 

 and praise up, above all of its competitors, 

 the smoker in which I am particularly inter- 

 ested; but my opinion can hardly be biased 

 if I give the palm to the other fellow's smok- 

 er — the Bingham — in the manufacture of 

 which we are in no way interested. I am 

 sure I would very much rather give the pref- 

 erence to our own — the Clark — but I am 

 afraid if I did so our boys in the apiary 

 would ask me why I pick out the Bingham 

 when I propose to " tackle " a colony of 

 cross or uncertain temperament, or why it is 

 that it is generally used by them in the 

 apiary. 



Yes, the Bingham is used more largely in 

 our apiaries than the Clark. It is strong and 

 well made, gives a good volume of smoke, of 

 the subduing kind and is always prompt for 

 emergencies. It burns any kind of fuel, al- 

 though our boys very much prefer the excel- 

 sior sawdust, such as comes from the hand- 

 holes in making hive-bodies. 



The Bingham has one distinctive feature 

 that, in my mind, makes it superior to ail 

 other smokers; and that is, the absence of 

 any connecting tubes between the bellows 

 and fire-box, or stove. Just so sure as the 

 tube connects the two, as in some of the hot 

 blast smokers, it has a tendency to become 

 clogged with creosote, and to carry smoke 

 into the bellows; with the result that the 

 bellows valve becomes stuck up and wheezy. 

 We have a bellows that has been in use, in 

 connection with the Bingham fire-box, for 

 the last three or four years: and the leather 

 valve is just as clean, apparently, as the day 

 we began using it. I may be mistaken, but 

 I think you will not find a like condition in 

 all other smoker bellows that have been in 

 use for the same length of time; therefore, 

 in hot blast smokers I would object to the 

 use of any connecting tube between the two 

 parts of the implement. The very absence 

 of such a tube in the Bingham prevents 

 smoke from entering the bellows, and causes 

 it to last and do good service. The only dis- 

 advantage is, that the blast is considerably 

 weakened: although for general manipula- 

 tions of the hive it is strong enough. For 

 this reason, Mr. Editor, I should be afraid 

 that the canals, or passageways, of the Crane 

 smoker would in time become filled with 

 creosote, and the valve likewise more or less 



