73 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



GREEN FUEL. 



And yet there are times when something green is 

 better. When a continuous and strong smoke is wanted, 

 after a hot fire has been started in the smoker, it is a 

 good thing to fill the smoker with green sticks from a 

 growing tree. The hot fire and the continuous blowing 

 makes it burn freely, and the smoke from green wood is 

 sharper than that from dry. 



But it is only on special occasions that it is desirable 

 to have green wood, and it should at all other times be 

 not only dry but very dry. Nothing is better as a stand- 

 ard fuel than sound hard wood saw^ed into proper lengths 

 and split up into pieces about a quarter of an inch thick. 

 The only objection is that such wood is rather expensive, 

 for it takes a great deal of time to prepare it. ]\Iuch the 

 same thing without the cost of preparation may be had at 

 any woodpile where hard wood has been chopped — I 

 mean the chips to be found there — and that has been the 

 favorite smoker-fuel "in this locality" for some time. 

 When the w^eather is dry, the chips may be picked up in 

 the chip-yard and filled directly into the smoker, but a 

 stock is always kept on hand well covered up, ready to 

 use immediately after the heaviest shower of rain. 



■ ' SMOKER-KIXDLING. 



When live coals are at hand in the cook-stove, noth- 

 ing is handier than to put a few of them in the smoker 

 to start the fire. These are not always at hand. I have 

 used for kindling carpenter's shavings, kerosene, rotten 

 wood of some hard wood, especially apple, that kind of 

 rotten wood that is somewhat spongy and will be sure to 

 burn if the least spark touches it — all these have given 

 more or less satisfaction, but nothing quite so much as 

 saltpeter-rags. Like the right kind of rotten wood, the 

 least spark will light a salt-peter rag so that it will be 

 sure to go, but it is not so slow in its action as the rotten 

 wood, and makes a much greater heat, so that chips of 



