SMOKE AND SMOKERS 
difficult to obtain. It furnishes a strong- 
subduing smoke, and is almost free from 
creosote. It can usually be had for the 
asking at any machine shop or printing 
shop, and it may be picked up along rail¬ 
roads, altho as a rule it would take too 
much time to hunt up greasy waste in this 
way. A piece could be found here and 
there, but generally not enough to pay for 
Fig. 2. — Chopping up rolls of burlap for smoker- 
fuel. An old sack is rolled up, tied at intervals, 
and then cut in pieces between the strings. 
the trouble. A supply can be obtained at 
any factory to last a whole season. It 
gives a strong, pungent smoke; does not 
make a hot fire; is easily lighted; will not 
go out as long as any fuel is left. 
abuses of a smoker. 
A good smoker should last a number of 
seasons, but it will very quickly cease to be 
a good implement if it is not well taken 
care of. 
One of the most common abuses of a 
smoker is to leave it out in the rain. Many 
smokers are left out in all kinds of weath¬ 
er; and it is needless to say that the bellows 
leather soon becomes hard, and cracks, and 
the fire-box becomes rusty. Many bee¬ 
keepers keep their smokers in an empty 
hive and thus avoid the danger of a costly' 
fire. If the whole hive should burn, the 
loss would not be so very great. 
A better plan than this is to build a 
small tool house. This need not be over- 
five or six feet high and two or three feet 
square. There should be a shelf, on 
which smokers, hive-tools, veils, etc., may 
be kept. It is a good plan to provide a 
piece of heavy sheet iron about half an 
inch above the shelf for the smokers to 
stand on, so that there will be no danger of 
setting fire to anything. The fuel is kept 
beloAV this shelf. There is room enough 
usually to hold a supply for a whole sea¬ 
son; and when it is kept in this way it is 
always dry and ready for use. The au¬ 
thors have such small buildings at all their 
outyards, and consider them almost indis¬ 
pensable. 
Another common abuse of the smoker is 
to allow creosote to collect at the top until 
the cap will not fit dorvn over the fire-box. 
In a new smoker with the flexible hinge 
Fig. 3—A tool house for smokers, tools, veils, 
and fuel. The fuel is kept in the lower part under 
the shelf. 
there is not apt to be so much trouble in 
this way, but at the same time it is well to 
spend about ten seconds once a week or so 
with a screw-driver in cleaning off this ac¬ 
cumulation. 
