The soot in the chimney can not burn, except as the fire of the stove is communicated to it through the pipe. If the pipe, therefore, be kept clean and free from soot, and the damper in the stove always closed, the chimney will never burn out. To free the pipe of soot, take the stove-handle or any convenient implement, and rap the pipe smartly on all sides from top to bottom. The soot will fall into the stove and be harmlessly consumed, or it can be removed in the usual way.

If there be a horizontal pipe, this should be taken down twice a year and thoroughly cleaned. Or, if the pipe be only a few feet in length, and the arrangements will admit of it, provide the horizontal pipe with a permanent scraper, as follows: To the end of a stout wire, a few inches longer than the pipe, attach a small segment of a disk of sheet-iron, at right angles to the wire. Remove the elbow, and thrust the scraper into the pipe. Pass the other end of the wire through a hole punched in the elbow, loop the end of the wire for a handle, and replace the elbow. After first rapping the pipe, the soot can all be drawn out and let fall into the stove. Clean the pipe thus as often as once a fortnight during cold weather.