438 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



and for this reason the photograph is 

 both interesting and valuable. I offer 

 it to the readers of The Guide to Na- 

 ture because it seems too good to be 

 locked in one's notebook and because 

 it is a "snake story" that with the 

 picture attached does not have to be 

 proved to be believed. 



MAPLE SUGAB BOILING IN COLONIAL 

 TIMES. 



VA REVEREND I.. S. NICKERSON, SUGAR 



II I I.E. NEW HAMPSH IRE. 



There are now no scenes in this 

 vicinity of sugar making like that 

 shown in the photograph. It belongs 

 in a generation wholly passed away. 

 This photograph was taken about 

 twenty-five years ago and was then 

 the last of the kind possible, for it was 

 the last and only boiling of this kind 

 in this region. 



In the autumn when the leaves of 

 the maple ripen they store up in the 

 limbs and trunks a large amount of 

 sugar; other trees store up pitch or 

 starch. When the thawing and freez- 



"BOILING DOWN" THE SAP. 



ing of early spring come or in a warm 

 spell in midwinter, the sap of the tree, 

 carrying this stored up sugar, begins 



AN ANTIQUATED SUGAR CAMP. 

 See Frontispiece. 



