SECRETARY'S REPORT. 61 



From the present imperfect knowledge of the true theory of the circulation 

 of the sap, and from the difficulty and uncertainty attending experiments 

 relating to it, it is probable that these questions will not be definitely settled 

 for a long time ; and that views at present entertained, and stoutly persisted 

 in, will be hereafter greatly modified. As very little practical good can result 

 from speculation upon the subject, it is here dismissed with the following 

 caution : avoid all unnecesgary mechanical injury to the sugar tree. The loss 

 of sap is generally supposed to have no detrimental eflPect upon the tree, except 

 to retard its growth ; and that it has this effect even, is questionable. The 

 injury sometimes observed can usually be traced to the improper use of the 

 tapping instruments, or some other agency, while numerous instances have 

 come to the writer's knowledge where trees have been tapped thirty, or fifty 

 years consecutively, and yet they are apparently healthy, and no reason 

 appears why they may not bear the same treatment a like period to come. 



Receiving Vessels. Every variety of vessel is used for receiving the sap as 

 it Qows from the tree, from the rude trough (hewn from the sapling pine or 

 cedar,) and birchen bucket, to the perfect machine-made shaker pail and glass 

 vase. Anything will answer if it is but clean and sweet. Glass would be 

 best, but it is too expensive; tin is good, but it is also expensive; birch 

 buckets are extensively used on account of their trifling cost, but are often 

 leaky ; are handled with difficulty when full of sap, and are not easily kept 

 Bweet. The shaker pail is used, but the top is too large, catching too much 

 dirt when the winds shake the forest ; sheds its hoops too freely when it has 

 stood empty a day or two with a March wind blowing ; and, if hung to the 

 tree by its wire loop and nail, its flaring top gives it an outward pitch and 

 lessens its capacity. Earthern vessels are easily kept clean, but are too heavy, 

 and liable to be broken. The best thing on account of its low cost, lightness, 

 durability, and well adapted form, is the mackerel half-kid, lacking its 

 smallest head; its form is that of an inverted pail, consequently the hoops 

 never fall off when it is kept right end up, its small top catches little dirt, is 

 easily kept sweet by scalding, hangs well to a tree, and will last, with proper 

 care, many years. 



The most satisfactory arrangement is to suspend the receiving tub, by a 

 wire loop fixed in one side near the top, upon a nail driven into the tree just 

 below the spouts. With this arrangement there is no tipping ever from the 

 melting away of the snow beneath, no labor of blocking up with limbs or 

 billets of wood, and no waste of sap by the winds as it falls from the spouts to 

 the tab, as is the case when they are set upon the snow or ground, often being 

 one or two feet below the spouts. 



Gathering. When the snow is not too deep, the drawing of the sap to the 

 sugar house may be performed by oxen or horses ; thus very much relieving 

 the hardest part of the labor of sugar making. But in Maine, the sugar- 

 season usually opens about the midele or last of March, when, ordinarily, 

 there are several feet of snow upon the ground ; and the labor of opening roads 

 through the orchard, and the delay always attending the movements of a 

 team, would more than counterbalance the saving made in using animal in 

 the place of human power. An active man can gather twelve barrels per 

 day, when the tubs will average half full, and the trees are not too much 

 scattered ; he would not probably accomplish more with a team. But to do 

 this he must be properly " armed and equipped," as follows : a good sled ; a 

 light, sixteen gallon keg ; a tin tunnel, this being lighter than one of wood ; 

 a pail for collecting ; a claw-hatchet for re-adjusting nails, spouts, or loose 

 hoops; and a pair of " rackets" (snow-shoes) to bear him up when the snow 

 becomes soft at midday and afternoon. 



A properly constructed sap-sled is a truly Yankee invention, and not often 

 seen. In it four things are indispensable, viz: the utmost lightness, com- 

 bined with the requisite strength, ease of draft, and ability to bear up upon a 

 soft, slumping snow. To secure these things, the runners require to be about 



