SECRETARY'S REPORT. gg 



and leaves behind, and from the strained compartment is drawn into the 

 boilers. 



Boilers of various kinds are used ; but rectangular pans, placed end to end 

 upon the top of an open arch, so that the fire shall come in contact with the 

 bottom only, are decidedly the best. These pans may be made of any metal, 

 iron, copper or brass. A convenient size is thirty inches wide, four feet long 

 and six inches deep. There should be a stout iron rail or hoop at the top, 

 with an ear, or handle, near each corner. Two such pans are suflScient for 

 an orchard of the size above named : though, perhaps, the boiling will have 

 to be continued through the night, occasionally, at the time of the greatest 

 flow of sap. This form of boiler is much better than the large caldron kettle, 

 for the reason that when the latter is partially filled, the sides become heated 

 by the flame flashing about it, and when it is again filled, or when the sap 

 foams in boiling, it becomes scorched, giving the syrup or sugar a bitter taste 

 and a dark color. No such results can possibly happen with the pans unless 

 they are allowed to become nearly empty so as to leave some -portion of the 

 bottom bare. 



The graining kettle should be of brass or copper, these being lighter than 

 iron, and consequently more convenient. One of eighteen gallons will be the 

 right size for the supposed orchard. This can be most easily managed upon a 

 crane, over an open fire , for thus, the degree of heat to which it is exposed 

 can be regulated to a nicety, by carrying the kettle over (jr away from the 

 fire instantly as the occasion may require. 



Arch and Fire Place. The arch for the boiling pans, and the open fire 

 place for the graining kettle, may be placed on opposite sides of the same 

 chimney, and should be nearly in the centre of the house, affording approach 

 to them on every side. The arch is not, properly speaking, an arch, or seg- 

 ment of a circle, but a parallelogram built of stone or bricks, of suitable 

 height to contain the fire, and of such a size as to receive the pans upon the 

 top, allowing one and a half inches of their bottom all around to rest upon the 

 brick work. Resting thus upon the top, without mortar, an open joint is 

 made, and the smoke, soot and flame will escape into the room ; this is best 

 prevented by banking round with earth or sand. If two or more pans are 

 used, there will of necessity be a small open space between them where the 

 fire will find its way up to the ends, bringing with it smoke and soot, and 

 endangering the sap by burning. This may be prevented by laying a two 

 inch iron bar across the arch and filling the space between the pans with earth 

 or sand. Iron grates beneath the fire at the front of the arch aid very much 

 in making a brisk hot fire, such as is wanted in rapid vaporization. 



A barrel with one head removed in which to prepare lime-water ; another, 

 ditto, into which to strain the syrup for setting ; with a few pails or 

 spare tubs, a skimmer and a ladle, and the main items of fixtures are 

 completed. 



Treatment of the Sap. The sap should be gathered, as a general rule, as 

 often as once in twenty-four hours ; else it is liable to sour in the tubs ; and 

 when this has happened, the tubs are not again fit to hold it, until they have 

 been scalded and made perfectly sweet. In cool weather it may remain longer 

 in the tubs without danger of fermentation ; yet the damage occasioned by 

 freezing up solid and bursting the tubs, and by the accumulation of ice, lessen- 

 ing their capacity to hold a fresh flow, renders it almost necessary, in any 

 case, to gather as often as before remarked. 



It is stated by Dr. C. T. Jackson — see Report on Geology of New Hamp- 

 shire, page 361 — that maple sap, as it flows from the tree, contains an acid 

 peculiar to itself mingled with the sweet. This acid, coming in contact with 

 the iron of the boilers, slightly corrodes them ; and the sugar becomes charged 

 with the salts of the oxide of iron, insomuch that it ordinarily strikes a black 

 color with tea, and is too generally acid and deliquescent. He recommends, 

 as a remedy, the addition of one measured ounce of clear lime-water to each 



