82 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



closely as possible, not only to prevent access of dust, but to prevent the 

 sap from being exposed to the light. In fact sap should always be kept in 

 closed vessels until it enters the evaj)orator. The cove;* of the store-trough 

 should always extend to about a foot of the outer end. In the opening 

 thus left should hang two bags, one within the other, to receive and drain 

 the sap as it flows from the gathering tank. The inner one may be made 

 of 'factory,' but the outer one should be made of canton flannel with the 

 nap inside, that it may entangle and retain any small particles of foreign 

 matter that may pass through the first strainer. The trough should be at 

 least as high as the top of the evaporator, so that by means of a tul)e it 

 can be emptied without tipping or jumping. 



USE AN EVAPORATOR, NOT KETTLES. 



"No sugar-maker can aft'ord to use kettles. 'What is worth doing at all 

 is worth doing well.' Maple syrup can not be well made in iron kettles. 

 The long, rectangular pans, still in common use, are not objectionable, yet 

 even they are a relic of the past. 'Neatness and dispatch' is our motto. 

 Dispatch and the old-time pans are not in accord, hence we can not afford 

 to use them. The utmost dispatch is possible only with an evaporator. 

 These have many advantages over the pans. With the latter the same saj) 

 is boiled over and over before it is reduced to syrup, so that any impurities 

 it may contain become thoroughly steeped and incorporated with the 

 whole, while with the evaporator a small quantity at a time is quickly 

 converted into syrup. The evaporator saves fuel, not to speak of the 

 saving of time to the person who presides over the boiling-room. A-bove 

 all, by rushing our sap to syrup as quickly as possible, and not mixing it 

 with partially reduced syrup, we prevent that contact with the air which 

 gives so much of the dark color to syrup. 



"Probably one of the fastest boiling evaporators is the Champion. Its 

 chief advantage, however, lies in the arrangement of the pans. These con- 

 sist of a large, corrugated, stationary pan, and three or four smaller mova- 

 ble ones, all connected by siphons. By this arrangement, the last or 

 sugaring-off pan of one day may be made the first sap pan of the next day, 

 and thus do away with the lime nuisance. Malate of lime, so annoying to 

 sugar-makers, is deposited only wdien the sap is reduced to good syrup, 

 hence it is readily redissolved when the cooled pan is placed where it 

 receives the thinner sap. 



BEST METHODS OF TAPPING. 



"In tapping, several points that affect the quantity and quality of the 

 sap obtained may be noted: ( 1 ), experiment has shown that it is the depth 

 and not the size of the cut that influences the flow of sap; (2), the 

 smoother and more perfect the cut, the better the flow of sap; (3), the 

 nearer the ground the tree can be conveniently tapped, the larger the 

 amount of sugar; (4), the place to be tapped should be sound, should be 

 as nearly vertical as possible, that the bucket may hang plumb and should 

 preferably be on the south or west side of a tree; (5), the bore should not be 

 over one and one-half or two inches deep, for while a deep cut yields more 

 sap it is greatly inferior in quality. Formerly an ax was thought the best 

 instrument to tap with, but now it is used only for rossing, and for that 

 an adz is better. In rossing, care should be taken to remove only the 



