PAPERS ON BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 63 



CELASTRACEAE. STAFF-TREE FAMILY. 

 Genus Celastrus, L. Staff-tree. Shrubby Bitter-Sweet. 

 Celastrus scandins, L. Wax-Work, Climbing Bitter-Sweet. 



SAPINDACEAE. SOAPBERRY FAMILY. 

 Genus Acer, Tourn. Maple. 



Acer pennsylvanicum, L. Striped Maple, a common tree. 



Acer spicatum, Lam. Mountain Maple. 



Acer saccharinum, Wang. Sugar or Rock Maple.** 



Acer saccharinum, var. nigrum, Torr & Gray. Black Sugar Maple.** 



♦♦The sugar maple is a common tree on the reservation. It grows in groves. 

 The trees are scarred by repeated tappings, causing each to be considerably 

 enlarged in the part of the trunk that is subject to the tapping. Many tons 

 of sugar are annually made by the Bois Fort Indians. 



The sugar-making season comes when the first crow appears, usually about 

 the middle of March, while there is yet snow on the ground. The medicine 

 men give orders and the sugar-making holiday is begun; every one goes to his 

 respective maple grove, which is the place of the sugar-making for that re- 

 spective family and claimed by right of descent, through the mother's totem. 



The first thing on arriving on the ground is to erect the temporary tepees. 

 These are the usual cortical frame made of poles leaning together at the top 

 and spreading to the ground all around, and covered with bark or canvas. 

 There is one entrance door and the smoke from the central fire escapes at the 

 top among the loosely fastened poles. Racks are then set up, on which to 

 hang the pots for boiling the syrup, enclosed often in enlarged, elongated bark 

 tepees. 



The next work is the preparing of sap dishes and sap buckets. 



Quantities of bark is peeled off from the nearby white birch trees; pieces of 

 the bark are cut and folded into sap dishes and pans, each measuring eight to 

 twelve inches in width, eighteen inches in length, and about six inches in 

 depth. The ends are carefully folded and stitched along the edge with bass- 

 wood fiber, so that it will retain its shape. Several hundred of these dishes 

 are made by each family. Sap buckets are then made from birch bark. These 

 are cut and folded at the corners so as to avoid breaking the bark. The folds 

 are then seamed with pine resin. When completed these buckets are elongated 

 in shape, are supplied with a carrying bale, and are made deep enough to 

 hold one or two gallons. The average bucket measures about six inches across 

 the top, which is round, and eight to nine inches across the elongated bottom; 

 the depth is about nine inches. To strengthen the pail the top and rim are 

 held in place by means of thin strips of wood neatly stitched fast with bass- 

 wood fiber. Mococks or boxes for containing the sugar product are made in 

 the same way and are much the same shape. 



When the preparations are completed, the sap gathering commences. One 

 (or more) small oblique gash is cut in each sugar tree so as to take out the bark 

 and about an inch of the sap wood. Down this gash the sap runs to the bot- 

 tom and trickles downward along the side of the tree. Just below the lower 

 point of the gash a horizontal cut is made in the bark and a downward sloping 

 chip is driven into this cut so that the sap from the cut above runs over it and 

 drips from the end into a sap dish set under the chip to catch the drippings. 

 Twice a day these dishes are emptied into sap buckets and the sap carried to 

 the tepee to be boiled into sugar. 



The sap is boiled in cans and kettles within the large wigwams or outside 

 under the racks previously mentioned ; they have a tradition that before they 

 could get iron kettles, their ancestors used to make kettles of clay with which 

 they boiled sap. As soon as one kettle full is converted into sugar, another 

 kettle full of sap is hung over the fire; as many kettles are used in this pro- 

 cess as the family can obtain. 



When the syrup begins to granulate, it is poured into wooden troughs where 

 it is stirred and the granulating process completed. Much of the syrup just in 

 the act of granulating is thrown on snow to cool rapidly, forming sugar wax, 

 which is a good substitute for our candy. 



Sugar cakes are also formed by pouring the syrup into sauce dishes, small 

 cake dishes and the like, when just in the act of granulating. These are re- 

 melted into syrup when needed. Much of the maple sugar is now sold to the 

 whites in cake form, the granulated product being put into mococks for future 

 use. 



