SUGAR. 433 



remaining is well settled, the syrup should be boiled again after first separating it from 

 the sediment at the &quot;bottom until it is sufficiently evaporated for granulating. During this 

 process great care is necessary to secure a steady and constant boiling, and at the same time 

 prevent the boiling-over. The sugar is sometimes clarified by the use of milk or the whites 

 of eggs, or both combined, it being mixed with the syrup after it has been strained, and when 

 it is just hot enough to endure the hand for a moment, or before it is scalding hot, before 

 boiling. As soon as it reaches the boiling point, a scum rises to the surface, which must be 

 immediately skimmed off, and never allowed to boil into the syrup and thus mix with it. 

 For this purpose, to a hundred pounds of sugar, five or six eggs beaten to a froth and added 

 to a quart of new milk, and the whole mixed with the syrup, is the usual proportion. Some 

 sugar-makers object to the use of clarifiers, as useless. If everything is kept perfectly 

 clean in the whole process of sugar-making, it will not be necessary to clarify it in any way. 

 Everything having a tendency to stain or discolor the syrup should be avoided. Rusty iron 

 should on no account ever be permitted to come in contact with it. Even an iron spoon, 

 used in stirring off the sugar, will often give it a dark color. 



To determine when the syrup has become reduced to the granulating point, it may be 

 tested by putting a small quantity on snow. If it cools to a waxy consistency, it is not 

 sufficiently boiled to produce sugar hard enough for cakes, but it may do for tubs. For 

 making hard sugar, the syrup must be evaporated until, when tested in this manner, it will 

 be brittle when cold. Another test is to stir a small quantity of the syrup in a dish, and if 

 it granulates with a moderate amount of stirring, it will make soft sugar, suitable for putting 

 in tubs; but if, when applying a drop between the thumb and finger, and pressing, a granu 

 lated thread is formed, it will be hard and may be put into cakes. Rapid stirring a few 

 moments before turning into the molds will make the sugar finer grained. 



If the molds are first dampened with water before putting in the sugar, the cakes can 

 be taken out more easily. Sugar may be made in a small way, where only a few trees are 

 had for the purpose, by boiling the sap over the kitchen range in vessels of tin, or porcelain- 

 lined iron kettles; but a sugar-house is a necessity where sap is obtained in considerable 

 quantities. 



Maple sugar retains its peculiar flavor best when kept from exposure to the air. The 

 flavor of the syrup is best retained by canning or putting in jugs while hot, and sealing, the 

 same as canning fruit. The cans or jugs should always be put in a cool, dry place, and never 

 in a damp part of the cellar, or on the damp cellar-bottom, as this will cause it to mold. 

 Before canning the syrup, the vessels in which it is placed should be made perfectly clean 

 and sweet. If kept in too warm a temperature, or exposed to the air for some time, maple 

 syrup will readily ferment, unless boiled down very thick. The sap will continue to run as 

 long as the nights are frosty, the sugar season lasting only a few weeks ; but that obtained 

 towards the last will not be of as good quality as that which is first produced. 



Yield of Maple Trees. The amount of sugar which can be produced from maple 

 trees varies, some sap being richer in saccharine matter than others, while the amount of sap 

 produced from trees of apparently the same size will vary somewhat. The amount of sap 

 produced from the same trees also varies according to the season. The average amount of 

 sugar contained in the sap is estimated to be from two to two and a half per cent., although 

 some trees will produce more and others less than this estimate. A recent report from 

 several large sugar orchards in Vermont gives the average amount of sugar per tree at two 

 and nine-thirteenths pounds, the best average being three and two-thirds pounds; the lowest, 

 one and three-fifths pounds. Eleven hundred and fifty trees in Canterbury, Vermont, yielded 

 in one season 618 barrels of sap, or 19,776 gallons, from which 4,000 pounds of sugar were 

 obtained. This is about one pound of sugar to five gallons of sap, or three and a half ounces 

 of sugar per gallon, which is equivalent to three and a half pounds per tree. There are 



