THE PRODUCTION OF MAPLE SIRUP AND SUGAR. 27 



ventilator should be capable of being opened or closed easily; the 

 floor should be of brick, cement, or wood, and should have a slope for 

 ease of cleaning. Brick or cement is preferable to wood, because of 

 less chance of fire. Figure 7 shows the plan of a sugar house which 

 is said to have cost about $l^r>. 



It is not necessary to have the small storage room as shown in C, 

 but where sugar is to be made it forms a good place for the setting 

 up of the " suga ring-oft' " pan (see p. 29). Jt is of special benefit 

 lo have the woodshed boarded up, but this is of less importance than 

 the other portions of the house. The dimensions given allow for 

 the ordinary sized evaporator, but for larger ones it may be found 

 well to increase the width and length of the whole structure. 



The storage tank should be a large one, capable of holding about 

 a half day's run of sap. It can be made of wood, but it is better 

 to be of metal. The wooden tanks soon fall to pieces and are con- 

 stantly a source of loss through leaking. The tank should be 



FIG. 8. Iron kettle as an evaporator. 



located outside the house and immediately against it. The bottom 

 of the tank should be at least a foot above the top of the evaporator, 

 to allow an easy grade for the tank to drain into the evaporator^ 

 This tank, which should be closely covered to exclude the rain and 

 dirt, must be located on the side of the house next to the roadway, 

 so that it is easily accessible to the gathering sled. 



By partially burying the tank or boxing it in with wood and fill- 

 ing the space with leaves the sap will not freeze so easily in cold 

 weather nor heat so soon in hot weather. 



EVAPORATION APPARATUS. 



Evaporation apparatus in general use may be divided into three 

 general classes: (1) Iron kettles, (2) arch evaporators, and (3) pat- 

 ent evaporators. 



.516 



