By-Products of the Forest 



from tree to tree gathering sap wore over their 

 shoulders wooden yokes for carrying two pails of 

 sap. Most farmers now have a wooden sledge in 

 the camp. Barrels are placed on this, and the 

 sledge is drawn from tree to tree by horses or 

 oxen. 



In some camps iron kettles are still used, and 

 the sap is boiled down until thick enough for 

 good sirup, or will crystallize and make sugar. 

 The old way of finding this out was to dip into 

 the boiling sirup a small twig bent into a loop, 

 or to drop some of it on snow. If it formed a 

 little film over the loop, or made taffy on the 

 snow, it was taken from the fire and poured into 

 molds where it soon turned into sugar. About 

 four gallons of sap are needed to make a single 

 pound of sugar. Usually the sap runs for three 

 or four weeks, good trees giving as much as fif- 

 teen or twenty gallons of sap in that time. 



In some of the larger groves the sap is now 

 brought to the camp by pipe lines running in 

 from the woods. In such groves the camp has 

 become a roomy house for sugar making. It is 

 kept with much cleanliness and care. In it the 

 old iron kettle is no longer found. Instead, a long, 



