VERMONT MAPLE SUGAR 173 



elder Grimes was busy, feeding the roaring fire 

 with four-foot sticks, skimming the scum from 

 the boiling sap and drawing the syrup into gallon 

 cans at the other end. Sugar making is no job for 

 a lazy man, even though the pan regulates the 

 flow of the sap automatically, nor is it nowadays 

 to be conducted without some capital. The plant 

 is a small one, yet here, counting house, tools, 

 tanks, pan, buckets, etc., was an investment which 

 easily figured up a thousand dollars. The clear 

 liquid from the trees ran in a steady stream, and 

 the boiling sap bubbled and frothed in one end 

 and collected in palest amber shallows in the other. 

 Now that the run is started from eight to thirty 

 barrels of sap a day will come to the sugar house, 

 taxing the powers of the sugar maker to the ut- 

 termost to keep ahead of the flow. It does not 

 do for the sap to wait. The best syrup is made 

 from it when first collected and it will spoil if 

 the delay before boiling is too long. Often the 

 fires roar and the sap boils for the greater part 

 of the twenty- four hours. It may be one or even 

 three o'clock in the morning during a good run 

 before the man at the pan can let his fire go out 



