MEMORIES OF THE 



SUGAR-MAKING 



" Among the beautiful pictures 



That hang on Memory's wall, 

 Is one of the dim old forest, 

 That seemeth the best of all." 



With the coming of spring, and usually in the fore part or 

 middle of March, the sugar season opened. School was ''out" 

 for the winter and all of us were ready for the spring's work. 

 Our sugar-bush was a mile from the house and detached from 

 the farm. It was a wood lot of about one hundred acres, covered 

 with all kinds of hardwood and some hemlock timber, and had 

 on it about six hundred maple trees, from old giants of from 

 four feet in diameter down to ten inches. In places the maples 

 were thick; in others, scattered. It has been used as a sugar- 

 bush frqm the year 1802, and is still in use, a few of the trees 

 now standing which have been ''boxed" and " tapped " for a 

 hundred years. These forest veterans have never been belittled 

 by being called a maple orchard or a sugar orchard, but have 

 always kept their ancient and honorable title of "sugar-bush." 



The first work to be done upon the approach of the opening 

 was the overhauling of the buckets, getting them out of the 

 shanty or sugar-house and scattering them around to the trees 

 so as to be ready for tapping when the first run of sap should 

 come. This was considered essentially boy's work, and was done 

 by means of a large, light hand-sled with thin, fiat, bent run- 

 ners four inches wide, cedar raves and light beam knees, which 

 could be easily hauled over the crust on top of the snow with a 

 load of fifty buckets which held from twelve to sixteen quarts 

 each. There was sure to be a fair crust at this time of year, as 

 the winter snows were still solid and three or four feet deep. 



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