718 ASHTABULA COUNTY. OHIO. 



possible, and made fresh, as the flavor is spoiled if It gets the 

 least bit sour, or is boiled too much. The utensils should all 

 be made of tin and galvanized iron or copper, and be kept clean 

 and pure all the time. My sap bush has never returned me 

 less than one hundred dollars per year yet. I generally receive 

 about one hundred and fifty dollars for choice maple sirup, 

 sold at from one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents per 

 gallon. It requires two hands to work the bush, and they 

 average twenty days' work each, also a team. The wood I use 

 is always waste wood, prepared the Summer before, and hauled 

 up to my sugar house, which is sixteen by twenty-four feet, 

 containing all the fixtures necessary to do this work, night or 

 day, with comfort and ease. My building and entire outfit 

 only cost about two hundred and fifty dollars, and will last 

 twenty years or more. My work in expense never amounts 

 to more than fifty dollars, and is done at a time of the year 

 when nothing else but chores can possibly be done to good 

 advantage. I always keep for table use, from twenty to thirty 

 gallons of ^rup, besides about two hundred pounds of sugar, 

 and I seirfrom one to two hundred dollars worth of sirup. I 

 made over two hundred gallons last year from three hundred 

 trees. 



CATTLE. 



My main branch of farming is breeding Short-Horn Dur- 

 hams. I commenced this business nine years ago, with three 

 cows and heifers, and have sold the male increase and a few of 

 the females, always about as soon as weaned. I have received 

 thus far, over fourteen "hundred dollars. Previous to this I 

 was engaged for many years in fine wool sheep husbandry, and 

 from that went into dairy farming, but I have gradually worked 

 out of that the last four years, and am now in the stock busi- 

 ness exclusively. 



My former business was always very successful, for the 

 amount invested, always paying me full ten per cent, per 

 annum, for about ten thousand dollars invested in a farm and 

 fixtures. It has been as high as fifteen per cent, net some years. 



