-. 



266 PHASES OF FARM LIFE. 



and stored in hogsheads, and boiled or evaporated in 

 immense kettles or caldrons set in huge stone arches ; 

 now the hogshead goes to the trees hauled upon a 

 sled by a team, and the sap is evaporated in broad, 

 shallow, sheet-iron pans a great saving of fuel and 

 of labor. 



Many a farmer sits up all night boiling his sap, 

 when the run has been an extra good one, and a 

 lonely vigil he has of it amid the silent trees, and be- 

 side his wild hearth. If he has a sap-house, as is now 

 so common, he may make himself fairly comfortable, 

 and if a companion, he may have a good time or a 

 glorious wake. 



Maple-sugar in its perfection is rarely seen, per- 

 haps never seen in the market. When made in large 

 quantities and indifferently, it is dark and coarse ; but 

 when made in small quantities that is, quickly from 

 the first run of sap and properly treated it has a 

 wild delicacy of flavor that no other sweet can match. 

 What you smell in freshly cut maple-wood, or taste 

 in the blossom of the tree, is in it. It is then, indeed, 

 the distilled essence of the tree. Made into syrup, it 

 is white and clear as clover-honey, and crystallized 

 into sugar, it is pure as the wax. The way to attain 

 this result is to evaporate the sap under cover in an 

 enameled kettle ; when reduced about twelve times, 

 allow it to settle half a day or more ; then clarify with 

 milk or the white of an egg. The product is virgin 

 syrup, or sugar worthy the table of the gods. 



Perhaps the most heavy and laborious work of the 



