47 



heart. I have known a sugar maple blown down which was 

 two and a half feet through ; and which was found, upon exam- 

 ination, to have been tapped with a chisel for eighty or ninety- 

 years, and for the last thirty years perhaps with two boxes 

 each year, which was very thrifty and perfectly sound, except- 

 ing what had been cut away with the chisel. This tree was 

 probably tapped first when about eight inches through, for at 

 that bigness we begin to tap our trees. 



" I have thought the sugar maple was given to us by a kind 

 Providence to be used in the same way and for the same pur- 

 pose for which we use them, for no other tree which I know, 

 would bear cutting so much and for such a length of time 

 without injuring its growth. I am speaking of trees standing 

 in open land. Trees standing in a forest will not bear tapping 

 so well. There need be nothing said respecting gathering the 

 sap ; but special care ought to be taken to cleanse the barrels, 

 especially if those are used in which cider has been kept." 

 (Barrels should be kept exclusively for this purpose. H. C.) 



" To make good sugar, much depends on the boiling from the 

 beginning to the end. We boil our sugar chiefly in iron ket- 

 tles, which hold about a barrel, set in arches. To prevent the 

 boiling over of the sap, we put into it a small quantity of but- 

 ter ; a piece as big as a walnut put into it at several times, will 

 prevent its boiling over for a day. The boiling throws the 

 syrup upon the hot part of the kettle, which is above the syrup, 

 in drops, and these immediately burn upon the kettle ; and as 

 the syrup settles in the kettle by evaporation, this burnt mat- 

 ter is continually gathering upon it. When the kettle is filled 

 again, this burnt matter is washed off, at least the color and 

 taste of it, into the kettle. This gives the sugar a dark color, 

 a bitter taste, and prevents its graining well. The best way to 

 prevent this burnt matter hurting the sugar, is to keep it off the 

 kettle as much as possible, which may be done in part by never 

 suffering the heat of the kettle to be raised to an extreme while 

 boiling, and by scouring the kettle thoroughly once every day. 

 Rubbing the kettle with a piece of brick or stone, will make it 



