196 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



I put nothing into my sjrup to cleanse iu. 

 Later in the season, when sap runs a little 

 •white from the bucket, I use 3 eggs to 1 pint 

 of skim milk. When testing to ascertain 

 whether done or not (if for caking) in raising 

 the dipper as it runs from it, leaving long 

 hairs I call it done. If for tub not do it near 

 as much. Remove from the fire letting it 

 stand, and stir rapidly, which avoids that 

 glassy appearance seen upon th'3 outside of 

 the cake, in turning immediately into the 

 moulds. To have nice tub sugar, enough 

 should be sugared off at once to fill the tub, 

 for if filled at two or three different times, a 

 glassy coating is formed between each layer 

 which obstructs the draining. When it comes 

 warm weather, turn the tubs bottom upward 

 and from 100 lbs. you can get 70 or 75 lbs. of 

 fine sugar. I see no difference in sugar made 

 from trees standing in lime rock soil or where 

 the peroxyde of iron exists, rendering the soil 

 of a red cast. My apparatus for boiling con- 

 lists of two pans, two barrels each, and one 

 heater in one arch. My arch is not high 

 enough ; it should be 18 to 20 Inches above 

 the grate ; my heater heats too rapidly and 

 runs over ; it is ten feet from mouth of arch 

 to the heater. I would have the arch all the 

 way of a depth. I think my heater increases 

 the boiling one-fourth. I can boil from 5 

 o''clock in the morning till 10 at night, 16 

 barrels, or 25 barrels in twenty-four hours. 



Mr. N. G. Pierce did not agree with Mr. 

 Peck as to the use of eggs and milk. 



S. Peck. — Trees differently located pro- 

 duce different sap. 



Henry Floyd. — I would use half-inch bit, 

 boring three to four inches In large trees, us- 

 ing the sumac spout, for I think it the best ; 

 the metallic spout is not stiff enough. One 

 reason of black sugar is, much sap is boiled 

 in coarse Iron. Boilers should be of fine ma- 

 terial and polished to make white sugar. 



Sylvester Grout spoke of the dust that Is 

 constantly accumulating In sugar houses. 

 Should be floored over head and kept as nice 

 as your kitchen. He thought different sugar- 

 bushes produce different sap, and make 

 different sugar. 



T. W. Wiley. — For some ten years, I used 

 three-fourths bit, with two spouts to a bucket, 

 but now use five-eighths bit, one spout, think 

 I can get as much sap. Bore from two to 

 two and a half inches deep. I think the 

 quicker we can get sap into sugar the better. 

 1 like to have It strained either at the holder 

 or at the heater. I strain my syrup through 

 a woolen strainer. I prefer syruping down 

 twice a day. 1 never put anything into syrup 

 to cleanse it. If you put In milk the sugar is 

 apt to sour in hot weather from the particles 

 left in it. 



O. Peck. — Two spouts will run as much 

 again as one, and if the tree Is good size, you 

 may put two, three, or four buckets to a tree. 

 1 knew of a tree that run IG pailfuls in one j 



day, into ten buckets. I would not use the 

 metallic spout, as it tends to conduct heat 

 from the sun to the sap. Spouts should fit in 

 the bark, and not the wood. 



S. Grout. — I Intend to tap under a largo 

 limb or into a large root when convenient. I 

 think trees make wood faster that are habit- 

 ually used for sugar trees. 



Pierce. — I think in the fore part of the sea- 

 son, a tree should be tapped high, later in the 

 season, tapped low. 



F. G. Butler. — Wood never should be kept 

 In the same apartment with the boiling, but in 

 an adjoining one at the mouth of the arch. 

 If kept in the same it gathers dampness, mak- 

 ing poor fuel as well as dirt. Should use 

 Post's Patent Spout as it keeps clean. 



AN EXCELLENT TEETILIZEE. 



We advise our readers, those who have 

 farms and gardens to cultivate, to prepare as 

 large a quantity of the ftrtilizer we suggested 

 and recommended In the April No., Vol. IL, 

 of the Journal, as they possibly can. Ic em- 

 braces in its composition quite every eh ment 

 required in the grov^th and maturation of roots 

 and the cereal grains ; and it has the advan- 

 tages of being comparatively cheap and easily 

 prepared. No fertilizer we have yet devised 

 — and we have prepared and experimentad 

 with a large number — affords more certain 

 and satisfactory results than this one ; and 

 those who prepared and used it last season are 

 extravagant In their praises of it. It supplies 

 a most desirable dressing for fruit trees and 

 vines. We use no other fertilizer for our 

 grapes ; and if any of our friends have had 

 better results In their cultivation than we have, 

 it will afford us pleasure to publish their suc- 

 cesses. The method of preparing the fertili- 

 zer is as follows : — 



Take one barrel of pure, finely ground bone, 

 and mix with it a barrel of good wood ashes ; 

 during the mixing, add gradually about three 

 pailfuls of water. The heap may be made 

 upon the floor of an outbuilding, or upon the 

 barn floor ; and, by the use of a hoe, the 

 bone and ashes must be thoroughly blended 

 together. The water added Is just sufficient 

 to liberate the caustic alkalies, potash, and 

 soda ; and these react upon the gelatine of the 

 bone, dissolving the little atoms, forming a 

 kind of soap, and fitting it for plant aliment. 

 It must be used in small (iMantities. or In about 

 the same way as the so-called superphosphates. 

 A barrel of this mixture is worth two of any 

 of the commercial fertilizers, and the cost will 

 be but about half as much. It remains to bc 

 added : if the bone meal and ashes are ver 

 dry, four pailfuls of water may be required ^ 

 but care must be exercised not to have it in- 

 conveniently moist. It will be ready for use 

 In a week after it is made. Fare, raw,JineJy- 

 grovnd hone and the best of ashes should be 

 employed. — Boston Journal of Chemistry. 



