1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARI^IER. 



159 



SAND IN THE BARN CELLAR. 



The practice has become somewhat common 

 of carting large quantities of sand into the 

 bam cellar and mixing it from time to time 

 with the droppings of the cattle. It is a prac- 

 tice involving the outlay of a great deal of la- 

 bor of both man and beast, and consequently 

 of much expense. This is done under the 

 supposition that the sand absorbs the liquids 

 and saves them. 



So far as the sand keeps the liquids from 

 running away, it is well to use it, whether it 

 absorbs them or only prevents their escape by 

 being in their way. Sand has little or no ab- 

 sorbing power, and only acts in this case by 

 being in the way of the liquids. 



In the absence, then, of peat, the use of 

 sand is economical just as far as it prevents 

 the liquids from escaping. Beyond that, it 

 seems to us to be lost labor to cart in and out 

 again any quantity of sand. It adds nothing 

 of value to the manure, or, if anything, in 

 scarcely an appreciable degree, while every 

 cord of it that is handled over two or three 

 times must cost from one to three dollars, ac- 

 cording to the distance which it is conveyed 

 and the wages paid. 



The presence of sand in the manure heap 

 acts as a divider, and in this way may be of 

 some service ; but it would be slight. At any 

 rate, the same amount of labor expended in 

 adding good peat to the manure heap, or char- 

 coal dust, or almost any fine, dry vegetable 

 matter, would probably be ten times as useful. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MAPLE SUGAR MAKING. 



I am an old maple sugar maker, and have 

 made as good an article as was ever sold in any 

 market. I have also expended much thought, 

 time and money in making experimerts, and 

 have looked the world of agricultural litera- 

 ture over for information on the subject with- 

 out ever having got a suggestion worth a pin 

 to me as a practical man. 



Your correspondent, Mr. Field, says the 

 rough bark should never be hewn oif the tree 

 and I can most cordially endorse, with abun- 

 dant reasons, the assertion ; but when he re- 

 commends boring throui^h the white wood, I 

 am reminded of the man who killed his goose 

 that laid the golden egg. No tree should be 

 bored more than one-half an inch in depth, and 

 no more than one hole may be bored in the 

 same tree, if the perpetuity of the orchard is 

 desired. We have used the cast iron, the 

 wrought iron, the sheet iron, the sumach, and in 



short every kind of spout ever used, except 

 the Livermore Patent Spout, and we very much 

 prefer the Willard's Franklin Spout, (that ad- 

 vertised in the Farmer by Mr. Proper.) To 

 discuss the reasons for our preference would 

 occupy more space than you would be willing 

 to afford us, and we can only say that Messrs. 

 Orange Judd & Co., of New York will pub- 

 lish during this year a work in which every 

 process in maple sugar making is fully consid- 

 ered, and every conclusion reached is fully 

 sustained by evidence. There are certain 

 principles underlying the whole subject, of 

 which the mass of practical men are entirely 

 ignorant. 



Your correspondent "A. B," of Essex, Vt. 

 wants to know "what's the matter" that his 

 sugar is waxy and black. There is nothing 

 plainer, when you once "see it." All sugar 

 solutions, dense or ililute, when exposed to 

 light, heat and air, undergo decomposition or 

 what is technically called degradation, or to 

 express it in more common, though not strictly 

 correct language "they begin to turn sour." 

 Agitation either by boiling or otherwise accel- 

 erates the action, and the presence of foreign 

 matter also helps it along. 



Degradation is also contagious, and one par- 

 ticle of degraded matter acts like leaven in the 

 mass. Now "A. B.'s" old buckets are full of 

 the leaven, and it is a physical impossibility to 

 get it out by scalding or otherwise; Then 

 again, it makes all the difference in the world 

 whether he fills up his pan and keeps a pan 

 full of sap boiling hour after hour, or only 

 puts in just enough to cover tlie bottom of his 

 pan and keeps filling in as he reduces the 

 amount by evaporation. Could fresh drawn 

 maple sap be instantaneously relieved of the 

 water contained in it, the product would be 

 pure cane sugar, as pure as anv loaf sugar; 

 but that being a physical impossibility, all ma- 

 ple sugar is composed of cane sugar and 

 this degraded article, which is known to chem- 

 ists as grape oruncrystallizable sugar, and which 

 is but two-fifths as sweet as the cane sugar, 

 and which constitututes the greater part of 

 "A. B.'s" waxysugar. If the excess of grape 

 sugar is great, the mass should not be cooked 

 too bard ; as the uncrystallizable part dries on 

 to the other and prevents either precipitation 

 or purgation. 



As regards the distance from the ground at 

 which trees should be tapped, there is some 

 difference of opinion. I am inclined to be- 

 lieve that the tree does not dry up quite so 

 early low down, and that is all the difference, 

 and it does not amount to anything. The only 

 difference between lowland and highland sap 

 is that the former is sometimes more dilute, 

 and, requiring longer boiling, is subjected to 

 a little more of the degrading influence. Sap 

 almost invariably deposits a small amount of 

 the carbonate of lime in the form of a hard 

 scale on the kettle in which it is boiled. It 

 has, however^ no. injurious effect unless peiv 



