400 



GLEAiNlA'GS IN liEE CULTURE. 



May 



minute whenever a fellow's back begins to ache is 

 justthe same as no work at all; it doesn't tire any- 

 'body. Now, if Mr. Root were baking- a dozen pies, 

 eight loaves of bread, and getting dinner tor work- 

 hands, and waiting on a sick man all at the same 

 time, and could not leave any of it till the dinner was 

 over, I do not think it would be much of a rest. 

 'I like to dig in the ground for about ten minutes, 

 th-en I want to change work with somebody. Some- 

 times I think that the pressure— the responsibility 

 ^the feeling that a thing mu»t be done, is harder 

 than the work. 



-' As to going South, I had numerous invitations, 

 but none from Florida, where I wanted to go. I 

 had warm invitations from iive States; and if 1 had 

 had the dollars I should have traveled all around 

 among the folks. As it was, I stayed at home and 

 wrote love-stories; and the only geese that I picked 

 were the editors who bought them of me. But I 

 must go somewhere or see somebody pretty soon, 

 for I have used up all the people I know— married 

 them off and decided them, and I now sigh for new 

 characters. 1 'do not think it is hard work that 

 makes farmers' wives crazy, but it is the mo- 

 notony—the staying at home for seven weeks, and 

 never seeing any one but one's own family. 

 Vermont, III. MAn.\i-,A.-B. Chaddock. 



PROF. OOOKS EXPERIENCE 

 . .. ,,; ' MAPliE SYRUP, ETC., 



WITH 



A SIMPLE PLAN OF HKSTOUING MUSTY SVHIP. 



fRlEND ROOT:— AVe thought we were the 

 sweetest and most stuck-up people of the 

 country at our house, as we have honey to 

 sell and to eat, to give away and to keep. 

 More than that, maple syrup from six hun- 

 dred trees has helped to sweeten our food if not 

 our. tempers. Our relish for these incomparable 

 sweets has made us glad that you at the " Home of 

 the Honey-Bees" were equally sweet and equally 

 "stuck up." In handling our syrup this spring we 

 have discovered a fact of considerable practical 

 and scientific interest. Through an accident, 5 gal- 

 lons of syrup were put into a mustj' can. Syrup, 

 like cream and butter, is very quick to receive taint' 

 from surrounding impurities, and so, as we might 

 expect, this syrup was apparently ruined. I first 

 boiled the syrup, and found the musty taste still 

 pronounced and offensive. I then reduced a little 

 of the syrup to sugar, and founci it and the must 

 still companions. After that I added equal quanti- 

 ties of syrup and water, and boiled for some hours 

 till all was again reduced to the consistency of prime 

 syrup, 11 lbs. to the gallon, when, to my joy, 1 found 

 that the syrup was as fine as any ever eaten. I 

 presume the same result would have been attained 

 had no water been added, and the syrup repeatedly 

 heated to the boiling-point and cooled off. 



This is quite in line with the admirable experi- 

 ments of Tyndall. He found that many fungi 

 could be killed in his flasks, and the contents ren- 

 dered sterile, by prolonged boiling and speedy seal- 

 ing while hot, while boiling for a brief period did 

 not render the liquids sterile. The theory is, that 

 the liquids contain the fungi and the germs. The 

 fungi are killed by brief boiling, which does not 

 kill the germs. Prolonged boiling or repeated boil- 

 ing either kills the germs or else develops them, 

 after which a brief boiling destroys them. 



This fact has much of practical value to suggest. 

 If syrup is tainted in a sugar-bush by putting it in 

 a musty vessel, it can be put in the front of the 

 evaporator with sap, and again reduced, when all 

 taint will have been destroyed. If any person has 

 musty syrup, honey, or fruit, we note how the must 

 can be destroyed. I have jilready suggested this 

 treatment to two or three who have turned it to 

 practical account. 



Is it generally known that maple syrup will retain 

 all its perfection of flavor, if canned and sealed 

 while hot ? We have had delicious sj'rup on our 

 cakes all winter, and just as fine as when new. It 

 is claimed by some of the Ohio sugar-makers, that, 

 if vessels are filled full of the S3'rup when fresh, 

 and then scaled tight, the syrup will keep as well 

 as if canned hot. We are trying that with a little 

 this year, and will report a year hence. 



A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural Collegr-, Mich., Api. 21, 1886. 



Why, friend C, is it really possible that 

 yon have a COO-tree sugar-camp? I would 

 give almost any thing to see you out in the 

 sugar-camp, directing sugar-making. We 

 have had experience several times with 

 musty syrup, and we never found out any 

 way to lemedy it better than scalding. But 

 we liave noticed this: That sometimes the 

 scalding helped the matter, and then again 

 it didn't; and you have probably given us 

 tlie key to the different results at different 

 times. 1 liave repeatedly been told that add- 

 ing water to maple syrup, and then boiling 

 it out, always darkens the color. Do yoii 

 not find this so? Here is something further 

 from a friend near us, in regard to the ma- 

 ple-sugar industry : 



WANTED, A BOOK ON MAPLE-SUGAR MAKING. 



In making sugar this spring I have met with a 

 number of important points on which I needed in- 

 formation, but could not get it. There are hun- 

 dreds of maple? about here that might be tapped 

 with profit, if people could find out how to make a 

 good article cheaply. Have you ever thought of a 

 " Maple-sugar book," on the plan of the "Potato- 

 book," the "Carp-book," etc.? In my opinion, such 

 a book should not be written by an evaporator 

 /nan— we can not afford to lay out $75 or $100 for a 

 boiling-apparatus, and then sell syrup for 70 cts. or 

 less per gallon. A $10 evaporator, a good arch, and 

 proper information on how to manage the sap, the 

 boiling, the canning— in fact, every thing, would 

 prove valuable, I think. • 



As the primitivf forest gradually disappears 

 hereabouts, its place is taken by maples— some 

 farms already having but few trees other than the 

 "maple. And there are not a few farms in this im- 

 mediate vicinity that could tap from .WO to lOOO 

 trees— a Jiumher that not many yeai-s ago seemed 

 enormous. 



If you conclude to do any thing in this line, I will 

 try to do my share toward making the book a suc- 

 cess by furnishing a list of questions that might, 

 perhaps, be of some use to the writer or compiler. 



Anton Leister. 



Brunswick, Medina Co., Ohio. 



' And now, friend Cook, can't you write 

 this book, or get somebody to do it'i* I might 

 add, that the finest syrup furnished us this 

 season was not made with the evaporator at 

 all, but simply with a common pan, boiling 

 all the sap tliat ran eacli day, weve.it much 



