196 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



fresh covering two inches thick. This process may reduce the sugar one-fifth, 

 but it adds correspondingly to the molasses. Jesse Buel, Esq., in Cultivator, 

 vol. i. page 5. 



Trees should always be tapped on the south side first as 

 the season advances, on the east and west side and lastly on 

 the north. The duration of the sugar making season is gene- 

 rally about a month. When the weather becomes warm, rinse 

 out the buckets with lime water frequently, as it will prevent 

 the sap from souring. 



An intelligent writer in the Genesee Farmer, who appears 

 to have devoted much attention to this subject, gives the fol- 

 lowing account of the improvements recently made in the fabri- 

 cation of this article: 



The first improvement is in the manner of tapping and gathering the sap. 

 The trees are tapped with a half inch screw bit, bored not to exceed an inch 

 and a half deep two holes, one about three inches higher than the other, so 

 that the spout need not interfere with the emptying of the bucket. The spouts 

 are made of soft maple or ash, turned and bored in a lathe the one for the 

 lower hole is three inches long, quite tapering, with a crack near the end for 

 holding a wire with which the bucket is suspended the upper one six inches 

 long, made in the usual manner. The buckets are large, holding from twelve 

 to sixteen quarts, and suspended from the short spout by a wire or string, so 

 that it will swing, and may be emptied without taking off. The advantages of 

 having the buckets suspended from the spouts are, that you catch all the sap, 

 the buckets are not found wrong end up when you have a good run, and a great 

 saving of labour in the gathering. The spouts are durable, lasting, with proper 

 care, as long as the buckets. 



The next and most important improvement is in the boiling. Instead of three 

 kettles, between two logs, the smoke and ashes flying every way, we have sheet- 

 iron pans of a size corresponding with the number of trees. For a plantation of 

 from one hundred and fifty to two hundred trees, a pan of six feet long, three 

 feet wide, and nine inches deep, would be of a suitable size. This pan is set 

 upon an arch of brick-work, so that the fire extends the whole length of the 

 bottom, and does not touch'the sides or ends therefore they are not liable to 

 burn a large surface is thus exposed for evaporation, and they will boil off 

 the sap much faster than cauldrons or kettles containing the same quantity. 

 Besides,, they are much neater, less in the way, and cheaper. They are made 

 of common sheet-iron riveted together. [Copper would answer a better pur- 

 pose, especially where sugar is made in large quantities. It gives out heat 

 with much greater rapidity than iron.*] Another improvement is in having 

 suitable buildings, properly fitted up with all the necessary apparatus for con- 

 ducting the business with facility and convenience such as reservoirs, 

 buckets, boilers, &c. 



WILLIS GAYLORD, Esq., of Otisco, New York, one of the 

 most intelligent and successful agriculturists of that great state, 

 in speaking of the proper period of making sugar from the 

 maple, which depends almost entirely on the forwardness of 

 the spring, usually varying from the first to the fifteenth of 

 March, says: 



In order that the sap may flow freely, the frost must be mostly out of the 

 ground, and a degree of warmth, sufficient to cause the minute vessels in the 



* To make the experiment, take two bars, one of iron the other of copper, 

 of equal length and circumference; place them in the fire, retaining an end of 

 each in your hand, you will find the heat is communicated to your hand by the 

 copper bar some minutes in advance of the other. 



